State Sen. Josh Becker in partnership with the housing nonprofit DignityMoves introduced a bill aimed at easing the installation of relocatable units on vacant land as “opportunity” homes Becker said could help get thousands out of homelessness.
“Opportunity housing is the most hopeful development I’ve seen to not just address, but actually put an end to our homelessness crisis at scale and with speed,” Becker, D-San Mateo, said in a press release. “My goal is to get tens of thousands of people off the street in the next few years and I’m confident we will do that.”
Developing housing in the state is expensive and time consuming but through Senate Bill 634, Becker and nonprofit agencies are looking to alleviate those hurdles to address the region’s growing housing crisis.
Through Senate Bill 634 — co-sponsored by SPUR, a nonprofit public policy organization, and the Bay Area Council, an organization of business leaders also focused on policy advocacy — officials hope to take advantage of vacant public and private land by allowing low-cost modular units to be located temporarily until more permanent development takes place.
Since the units are not intended to be used as long-term housing, they don’t have permanent impacts on zoning regulations or environmental standards, speeding up the permitting process, according to the release. And with more housing units available, the roughly 45,000 federal housing vouchers currently going unused in the state could be “put to work and more importantly, get 45,000 households off the streets,” according to the release.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.