The Washington Post recently reported that the stock of affordable housing in the US has dropped 60 percent since 2010, based on financing data from Freddie Mac. In San Diego, average rents have eclipsed $1,800 per month and nearly half of the population can’t afford a median-priced home, which is hovering around $550,000. Rents have increased more than 30 percent in the last eight years. Both are among the highest in the nation.

The governor and many local officials have deemed it a crisis. Mayor Kevin Faulconer got certain regulations relaxed earlier this year as part of a plan called Housing SD, aimed at incentivizing people to more build granny flats and easing permitting on other types of development. In a release touting the approval of two affordable developments, Faulconer said, “We need to build more housing that San Diegans can afford … We are focused on creating more housing opportunities for our low- and middle-income residents and speeding up the approval process so those units are available sooner rather than later. No one who loves San Diego and wants to live in San Diego should be priced out of San Diego.”

The two developments preserved around 500 affordable units, but the California Housing Partnership Corporation released a study that showed the county needed to add more than 140,000 homes to meet the needs of renters.