There may be no more critical issue in the Bay Area today than the lack of housing. As Kylli aims to contribute to solving this crisis, it is focused on working with like-minded organizations, such as the Housing Action Coalition (HAC). A member-supported nonprofit, HAC has been doing incredibly impactful work as it advocates for building more homes at all levels of affordability to help alleviate the Bay Area and California’s housing shortage.
We spoke with Ali Sapirman, HAC’s South Bay organizer, who joined HAC in February 2022. An organizer at heart, they began their organizing work during community college with the goal of creating better living and working conditions for students, faculty, and staff across California. They have continued to make a difference throughout their career, with roles in San Jose Councilmember David Cohen’s office, Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay Labor Council.
Q: Tell us about how HAC has grown over the years and the organization’s impact on advancing the development of new homes across the Bay Area.
A: We trace the organization’s roots to humble beginnings in San Francisco, eventually expanding throughout the Bay Area and the state. We conduct significant policy work with the goal of making an impact at every level of affordability to increase housing production and streamline the process of new project development. To that end, we help with project review, where we present projects to a committee of leading architects, designers, developers, land use attorneys and other housing experts in an effort to source feedback that will help developers refine their presentation and project going forward. After that review, our project review committee decides if we will provide a HAC endorsement or we share specific recommendations for improvement.
In addition, we are working at the state level to encourage more transparency on utility costs, extending timelines for developers and lowering fees for development. Our goal is to advocate for new laws that make it easier, faster and less expensive to build more housing at all affordability levels and reform laws that prevent vital development.
Q: What led you to join HAC and the housing industry?
A: The housing crisis is very personal to me. I moved here from Florida in 2017 after my first year in college because I liked the state’s progressive energy. I chose the Bay Area because of its excellent community colleges, but like many residents, experienced pretty significant housing insecurity.
As a student, I also had three jobs, and was sharing a one-bedroom/one-bath place with five people. When I eventually moved, I have found myself very rent burdened, even with a full-time job. I had had an expectation that California had it “together” and was surprised to see how much exclusion there was in housing and the serious impact of the high level of wealth disparity.
That’s why I chose to work in this sector—to make a difference. By far the most rewarding aspect of my job is working to ensure that every city is building its fair share of housing, and at all income levels, particularly low-income housing as we aim to address these dire shortages. I am also proud to play a role in advocating for important legislation that further supports housing development.
Q: What are some of the housing trends you are currently seeing in the Bay Area, including Santa Clara County?
A: While my focus is on Santa Clara and San Mateo, we are seeing similar trends throughout the Bay Area. First, many cities are struggling to meet their housing goals, and even after the housing elements are passed, cities then struggle to streamline the construction of the housing. We won’t be able to build if we’re not paying attention to the schedule of the housing element.
Second, we are seeing many ways in which housing construction can be delayed, and this is a state- and country-wide issue. The delays are often due to rising costs and high impact fees, along with permitting and even post entitlement challenges. An example of the latter is a completed project that lacks access to electricity and power for years.
On the upside, we’re seeing progress in getting state-level bills passed or moving through the legislation, and local cities are starting to take state requirements more seriously, particularly as they relate to SB4.
Q: Which aspects of the Mission Point project led HAC to support it?
There are so many exciting components of the proposal as Kylli has taken an underutilized site and transformed it into a mixed-use project with multi-family housing. We believe Mission Point will benefit all Santa Clara residents, with a thoughtful approach to creating communities that are complemented by accessible green space. These parks and open spaces promise to become a destination given that those amenities are currently lacking in abundance. We also like how it’s not self-contained, but is connected to bike and walking trails, which will allow more people to get out of their cars.
Santa Clara can at times be a difficult community to build new housing, and we have been very impressed with how Kylli has made community feedback a focus of the project to ensure it meets local needs. We’ve worked on a lot of projects, and we realize it’s not the norm.