Bay Area Burden - Combined Housing &Transportation Costs Leave Bay Area Workers With Insufficient Resources to Meet Basic Needs
COMBINED COSTS OF HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION LEAVING SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
WORKERS WITH INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES TO MEET THEIR BASIC NEEDS
"Bay Area Burden" Examines the Heavy Toll From Transportation and Housing
Costs on Residents, Their Communities and the Environment; Online Calculator
Provides Consumers Valuable Tool to Determine Their Own Costs and Budget
Implications
SAN FRANCISCO – Bay Area Burden, a
new report released today by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce
Housing finds that the average Bay Area household spends more than
$41,000 a year – nearly 60 percent of their income – on transportation and
housing costs alone.
These costs vary among the nine Bay Area counties
examined, ranging from 54 percent in Santa Clara to 66 percent in Sonoma. But
the study finds that one fourth of all households in the Bay Area live in
neighborhoods where housing and transportation costs account for 65 percent or
more of income – a level defined as an extreme housing and transportation cost
burden.
"This heavy burden forces residents
to make extremely difficult decisions that pit housing and transportation
choices against other basic needs such as health care, education and food," said
ULI Terwilliger Center Chairman J. Ronald Terwillliger. "These findings
reinforce that years of ever-sprawling development have resulted in a growing
gap between where people live and where they work." Terwilliger, chairman and
chief executive officer of Trammell Crow Residential, founded the center in 2007
to help achieve a measurable increase in the supply of workforce housing in
high-cost markets throughout the nation.
Bay Area Burden, produced in
partnership with the Center for Housing Policy (CHP) and the
Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), provides a
comprehensive analysis of the “cost of place” in nine counties located
throughout the San Francisco region by examining the costs and impacts of
housing and transportation on residents, their neighborhoods and the
environment. The report demonstrates the severity of the problem in the region
and how the combined costs of housing and transportation are leaving San
Francisco Bay Area workers with insufficient resources to meet their basic
needs. The report finds that three fifths of all Bay Area residents live in
communities that are unaffordable to households earning less than $80,000.
Two former Secretaries of the United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD), who are now ULI Terwilliger Center Advisory Board
members, Henry Cisneros and Steve Preston, attended a press conference along
with Bay Area leaders, to announce the report, a new website
(www.BayAreaBurden.org) and cost calculator, all designed to bring greater
awareness and understanding of these issues and their impact on communities.
"Housing that appears affordable based solely on housing costs may not
be truly affordable when it is located far from transit, jobs and services,"
said Cisneros. "This report underscores the importance of broadening the
understanding of housing affordability challenges to also include transportation
costs, time and the environmental impacts of commuting."
Bay Area Burden
also demonstrates the unintended environmental impacts of these decisions. The
successful implementation of greenhouse gas emission reduction plans in the
transportation sector is particularly important in the Bay Area, where
transportation accounts for 40.6 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, compared
to 33 percent nationally. Bay Area Burden illustrates how densely developed
urban counties like San Francisco are estimated to have substantially fewer
vehicle miles traveled per household (19.4) and thus lower per-household carbon
dioxide emissions (20.2) than do more rural and suburban counties such as
Solano, where those figures are 50.4 and 49.4 respectively. Considering that
less than one in ten (9.5%) Bay Area workers use public transit, compared with
26.5% in the New York Metropolitan area and 11.1% in the Washington DC region,
these figures are even more compelling.
The report is available at a new
website sponsored by the ULI Terwilliger Center -- www.BayAreaBurden.org,
which will serve as a resource center of information to aid individuals,
households, planners, government officials and municipalities better understand
the issues and true costs of housing and transportation. Included on the site is
the Terwilliger Cost Calculator, which provides Bay Area residents with
up-to-date data on housing and transportation cost that demonstrates for each
individual where they live and the findings in Bay Area Burden on a personal
level. Developed in partnership with CNT, this product allows users to input
their own expenses to show their true burden as well as allows them to explore
how to lower this by moving closer to their place of employment or to areas
better public transportation systems. The calculator helps consumers see the
true combined costs of their housing and transportation decisions.
"This
study reinforces the importance of planning for transportation, housing and the
environment. The cost calculator provides real people here in the Bay Area with
a valuable tool to examine the relationship of where they live and work to what
they spend on housing and transportation," said Preston. "Given the importance
of these issues and the need to develop local solutions, the calculator is a
vital step towards empowering residents to call upon policy makers to affect
change."
Bay Area Burden highlights that over the 25 years, the Bay Area
is projected to grow by 1.6 million new residents – a 22 percent increase in
population. The report identifies current and future challenges and the
opportunities to integrate land use, housing and transportation policies to
encourage new residential development in areas that are well served by public
transit or near job centers. The data provided on housing and the consequences
faced by Bay Area households and the consequences for the environment may help
expand awareness of the problem and build support for the resources and
high-level policy attention needed to address it effectively in the future.
The release of the report was in conjunction with ULI’s annual fall
meeting being held this week in San Francisco. The need to build workforce
housing closer to employment centers is among many issues being discussed as
part of ULI’s overall efforts to promote sustainable communities.
# # #
About the ULI Terwilliger Center
for Workforce Housing
The ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce
Housing was established by J. Ronald Terwilliger, chairman and CEO of Trammell
Crow Residential, to expand housing opportunities for working families. The
mission of the Center is to act as a catalyst in increasing the availability of
workforce housing by harnessing the power of the private sector.
The
Center supports the development of mixed-income communities close o employment
centers and transportation hubs. Through a multifaceted approach, the Center
facilitates research advocates for public policy change, publishes best
practices, convenes housing experts, and works to eliminate regulatory barriers
to the production of workforce housing.
About the Urban Land
Institute
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a global
nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission
is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in sustaining and
creating thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has
nearly 34,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development
disciplines.
