CASA brings together 46 leaders from across the Bay Area to build an actionable political consensus around increasing housing production at all levels of affordability, preserving existing affordable housing, and protecting vulnerable populations from housing instability and displacement.
CASA is a year-long, multi-sector, blue-ribbon initiative that brings together diverse interests to identify game-changing solutions to the region's chronic housing affordability challenges. CASA includes 46 leaders from across the Bay Area who will be working to build an actionable political consensus around (1) increasing housing production at all levels of affordability, (2) preserving existing affordable housing, and (3) protecting vulnerable populations from housing instability and displacement.
CASA was convened by MTC and will include a Steering Committee and Technical Committee. Members of the Steering Committee include elected officials from around the region and representatives from organizations related to affordable housing development, business, environmental protection, equity advocacy, and labor. The Technical Committee is comprised of stakeholders representing small and large jurisdictions, housing and equity advocates, labor, businesses, affordable- and market-rate housing developers, financing institutions, public transit agencies, regional planning, lawyers, and homeownership interests. Additional information is available at http://mtc.ca.gov/our-work/plans-projects/casa-committee-house-bay-area.
Over the next 16 months &mdash through stakeholder engagement, interviews, and policy and research &mdash CASA will develop a comprehensive Regional Housing Implementation Plan for the nine Bay Area counties. The plan is expected to include innovative financing strategies, state and local legislation, and recommendations to address the current regulatory environment, with a final report slated for release in October 2018.
CASA brings together 46 leaders from every conceivable sector across the Bay Area to build an actionable political consensus around increasing housing production at all levels of affordability, preserving existing affordable housing, and protecting vulnerable populations from housing instability and displacement.
Putting their combined influence behind the unprecedented effort are the mayors of the region's three anchor cities — Ed Lee of San Francisco, Sam Liccardo of San Jose and Libby Schaaf of San Jose — all of whom have signed on for the CASA Steering Committee. Liccardo and Schaaf both serve as MTC commissioners, while Lee appoints a representative to sit on the Commission. Additional members of CASA's Steering Committee include MTC Chair Jake Mackenzie, who serves as the mayor for the city of Rohnert Park; Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) President and MTC Commissioner Julie Pierce, who serves as councilmember for the city of Clayton; MTC Commissioner Dave Cortese, who serves as president of the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors; and ABAG Executive Board Member Julie Combs, who serves as council member for the city of Santa Rosa.
Overall, the CASA Steering and Technical Committees comprise leaders from the region's private, philanthropic, governmental and nonprofit sectors, including social equity and environmental advocates, the business and technology communities, labor groups, market rate and affordable housing developers, and representatives from across the region.
CASA will be co-chaired by Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, whose community foundation gives millions of dollars a year to improve life in the Bay Area; Leslye Corsiglia, executive director of SV@Home, the voice of affordable housing in Silicon Valley; and Michael Covarrubias, chairman and CEO of TMG Partners, a developer focused on urban infill projects in the Bay Area. Key advisors to CASA include Estolano LeSar Perez Advisors as well as the University of California, Berkeley. The effort will also be supported by staff at MTC/ABAG, who will be serving as CASA's hosts and conveners. For a full list of committee members, advisors and staff, please see the membership roster at http://mtc.ca.gov/sites/default/files/CASA%20Membership%20Roster%200712…
Background
CASA was convened by MTC following the release of the draft Plan Bay Area 2040 (http://www.planbayarea.org/), the region's long-range transportation and land use plan, which projects the region will see 2.4 million more people, 820,000 new households and 1.3 million new jobs by the year 2040. The plan makes aggressive assumptions about policy interventions and strategies to help accommodate this growth, but falls short on a number of key performance measures including affordable housing, access to jobs, displacement risk, and housing and transportation affordability.
It was the stark challenge of looking at this performance data and understanding the risks posed to the region's low- and moderate-income households, transportation network, economy and environment, that drove the push for game-changing housing solutions.