housing

On this edition of Your Call, we’re discussing the looming eviction crisis in the US. According to the Eviction Lab’s Tracking System, more than 155,000 landlords have filed evictions during the pandemic.

Last November, a collective of homeless and marginally-housed mothers took over a West Oakland House owned by speculators. The mothers were making a statement: take housing from big banks and real estate tycoons and put it back in the hands of Oaklanders. They called themselves Moms 4 Housing.

One year later: two of the organizers hold political office.

Progressive, pro-tenant candidates won four out of five available seats in Berkeley's Rent Stabilization Board race on Tuesday, and they’re expected to win the fifth.

On November 3, San Francisco began to phase out a program that provided its most vulnerable unhoused population with hotel rooms during the pandemic.  

In what’s seen as a win for the state’s new streamlined permitting process, the city of Los Altos has decided to allow a controversial new mixed-use building to move forward. 

The San Jose City Council voted, yesterday, to charge commercial developers additional fees to build affordable housing. 

On Tuesday, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors reluctantly approved a settlement with UC Hastings over tent encampments and unhealthy living conditions in the Tenderloin.

San Francisco has been talking about turning a parking lot next to City College’s Ocean Campus into housing for decades.

Rent was due this weekend, and San Francisco’s emergency legislation could be what’s keeping many in their homes. A judge in the San Francisco superior courts is defending that legislation.

A pair of non-profits held a ceremonial groundbreaking event yesterday to celebrate a joint affordable housing project 17 years in the making. 

On this edition of Your Call, we'll find out what’s being done to prevent a massive eviction crisis from happening across the country. A backlog of eviction cases is already moving through the court system and it could get worse as unemployment benefits run out.

The California legislature has proposed a repayment plan for unpaid rent due to COVID-19.

San Francisco rent prices have fallen double digits this past month. But how exactly are these decreases related to COVID-19?

San Francisco landlords are suing the city over the COVID-era eviction moratorium. 

California community organizations say the state isn’t doing enough to protect homeless residents from COVID-19.

San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston has proposed legislation to expand the city’s pandemic-related eviction ban.

In Fremont, an industrial road near Tesla has become home to a large number of people living in RVs. In February, the city ordered them to leave and began placing boulders in their place. We followed one resident as she struggled with her next move.

Lynn Shipman and her boyfriend live in their RV along Kato Road in Fremont. When I meet her, she immediately invites me in.

Inside, the RV looks like a miniature botanical garden.

Walter Parenteau and his housemates run an all-volunteer soup kitchen in San Francisco’s Mission District. Their goal is to provide hospitality for anyone who walks through the door, but how are they dealing with the changes that the coronavirus brings? 

For those who have lost their income because of COVID-19, today may be an especially hard day. It’s April 1, and for many, rent is due. Bay Area governments have passed emergency protections for tenants, but critics say they’re not enough.

America is in a health crisis, but it’s also been in a housing crisis. For almost a quarter of renters, more than half of their income goes to their landlord. Eviction displaces a million households a year. About four million people spend at least three hours driving to and from work.

The Bay Area, one of the wealthiest regions in the world, also has the largest percentage of unsheltered people in the United States. For those who devote their lives to working with these individuals, the cost can be burnout, “compassion fatigue”. This story is about someone who is determined to keep going.

The carpet in Maria Montes de Oca’s apartment is matted and discolored. She shows me how the base of the cabinet under her sink has collapsed from water damage.

Host Ethan Elkind sits down with Bay Area's Senator Scott Weiner to discuss legislation to address California's housing crisis.

Residents at the Westwinds Mobile Home Park in San Jose started this decade off with an unsettling surprise.

Oakland city officials estimate that more than 4,000 people are homeless. Activists are demanding the city do more immediately. A group called Moms 4 Housing are taking a stand by occupying a vacant home in West Oakland.

Lots of new affordable housing is planned in San José but will take five to 10 years to build. So San José is launching a project called Bridge Housing Communities. It will temporarily house people in cabins and help them find a permanent place to live. 

Apple is pitching in $2.5 bilion dollars to help ease California's housing crisis.

$2 billion will go toward an "open line of credit.” That will build new low and moderate income homes, as well as a mortgage assistance fund.

October 28, 2019: Next Tuesday, San Francisco voters go to the polls to vote on a slate of city officials -- many of whom are running unopposed -- and ballot measures that address housing, campaign finance, e-cigarettes and taxes on Uber and Lyft rides.

San Francisco’s public housing is in the middle of a huge transition. In 2007, the city rolled a plan to redevelop four of the city’s public housing sites in phases to avoid displacing any residents. Now, residents in Potrero Hill are in the first phase.

The median home sales price in San Francisco is $1.35 million. The median rent of a one bedroom apartment is $3,700 per month. It’s a lot of money.