Jobs / Housing Match - Affordable Housing

By Doug Goodman

All sides of the development issue realize we have a crisis in the lack of affordable housing. This problem is hightened when one looks at the jobs / housing match; the fact that a majority of Livermore jobs are filled by workers who can not afford to live in Livermore. While the city's inclusionary ordinance and various assistance programs help, we can do better. Proactively, we can and must resolve this crisis.

To accurately portray this statistic, I prefer the term Jobs / Housing Match. This term is defined as comparing the number of homes in Livermore to the number of residents living in Livermore who are employed in Livermore. It is estimated that only about one-third of the employed residents work in Livermore. This must improve.

The median price for a home in Livermore is now close to $400,000. The median family income is approximately $70,000. A family earning the median income can not afford a median priced home in Livermore. Considering our teachers, police, fire, city workers, restaurant workers, and light manufacturing workers (the bulk of new jobs being created) earn less than $70,000, the outlook for having more of these people living in Livermore, where they do not have to commute does not look good.

As part of the Visioning Process and General Plan update, Livermore must decide how we want to address this problem. We need to put current Livermore residents first by going after the type of jobs that match their requirements, eliminating the need for commutes out of the City. We need to build homes affordable to those commuting into Livermore (teachers, police, fire, city workers, ...). Finally we need to build homes affordable to those filling the new jobs coming to the City. Through proactive leadership, bringing all stake holders (housing advocates, environmentalists, developers, real estate, and government) together and reaching consensus, we can make significant progress towards solving our housing crisis within five years. The City Council must take the lead to make this happen. The only other alternative is the status quo, and that is not acceptable.