This week throughout the Bay Area, cities are bringing attention to the dire need for affordable housing.
On Tuesday, a panel in Walnut Creek discussed the benefits of housing affordability.
A lot has changed for Danny Milks in the seven years since he moved to Walnut Creek.
He’s married now with two young kids.
“I’m actually a stay-at-home dad now, and my wife works in Oakland and takes the BART in every day,” Milks said.
The rent for his first two apartments in town jumped 50 percent in a short period of time.
And Danny doesn’t want that to happen a third time.
Living near public transportation is key for him.
He and his wife earn too much to qualify for affordable housing, but they desperately want to stay in this community, especially since Danny’s wife is about to start a new job here.
“It’s not easy,” Milks said. “We make a lot of choices, you know, we don’t have TV, we don’t have cable. We almost never drive our car. We cook most of our food from a vegetable garden and do a lot of things to limit our consumption so that we can afford to be with our kids.”
Danny was one of more than 40 people to attend Walnut Creek’s panel discussion on housing affordability.
The benefits of government-subsidized housing and how to make housing more affordable were discussed.
The chamber of commerce believes relaxing laws on building height limits, could bring more jobs and increase wages.
“Offices tend to generate high-income jobs,” Chamber of Commerce member Jay Hoyer said. “Hospitals and John Muir is an example. Bass Medical, Children’s Hospital, all generate the kinds of wages that we really want to have as our base in Walnut Creek to help people afford the housing.”
But for some, living in Walnut Creek can’t be possible without government assistance.
“Walnut Creek and the region do not have enough affordable housing, because housing costs are really, really high,” Walnut Creek Housing Program Manager Margot Ernst said.
Ernst says there are 560 affordable housing units here now with more than 140 others either currently being built or are in the pipeline.