Alameda County Housing & Community Development Department

10/22/2026

Find out who can afford to live here in Alameda County! HCD just released a unique interactive dashboard that compares what jobs and fixed incomes pay with what it costs to rent or buy a home here.

Check out the HCD Wages and Housing Costs Simulator. Start with a chart of common jobs against the income needed to rent or buy. You can choose from 687 occupations, add your family size, or enter your own income. The dashboard shows which cities and ZIP codes fit your budget, the monthly cost of the typical home, and how long it may take to save for a down payment. Try it at: www.achcd.org/reports/hcd-wages-and-housing-costs-simulator.

10/20/2026

Important information about your healthcare.

10/19/2026

Open to the public: the Oversight Committee of the Measure A1 Affordable Housing Bond meets this Thursday at 10:00AM at Alameda County Public Meeting Room, 224 W. Winton Ave, Room 160 in Hayward.

The Committee reviews expenditures, program outcomes, and compiles the Annual Reports. Meetings are public. A volunteer body of 15 members representing community stakeholder groups, mandated by the bond measure and empowered by the Board of Supervisors under a Board approved committee structure reviews all Measure A1 expenditures and reports its findings to the Board and the public. Meetings are always open to the public. More info at: www.achcd.org/measure-a1-committee-meetings.

10/14/2026

Lessons from Vienna: How a century of political choices created a lasting public investment in housing, is the second in a series of blog posts of insights gained from Vienna's experience with social housing.

Created by HCD Director Michelle Starratt after joining California housing leaders in the Vienna Social Housing Field Study, the blog posts appear on our Home Is Here website at: www.achcd.org/home-is-here-blog.

10/12/2026

No affordable home is paid for with one check. Each one is financed by braiding together local, state, tax-credit, and private money, and each strand carries its own application, rules, and months of waiting.

HCD's new interactive Development Cost Simulator lets you build a sample affordable housing project, see what it costs and who pays for it, and then test how simpler funding, pre-approved designs, factory-built construction, lower-cost land, and better loan terms could change its cost and timeline. Find it at: www.achcd.org/reports/hcd-development-cost-simulator.

The simulator is built on academic and practical research: Terner Center cost coefficients, the Legislative Analyst's Office review of state funding consolidation, ten years of Measure A1 project data, and the SHIFT cost calculator.

10/12/2026

We are very proud our SHIFT senior program is making news for its innovative approach to allowing seniors to downsize and stay in their neighborhoods. Read more about the program at: www.achcd.org/shift.

A Bay Area pilot program is taking an unusual approach to aging in place: Help build a backyard ADU for an older homeowner, then split the lot and sell their original house.

10/08/2026

In September, HCD Director Michelle Starratt joined California housing leaders in the Vienna Social Housing Field Study. She will share her insights and what California can learn from them, called Lessons from Vienna, in 10 blog posts that will appear on our Home Is Here website at: www.achcd.org/home-is-here-blog. Here is her first blog post.

10/07/2026

We won! The California Strategic Growth Council awarded a $3 million Factory-Built Housing Regional Pilot Program Planning Grant to a regional group led by StopWaste, with Alameda County’s SHIFT program serving as the funded proving ground, for factory-built middle housing. The proposal earned the highest score of any Planning Grant among 65 applications statewide.

Over the next three years, partners from Alameda and San Francisco counties will evaluate sites, document permitting pathways, design financing for small factory-built projects, and train developers and building officials. Read about the award and the SHIFT Program at: www.achcd.org/shift. StopWaste.Org

10/01/2026

People are talking! HCD has launched it's very own Home Is Here podcast about all things housing!

On the first episode, podcast host Aaron Tiedemann, Housing Specialist at HCD, talks with Stephanie Hawke, Associate Research Director of Land Use and Supply at the Terner Center, about how we ended up in this housing affordability crisis, why affordable housing is complicated to build, and how housing will get us out of it.

Listen to or watch our the Home Is Here podcast at: https://youtu.be/1eVmD1ieJqY?si=X4qU6INQrImD9Jvg
Terner Center for Housing Innovation

Podcast Interview with Stephanie Hawke at Terner Center, UC Berkele...

09/28/2026

Home Is Here shares the inspiring stories of Alameda County residents and their journeys toward finding housing.

A single mother of three, Sonya came through serious health and financial setbacks determined to find stable housing for her family. With support from Alameda County's affordable housing programs and Abode.org, she found a home where her family can thrive. In her words: “It's a dream come true and a great relief.”

Hear Sonya's story at: www.achcd.org/home-is-here-sonya-ayubi.

https://youtu.be/mQrZ38Q02Jw?si=bIgkdziF63v1YUC4