Through the Roof: Solano County's Housing Crisis
|
Through the Roof: Solano County's Housing Crisis |
A
new report by Greenbelt Alliance, the Solano Housing Coalition, and the Non-Profit
Housing Association finds that in spite of Solano County's booming housing growth,
local families and workers are struggling with an affordable housing crisis.
Eighty percent of Solano County residents cannot afford the median-priced home.
The report finds that the housing market in Solano County is unbalanced, producing
many more expensive houses than are needed on the region's outskirts, and not
enough starter homes, apartment, townhomes, and condominiums within cities.
To include more affordable homes in cities, the report recommends that the county's
largest cities--Fairfield, Vacaville, and Vallejo--adopt inclusionary housing
ordinances. Inclusionary policies require all new residential developments to
include housing that is affordable to people making less than the median income.
This ensures that people like nurses, teachers, and retail workers can live
in the communities they serve. This in turn cuts down on long commutes and the
resulting traffic and air pollution, while easing pressure to develop the county's
working farms and natural areas.
To download a free copy of the report, click here (1.5 MB pdf, 6 minutes via 56.6 kbps modem)
Read newspaper and online news articles:
11/09/2005 Agency:
Homes in Solano even less affordable now, Vallejo Times-Herald
11/07/2005 Report
Details Lack of Affordable Housing in Solano, Bay City News Wire, CBS 5
11/04/2005 Housing
out of reach for many families, Sacramento Bee
11/04/2005 Greenbelt
group look to support affordable homes, Vacaville Reporter
11/04/2005 Group
says Solano's 'affordable homes' aren't affordable to most Solano residents,
Fairfield Daily Republic