Bay Area Housing Finance Authority Listening Sessions

Have you thought about what the future of housing and social equity in the Bay Area could look like?

What do you think the region’s first ever regional housing agency should do to move toward a more equitable future housing system?

Provide your input on the equity goals, objectives, and metrics that the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) will use to design its future programming at three upcoming online public listening sessions.

The Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) will host three virtual listening sessions, each focused on one of these three types of housing policy and programming: Production, Protection, and Preservation (definitions below). Interested in more than one P? You are welcome to participate in multiple sessions and/or provide feedback on the other Ps at any of the sessions. There will also be an opportunity to review and comment on goals, objectives and metrics for all 3 Ps after the listening sessions.

Register for these listening sessions below:

Sign up to receive future email updates about the BAHFA Equity Framework development process.

For questions, please contact equitablehousing@berkeley.edu.

Background on BAHFA and its Equity Framework 

The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) is the region’s first housing finance agency, authorized through state legislation (AB 1487) in 2019. BAHFA is a joint effort of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), who have partnered with a wide array of community partners, experts, researchers, and consultants to build a business plan that will create a more equitable housing system in the Bay Area. BAHFA presents a historic opportunity to respond to the region’s crises of housing affordability and social inequity.  

BAHFA will lead in providing new financing tools to the nine counties within the region and raising significant new housing revenue from a variety of sources, that could include a regional ballot measure, state or federal appropriations, as well as philanthropic and corporate contributions. Specifically, BAHFA will raise and allocate funding for a variety of housing interventions across the Bay Area. 

BAHFA will focus on comprehensive, data-driven, and equity-focused programs and strategies to address the complex nature of the housing crisis in the region. This involves prioritizing communities that are most impacted by the region’s affordability crisis, especially low-income communities and communities of color.. To operationalize its equity focus, BAHFA will be guided by an Equity Framework, which is a written document with concepts, goals, criteria, and metrics that will inform decisions made about the agency’s program offerings and strategic priorities in three areas: production, protection, and preservation―also known as the “3 Ps.”

Equity Framework Development Process

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has contracted the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley (OBI)  to support the development of an equity framework that will inform BAHFA’s housing interventions. OBI has convened an Equity Working Group comprised of stakeholders that represent the region’s communities most impacted by the region’s affordability crisis, especially low-income communities and communities of color. OBI is also hosting public listening sessions on each of 3 Ps. To receive updates and information about opportunities to engage, sign up at this link. 

The Equity Working Group will work with the OBI through November 2022 to co-create a written document with concepts, goals, criteria, and metrics, with input from a consultant team, that OBI will submit to BAHFA staff and formal decision-making bodies (BAHFA Oversight Committee and ABAG Housing Committee) for potential revisions (Summer 2022) and anticipated final approval (December 2022).