Report cover of aerial view of the Bay Area from a mountain top
Economic Inclusion and Climate Equity

April 10, 2018

By Sarah Treuhaft with Jessica Pizarek, Ángel Ross, and Justin Scoggins

Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).

Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area presents new data and analyses that illustrate how rising rents and stagnant incomes are straining household budgets and stifling opportunity in the nine-county Bay Area, jeopardizing the region’s diversity, growth, and prosperity.

The twin forces of a housing shortage—particularly affordable housing—and uneven wage growth have created a regional crisis that hinders opportunity, growth, and prosperity for families and businesses alike.

Though the housing crisis is far-reaching, it has hit low-income communities of color the hardest. Considering people of color are driving population growth in the region, these racial inequities pose a serious threat to the Bay Area’s future.

Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area was developed as part of the Bay Area Equity Atlas, a partnership between PolicyLink, The San Francisco Foundation, and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California (PERE) that is working to create a regional platform designed to provide data and serve those who are seeking to advance solutions at a local and regional scale.

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Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area
Bar chart comparing GDP in 2015 to that of GDP if racial gaps in income were eliminated, both in billions
Dot plot comparing share of renter households paying more than 30 percent of income on housing costs by race and ethnicity in 2000 and 2015
Column chart comparing wage growth in low-, middle-, and high-wage industries in 2005 and 2015
Line graph from November 2010 to December 2017 on the cumulative growth in median market rent based on the Zillow Rent Index
Column chart on difference in median hourly wage of full-time wage and salary workers with a Bachelor's Degree of higher compared with the median wage for white and Asian of Pacific Islander men in 2015

Read our other publications by research area

    Immigrant Integration & Racial Justice

    Our work on immigrant integration and racial justice brings together three emphases: scholarship that draws on academic theory and rigorous research, data that provides information structured to highlight the process of immigrant integration over time, and engagement that seeks to create new dialogues with government, community organizers, business and civic leaders, immigrants and the voting public to advance immigrant integration and racial equity.

    Economic Inclusion & Climate Equity

    In the area of economic inclusion, we at ERI advance academic theory and practical applications linking economic growth, environmental quality, and civic health with bridging of racial and other gaps; produce accessible and actionable data and analysis through the data tools; and establish research partnerships to deepen and advance the dialogue, planning, and actions around racial equity, environmental justice, and the built environment.

    Social Movements & Governing Power

    ERI’s work in the area of governing power includes: conducting cross-disciplinary studies of today’s social movements, supporting learning and strategizing efforts to advance dialogues among organizers, funders, intermediaries, evaluators, and academics, and developing research-based social change frameworks and tools to inform—and be informed by—real-world, real-time efforts towards a vision of deep change.

    Publications Directory

    In 2020, the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) merged to form the USC Equity Research Institute (ERI).

    The full list of publications published under our previous and current names can be found in our publications directory.

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