San Jose, CA – The Silicon Valley Leadership Group strongly supports Senate Bill 50, the More HOMES Act, introduced by Senate Housing Committee Chair Scott Wiener. SB 50 will be heard in the Senate Housing Committee tomorrow, Tuesday, April 2.
At a time where more than half of Californians are rent-burdened and spending more on housing costs than ever before, SB 50 is one tool out of many that the state will need in its toolbox to address and solve our decades-long crisis in the making.
California communities need to build more housing and appropriately high-density growth makes perfect sense near our high-quality transit hubs and corridors.
SB 50 will activate the housing potential near transit hubs and leverage the billions of dollars in public and private investment in our transit system by providing both homes and jobs, easing traffic, cutting emissions and greenhouse gases, and improving our quality of life.
“We have made multi-billion dollar investments in BART, Caltrain and other fixed-rail transit solutions, yet still often allow land uses around the stations that squander the opportunity for jobs and homes at a density truly worthy of the investment,” said Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. “Let’s build on these opportunities, literally, to improve people’s lives and the sustainability of our communities.”
In its October 2016 report, Closing California’s Housing Gap, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that 1.2 million to 3 million new homes could potentially be built statewide within a half mile of transit hubs in California if the right policies were in place to activate the most housing potential near these transit stations and stops. SB 50 provides a way forward in unlocking this potential.
A letter of support for SB 50 from the Leadership Group was sent in advance to members of the Senate Housing Committee and can be found posted online here.
Contact Kimberly Ellis at kellis@svlg.org