Housing Advocacy

To advance the region’s housing affordability goals, MTC and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) develop joint annual state advocacy priorities. For 2025, the agencies’ focus is sustaining the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority’s (BAHFA) core functions through 2029. The agencies are also co-sponsoring legislation to incentivize cities and counties to preserve existing affordable housing.

Additional state advocacy priorities include weighing in on changes to the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process and maintaining existing funding for the housing strategies outlined in Plan Bay Area 2050, MTC’s long-range regional plan for transportation, housing, the economy and the environment.

Learn more about MTC’s 2025 priorities: 

• Securing $30 million from the state budget for the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority.
  • Review the MTC-ABAG proposal.
  • Download the support letters from the Bay Area Caucus and a coalition of community partners.
  • Read more about achievements from BAHFA’s first five years.
  • Learn more about the New York Housing Development Corporation, the model for a potential BAHFA public lending program.
• Passing AB 670 (Quirk-Silva), which would create an incentive for cities and counties to preserve the affordability of existing apartments. Specifically, this bill would allow localities to claim credit on their Housing Element annual reports for locking in the long-term affordability of naturally-occurring affordable housing via a legal agreement.
  • Read the AB 670 author's fact sheet.
  • Review the MTC-ABAG letter of support.
• Monitoring and providing technical assistance on legislation that would impact future Bay Area Regional Housing Needs Allocation cycles.
• Supporting SB 417 and AB 736, nearly identical Senate and Assembly bills that would place a $10 billion general obligation bond measure on the June 2026 statewide ballot for a variety of housing production and preservation programs.
  • Review a summary of the legislation.
  • Read the MTC-ABAG support letters for SB 417 and AB 736.
• Advocating to modernize SB 375’s Sustainable Communities Strategies. Metropolitan Planning Organizations, including MTC, are responsible for developing regional transportation plans (RTPs) that support federal and state mobility, safety and other goals. The addition of Sustainable Communities Strategies to the RTP in 2008 - with the passage of SB 375 (Steinberg) - reframed how these organizations serve their communities. Now, MTC and partners are leading an effort to update the law to ensure it continues to advance ambitious climate goals centered on affordable, accessible transit and housing.
  • Review proposed strategies for updating SB 375’s requirements developed by MTC in partnership with the San Diego Association of Governments, the Southern California Association of Governments and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
• Extending housing and transit funding through California’s Cap-and-Trade program past its current 2030 expiration and adding a new funding component to advance implementation of MTC’s Sustainable Communities Strategy.
  • Read a letter from MTC and partners on Sustainable Communities Strategy funding.
  • Read an overview of Cap-and-Trade extension discussions.
  • Review MTC’s Cap-and-Trade advocacy principles.