The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) The San Francisco Bay area is facing the most significant housing crisis in the region’s history, as countless residents are facing insurmountable housing costs, spend hours driving every day, are one paycheck away from an eviction, or experience homelessness.

(b) The San Francisco Bay area faces this crisis because, as a region, it has failed to produce enough housing at all income levels, preserve affordable housing, protect existing residents from displacement, provide adequate housing at all income levels in close proximity to jobs, and address the housing issue regionally.

(c) The housing crisis in the San Francisco Bay area is regional in nature and too great to be addressed individually by the region’s 101 cities and 9 counties.

(d) However, the current process is anything but regional; instead each city and county is each responsible for their own decisions around housing.

(e) The San Francisco Bay area faces an annual funding shortfall of two billion five hundred million dollars ($2,500,000,000) in its efforts to address the affordable housing crisis.

(f) Regional funding is necessary to help address the housing crisis in the San Francisco Bay area by reducing the severe imbalance between jobs and housing and delivering resources and technical assistance at a regional scale, including:

(1) Providing critically needed funding to affordable housing projects across the San Francisco Bay area.

(2) Providing staff support to local jurisdictions that require capacity or technical assistance to expedite the preservation and production of housing.

(3) Funding tenant services, such as emergency rental assistance and access to counsel, thereby complementing this cost and responsibility of local jurisdictions.

(4) Monitoring and reporting on progress at a regional scale.

(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 598, Sec. 1. (AB 1487) Effective January 1, 2020.)