When it comes to desirable places to live, Southern California is pretty up there. And so is the cost of housing. While a handful of housing bills in Sacramento wait to become law, researchers with the UCLA Anderson Forecast say they won't do much to address the immediate crisis. They propose a different strategy to alleviate the affordable housing problem.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Jerry Nickelsburg, director of the Anderson Forecast.
"If we're not going to be able to provide affordable housing, what we need to do as a community is decide who gets affordable housing," Nickelsburg said. "One way is to say we would like teachers to live in the community where they teach. In order to do that, they have to be able to afford to live there. An alternative would be for the school district or the city or the county to go in partnership with those teachers. So, most people want to own their own homes. If you can't own a $600,000 home, maybe the school district can own $300,000 of that, and you, the school teacher, can own the other $300,000. And you do an equity sharing."
Nickelsburg says any job classification could be chosen for shared-cost housing, as long is it's important to the community. He understands why some people wouldn't want their tax dollars to help someone else own a home when they can't afford one themselves, but he says overall, it's the most cost-effective method.
"You either do that or the alternative is that to get good teachers you're going to have to pay the teachers more anyway," Nickelsburg said. "So in fact, one would be paying either way. And this is a way to keep communities with a more broader socioeconomic complexion than simply having people priced out... or decide that maybe teaching or being a policeman or a fireman in Salt Lake City or Denver is just a better option than in California."