This Bay Area county is experimenting with a first-in-the-state pilot program for faster housing construction. Can it help solve the affordability crisis?

For as long as California has had a housing shortage pro-housing advocates have decried the burdensome evolution process that both stifles construction and inflates advance costs leading to more market-rate units than affordable units But a new Alameda County pilot effort called the Scalable Housing Resources Funding Toolkit or SHIFT seeks to make more housing for less money with an innovative first-in-the-state approach to affordable housing On Thursday county personnel chose an Oakland-based firm as the primary developer for the project which is supposed to break ground on projects in late SHIFT utilizes pre-approved generic designs targeted at in-fill lots to create affordable housing units aimed at residents who make between - of area median income according to the Population Evolution Agency Through eliminating bureaucratic hindrances such as environmental review and local planning commission approval the operation enables a developer to put their money in the ground not into paperwork We re trying to build affordable housing more affordably and so we re trying to do a bunch of different things at once to figure out where we can save the preponderance money commented Dylan Sweeney the venture and plan manager for Alameda County Housing and Region Growth Agency If we re not able to leverage the advantages of leadership to produce housing more cheaply we re missing out on opportunities On Thursday Alameda County selected the Oakland-based growth firm Inspired ADUs as SHIFT s primary developer The firm has built affordable in-fill developments in Berkeley Oakland and Santa Clara that makes it aligned with Alameda County s goals in the pilot Inspired ADU CEO and Principal Architect Carrie Shores Diller commented Alameda County s SHIFT Project is among the preponderance forward-thinking housing initiatives in the state and Inspired ADUs is uniquely equipped to help realize its vision explained Carrie Shores Diller Inspired ADU CEO Principal Architect Shores Diller s firm will be tasked with creating housing units for a piece which is around less than the average cost to develop an affordable housing unit in Alameda County according to Sweeney SHIFT will prioritize developments in infill lots with scalable buildings of - units with the first projects hoping to break ground in late The need for affordable housing has been steadily growing over the past half century in the Bay Area as zoning limitations and regulations have stifled advance in certain of the most of attractive neighborhoods in the region declared Lindsay Maple the director of project and planning at UC Berkeley s Possibility Lab The county estimates that new units of affordable housing are needed to create a healthy housing ecosystem according to a description by HCD The SHIFT pilot operation is unlike any campaign in the state Maple mentioned and she s curious to see how the pilot progresses as an analog to the Abundance agenda based on the book by New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson that argues for growth-oriented liberalism to solve the affordability crises in housing healthcare and transportation This is a project that s entirely aligned with the Abundance ethos I love the idea of having these pre-approved and modular units like that s fantastic Maple commented But I also am curious about the conditions in which those projects were able to veritably come to fruition That policy-wonk tinkering of using pre-approved designs and modular units is a signature trait of Klein and Thompson s writings working around the edges of agenda to deliver material wins Alameda County s SHIFT activity prioritizes in-fill maturation with buildings of - units The county estimates there are over Alameda County households that these units will have a field for Still Maple questioned the feasibility of SHIFT developments in wealthy communities like Atherton which have strong local zoning control She described herself as cautiously optimistic about the SHIFT pilot activity and its possible to be replicated across the state That sentiment is shared by Sweeney and other county representatives who hope SHIFT becomes a model across the state To encouragement that Alameda County HCD created an open-source library of pre-permitted designs for both housing developers and private builders to access adapt and build affordable housing In the meantime Maple revealed she is curious to see if SHIFT brings the shift in housing growth that California so desperately necessities Obviously -to- units isn t going to be what pulls us out of this So there s a little bit of a balance between I love this idea and It will not be what saves us Maple revealed I know that I sound like a pessimist I truly am cautiously optimistic that we can find something that works And I applaud Alameda County for trying to do that