A 2023 Year in Review
Where We Go From Here and Housing More Broadly
It’s hard to believe it's been two years since this Substack launched, and we’re grateful for all our subscribers, readers, social media sharers and colleagues who say nice things about the posts and podcasts when I see them at housing events.
We managed to produce 20 pieces of original content and launched a brand new podcast, which feels pretty good considering the challenges. Below we highlight podcasts and posts you might have missed, some good articles worth reading or issues we’re tracking, and offer a small preview of 2024.
Thanks for being part of the Substack - help spread the word to other housers you think would enjoy it!
ICYMI Posts
We put out a lot of posts I’m proud of this year, but I want to highlight two in particular that get at some of the biggest challenges in housing and housing politics.
Housing's Missing Mirror
Housing is an incredibly diverse field which is great when you consider the diversity of voices and occupations that go into making our housing system work. The downside is that housers have a tendency to talk about anything and everything except for how their own part of the housing ecosystem or industry needs to change. The blame game doesn’t help anything or anyone, especially not the people who suffer the consequences of a broken housing system.
Building New Towns in California
New towns are a great idea for California, just not in the part of Solano County where one is currently being proposed, and not one in this way. You can’t build a successful New Town that isn’t part of a regional transportation network and you can’t just expect jobs to crop up out of nowhere. This proposal will be Dougherty Valley 2.0.
And here’s the full list of this year’s content:
Housing is Not Beer | Let’s leave our ideologies at home and pay attention to our actual housing system
Social Housing in California: Part 2 | Maintaining the momentum for true housing system change in California
The WWGFH Summer 2023 Housing Digest | An occasional, highly-filtered and not even close to comprehensive review of interesting housing things in and for California housers
Housing Systems Depend on Infrastructure. Including for Housing Data. | A key path to a better housing system runs through housing data and information
Housing Tenure 101: A Where We Go From Here Explainer | The housing subject with the worst name is too important to keep ignoring
Housing Stability and Housing Mobility are Both Essential. Can They Work Together? | Building a housing system that keeps you housed and helps you move.
Conversion is the Most Important Word in Housing | We need to change land use, change ownership, and change our minds. But we need to do it carefully. Welcome to the 2023 housing word of the year.
So What Do We Do Now? Implementation and Housing: Part 1 | Housing policy isn’t designed to be implemented. It's designed to pass.
2023 California Housing Priorities: Hopes and Dreams Edition | My wish list for California housing - and California housers.
ICYMI Podcast Episodes: Housing After Dark
A big shout out to all the guests who took the plunge with us on our new podcast, Housing After Dark. We covered a lot of ground with a lot of great housers.
Housing After Dark Episode 1: Housers from the 209
Why the Central Valley is so important to the past, present, and future of California from a representation point of view and why all housers can and should learn by paying more attention to the 209. W/ Non-Proft Housing Association of Northern California’s Abram Diaz, Terner Center’s David Garcia and Muhammad Alameldin, and Greenlining Institute’s Melanie Morelos.
Housing After Dark Episode 2: Emeryville Councilmember Courtney Welch on Housing Across the Lifecycle
Housers tend to fight over the right kind of housing to be built, rather than embracing the fact that many, if not most of us, will want and need very different housing at different times in our lives. Welch beautifully shares her own challenges finding housing at various points in her life and pushes us to think more expansively about housing and the housing lifecycle. W/ former Emeryville council member (now Mayor!) Courtney Welch.
Housing After Dark Episode 3: California Community Builder's Adam Briones on Multifamily Homeownership
Too often, U.S. housing policy only images two categories of housing: single-family homeownership and multi-family rentals. We talk about why more housers need to pay attention to multi-family homeownership, an understudied and underappreciated part of the solution to California’s housing crisis, especially for folks who care about communities of color. W/ California Community Builder’s CEO Adam Briones.
Housing After Dark Episode 4: The Future of Social Housing in California
2023 was historic for a number of reasons, including the fact this was the furthest any bill with ‘social housing’ in its name made it in California. We talk about the future of social housing including why it’s critical for housers in the state to keep building momentum behind social housing as an idea beyond the state legislature. W/ All Home’s Tomiqua Moss, Chan Zuckerberg Initative’s Jennifer Martinez and SV@Home’s Regina Williams.
Housing After Dark Episode 5: Is the Future of Housing Finance Regional?
The Bay Area Housing Finance Agency (BAHFA) is a historic regional agency building project. We talk about the future of housing finance, including projects BAHFA already has underway and what it hopes to do in the future with the historic nine county bond that’s on the 2024 ballot. W/ BAHFA’s Kate Hartley.
Housing After Dark Episode 6: The Future of Housing Journalism
Fortunately or unfortunately, there has been a noticeable uptick in the quantity of housing journalism as more media outlets add housing coverage in the face of our growing housing crisis. We talk about the future of housing journalism including how and what housing journalism needs to take housing reporting to the next level. W/ Shelterforce’s Miriam Axel-Lute and Shelby King.
Housing After Dark Episode 7: Talking Housing with Gloria Bruce
There is a persistent divide between two sides of the housing community, those focused on homelessness and the unhoused, and those that focus on the rest of the housing system. We talk about tenants rights and affordable housing, and how we should break through the homelessness/housing divide. W/ Crankstart Foundation's Gloria Bruce.
Words Worth Reading + Spaces We’re Watching
We do housing politics here, and it takes courage to really get into who owns housing. Appreciate the Equity Atlas digging into this amongst electeds.
I appreciate Ben Christopher coming in to replace the fabulous Manuela Tobias at CalMatters. Here’s his year-in-review, and a well-researched piece on how San Diego hacked ADU rules to build multifamily housing. Also shout out to economic reporter Jeanne Kuang, who’s been doing important housing work as well (on Evictions and Affordable Housing discussed below). Excited for their housing team to grow!
We need way more attention to the role of infrastructure in our housing system. This story about buildings waiting for underground transformers is telling. So is concern about “renovictions” from gas store replacements, or about the need for housing policy to support home repairs. This is also a story about climate retrofit, fire risk, and more. Housing can’t stop at housing.
I understand why this sort of suburban build-to-rent exists - most of our urban housing system is build to rent, from luxury to Affordable, so this is just what American housing has been allowed to become. But it is not the answer.
We also need reforms to our Affordable Housing system, which too often is not affordable.
Evictions are back and this is a problem. If you really want to reduce homelessness, we need a system that doesn’t put people in the street at such high rates. We will never be able to rehouse people at the rates we make them homeless.
Love this experiment with direct cash assistance (instead of vouchers) from colleagues at HUD - I will talk more about how important cash assistance is to a better housing system, and this kind of voucher reform is critical. If you’re imagination of a just housing system doesn’t include direct federal assistance to help people pay for housing, you will be sadly disappointed what happens on the ground without it.
I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Chris Elmendorf, but his work is worth reading. I appreciate his willingness to get into the weeds, and to somehow get the weeds into the Chronicle - especially when it opens the door to critique of the land use law reform movement he is part of. This Op-Ed on AB1287 is important.
School district housing is fascinating, important, and a space to watch for sure. Especially with the Center for Cities + Schools continuing to step into the void.
I’m also excited for SB4, which will make religious organizations important players in housing development. We need our large institutions like universities, schools, and religious groups to be pillars in a new housing economy. But getting there will be difficult, even with better policy. I hope folks have the stomach for proper implementation.
Changes are happening inside the Realtors. They are super important to housing, but like with all other parts of the industry there is critical reform needed that can only happen from within.
And finally, my favorite housing story of 2023 thats really about 2024 and beyond
Congrats to the housers of California - we have a new head houser! Thanks to Tomiquia Moss for being willing to take on this challenge. More in 2024 on how we can support her.
A 2024 Teaser
We’re going to start out hot with our now 3rd(!) annual List of Things I Want to See in California Housing. We’ll also be dropping the Bigger Ideas version of this, tentatively called a List of Ways to Redesign Our Housing System or something else suitably sexy.
We’re super jazzed about Year 2 (Season 2?) of Housing After Dark, as we get deeper on housing’s insurance crisis and other wonkish subjects, and keep it real talking about friendships across the housing divides, and ways to really change how we think about California’s housing system.
We’ll be following housing events in the State legislature and in the lead up to a historic and terrifying 2024 election. I will finally follow through on a now two year-old promise to you all to do a piece on housing and fiscal issues - what I like to think about as the Fiscal New Deal. I will also follow through on a promise to myself to write about how the Affordable v. Market-rate Housing debate is a morass, once I can figure out how to write it without alienating everyone who reads this newsletter.
As always, we welcome ideas, recommendations and support of any kind. If you have nominations for Housing After Dark guests, or would like to discuss being a guest author (either solo or jointly), please be in touch.
Finally, I just want to extend a particular thanks to the immensely talented Tina Lee, who quietly came on board last year to edit both words and sounds for this little production. She makes the podcast possible, and she’s become a central part of Schafran Strategies. I’m so excited to collaborate with her in 2024, and to see where we can go from here.
I hope everyone had a restful holidays full of escapist fiction, and we look forward to being back with you in 2024.
Alex