The State of California is requiring Oakland to build 26,000 new housing units over the next eight years. The plan to build these units – called the Housing Element – includes apartments, cottages, and single-family homes. The city intends to make new units affordable across varying income levels.
Until March 7th, you can share your ideas of where Oakland can build new units by dropping a pin on an interactive map. Planners will explore suggestions with consideration to varying factors, including environmental impacts, affordability, access to public transportation, and changing sea levels.
The Housing Element will take inventory of potential development sites and must demonstrate that it can meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA. The RHNA seeks to ensure that the community’s affordable housing needs are considered.
The city is reviewing the fact that in the previous RHNA cycle, the overall development numbers were met, but goals for low-income and moderate-income units were not. Instead, the majority of the housing built was offered at market value, making them too expensive for a large portion of Oakland’s population.
For more information, or to get involved, please check out the General Plan update page for meetings and community workshops.