least a third of their income on housing . Homelessness in Sacramento County has shot up by 19 percent since 2017 .
It ’ s not just Sacramento , of course . In San Joaquin County , rents have grown between 5 percent and 9 percent a year on average since 2014 , and renters need to earn almost $ 26 an hour to afford the average two-bedroom apartment , according to data from the California Housing Partnership . In Placer County , one-third of lowincome households and two-thirds of very low-income households are using more than half of their income to pay for housing . Yolo County needs nearly 10,000 more affordable rentals to meet the needs of low-income households . Migration from the Bay Area since the pandemic further increases the mismatch between the number of units and population , says Tyrone Roderick Williams , deputy executive director for development at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency .
And that ’ s all before the state eviction moratorium ends in February . “ The longer the economy stalls and the longer that we have people who are unemployed and underemployed and not having income coming into their home , our waiting lists are going to grow significantly ,” says Roderick Williams . “ People who ’ ve never needed public assistance before are finding themselves needing it . We ’ re in for a tsunami .”
Many good projects , not enough money
There ’ s one way out of the crunch : Build more housing . Under state law , cities and counties must plan for the housing needs of residents of all incomes , according to the California Housing Partnership . Every 5-8 years , the state ’ s Department of Housing and Community Development sets the total number of new homes each region needs to build and how affordable those homes need to be .
Jurisdictions in the Sacramento area and statewide aren ’ t meeting those goals . The City of Sacramento , for example , would need more than 7,500 units to fulfill the demand for housing among its low-income residents . All 10 counties in the Capital Region , stretching from El Dorado to Yolo and Sutter to San Joaquin , are also behind on their targets .
It ’ s not as though developers aren ’ t pitching proposals . The SHRA has two or three funding rounds a year , during which it awards $ 5 million to $ 8 million to support new affordable developments . The applications they get are “ well-thought-out projects ” that have gaps in financing that SHRA can fill , says Roderick Williams . The problem is too many good proposals — if all were funded , the total would come to $ 20 million to $ 25 million per round , he says . So three-quarters of deserving projects get turned down .
Since the pandemic started , affordable development financing has taken
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