We call on the Association of Bay Area Governments to do their duty and — at the very least — plan to make the Bay Area more affordable and reduce overcrowding by planning for sufficient housing production.

What does giving up look like? In the San Francisco Bay Area, our regional governance body is committing to a plan that fully admits they don’t plan to curtail overcrowding, they don’t plan to address our housing needs, and they don’t plan to make the Bay Area affordable.

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) recently announced their initial housing needs target for the next eight-year cycle. If the proposal stands, starting in 2023, cities in the nine-county Bay Area region will need to collectively zone for around 440,000 new housing units, of which 114,000 would be reserved for very-low income and 66,000 for low-income households. These may sound like big numbers, but the data tells us that this is about half what we’re going to need.

YIMBY Action and several other housing activist coalitions are calling upon ABAG to appeal this number and apply a higher number that matches the scale of the housing shortage in the Bay Area. For each input ABAG asked for — and HCD agreed to — the bare minimum number to comply with the new state laws, and as a result the final number is much smaller than what a reasonable and forward-thinking body would choose. This is planning to fail.

We demand that ABAG appeal for an increase to our Bay Area Regional Housing (RHNA) goal based on metrics that commit us to actually addressing the housing crisis.

Petition to be submitted to members of the ABAG executive committee listed below.

Jesse Arreguin, Mayor, City of Berkeley—President
Belia Ramos, Supervisor, County of Napa—Vice President
David Rabbitt, Supervisor, County of Sonoma—Immediate Past President
Candace Andersen, Supervisor, County of Contra Costa
London Breed, Mayor, City and County of San Francisco
Cindy Chavez, Supervisor, County of Santa Clara
Chris Clark, Councilmember, City of Mountain View
David Cortese, Supervisor, County of Santa Clara
Lan Diep, Councilmember, City of San Jose
Pat Eklund, Councilmember, City of Novato
Maya Esparza, Councilmember, City of San Jose
Nikki Fortunato Bas, Councilmember, City of Oakland
Rich Garbarino, Vice Mayor, City of South San Francisco
Leon Garcia, Mayor, City of American Canyon
Liz Gibbons, Councilmember, City of Campbell
Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Councilmember, City of Oakland
Scott Haggerty, Supervisor, County of Alameda
Barbara Halliday, Mayor, City of Hayward
Matt Haney, Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco
Erin Hannigan, Supervisor, County of Solano
Dave Hudson, Councilmember, City of San Ramon
Wayne Lee, Mayor, City of Millbrae
Jake Mackenzie, Councilmember, City of Rohnert Park
Rafael Mandelman, Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco
Gordon Mar, Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco
Nathan Miley, Supervisor, County of Alameda
Karen Mitchoff, Supervisor, County of Contra Costa
Raul Peralez, Councilmember, City of San Jose
Dave Pine, Supervisor, County of San Mateo
John Rahaim, Planning Director, City and County of San Francisco
Dennis Rodoni, Supervisor, County of Marin
Warren Slocum, Supervisor, County of San Mateo
Loren Taylor, Councilmember, City of Oakland
Lori Wilson, Mayor, City of Suisun City