Housing Shortage San Francisco Bay Area

[Reese Shulman]

Like a lot of cities in California, San Mateo has a housing shortage, which can be seen through the high costs of housing and the increasing homeless population. Cities are required to select sites for new housing developments to address the housing shortage, but when cities are located on peninsulas with a finite amount of land there is a limited number of feasible lots to build on. Cities will either not be able to comply or select sites that are currently zoned and used for purposes other than housing.

This can lead to more complications with lawsuits and other administrative challenges that in addition to absorbing time and money prevent additional housing units from being built.