County presents a countywide housing plan; staff urge exploring a new general obligation bond and other local funding tools

Community Development Agency Director Sandy Rivera and Housing Director Michelle Starett presented a countywide housing plan that aggregates municipal housing needs and sets near‑term and long‑term goals. Starett said the county needs about 17,000 units to address shortfalls identified in the county's Home Together plan, while a broader 10–15 year target for an affordable housing ecosystem could be roughly 20,000 units; staff estimated a local subsidy need of about $3.8 billion to realize that goal.

The presentation reviewed a range of local funding options: renewing a county general obligation bond (a successor to Measure A1), exploring city‑level transfer taxes or vacancy taxes, and considering tools such as enhanced infrastructure financing districts. Starett told supervisors a regional housing bond that had been under discussion would have delivered about $2 billion to Alameda County had it advanced.

Supervisors asked staff to report back with more analysis, including readiness of pipeline projects, which cities are contributing matching funds and which local funding tools would be most productive. Multiple public commenters including developers and nonprofit housing providers urged the county to move quickly on funding and to prioritize "ready‑to‑launch" projects that could be brought into construction with local subsidy. Several supervisors expressed support for studying a new county general obligation bond and asked for a deeper dive in the Health committee.