Opinion: Bay Area bond is an unnecessarily costly way to add affordable housing

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Instead of forcing homeowners to pay back billions in debt, politicians should reduce housing taxes and regulations.

A rendering is displayed during a California Forever press conference in Rio Vista, Calif., on Jan. 17, 2024. Zoning and other land use restrictions are impeding such residential projects.The November ballot is expected to include a $10 billion to $20 billion affordable housing bond measure proposed by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority.

Land costs in the Bay Area are higher than those in Dallas partially because of our superior amenities, but also because so much land is unavailable for development. Over 800 square miles of land are in area parks, totally off-limits to development, and vast additional areas are zoned for agricultural uses with homes limited to about one per acre.

Subsidizing housing with bond money could offset the effects of some of these restrictions, but we cannot be sure that units funded by the bond will be built quickly or at a reasonable cost. Los Angeles offers a cautionary tale. LA’s Measure HHH in 2016 made $1.2 billion of bond money available for affordable housing. But$800,000 per unit.

 

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