Greenbelt Alliance

Model and Strategy

Plan Bay Area (PBA) — the Bay Area's housing and transportation blueprint — will profoundly impact San Francisco's ability to provide housing for one million people. PBA sets a regional consensus on where housing should go and allocates billions in funding. PBA makes housing development more viable by funding transportation infrastructure and transit operations needed to serve new housing — reducing development costs and mitigating resident opposition to new homes in San Francisco.

PBA also distributes regional funds in a way so that cities that plan for and build homes at all income levels get a larger share of funding. And PBA directly invests in low-income housing projects. PBA was first adopted in 2013 by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and is about to be updated for 2017. This work will ensure that the update of PBA best supports housing development, at all prices, in San Francisco.

Impact

PBA shows San Francisco growing by at least 100,000 new homes to accommodate a population of 1 million.

PBA dedicates at least $60 billion to transportation projects that serve San Francisco. Given San Francisco's projected growth in housing and jobs and its key role as an important regional center, PBA should show at least 30% of all funds going to projects that primarily serve San Francisco.

PBA invests at least $10 million in the Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing (TOAH) fund, which helps finance affordable housing projects, housing acquisition and rehabilitation, small-site acquisition and land banking in transit-rich locations. PBA's initial investment in the TOAH fund helped support hundreds of affordable homes to be built in San Francisco.