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Your Call

What Will It Take To Solve The Affordable Housing Crisis?

Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District in San Francisco, CA
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On this edition of Your Call, we'll find out why rents and housing prices are soaring beyond reach. While supply isn’t keeping up with demand, wages aren’t keeping up with rising housing costs.

The national median rent has increased by over 11 percent so far this year, according to Apartment List. Millions of renters could soon face eviction, as the Supreme Court recently struck down the Biden administration's eviction moratorium.

As of June, median existing-home sales prices are up 23 percent from a year earlier. The median home costs almost five times the median household income — pricier than in the run up to the 2008 housing crash, according to Harvard researchers.

Later in the show, we'll discuss two new zoning bills in California, which supporters say will tackle that state’s housing crisis by building more housing. What will it take to ensure that affordable housing exists?

Guests:

Conor Dougherty, economics reporter at The New York Times with a focus on the West Coast, real estate and wage stagnation, and author of Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America

Elizabeth Kneebone, research director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley

Web Resources:

The New York Times, Conor Dougherty and Glenn Thrush: Rising Housing Costs Leave Homebuyers Struggling

The Washington Post, Heather Long: Rent prices are spiking in Phoenix, Las Vegas and elsewhere as Americans return to cities

CNBC, Alicia Adamczyk: Why rent is about to go up again

The New York Times, Alan Rappeport, Sophie Kasakove and Conor Dougherty: Supreme Court’s Decision Opens Door to Millions of Evictions

The New York Times, Conor Dougherty: California Advances Zoning Measure to Allow Duplexes

SacBee, David Garcia: Will Senate Bill 9 change your California neighborhood? Probably not in the way you think

Lea is a producer for Your Call on KALW Local Public Radio. She graduated from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in 2018.
Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.