Berkeley, California's Haskell Street project has become a microcosm of the issues surrounding the nationwide housing affordability crunch -- gentrification, and not-in-my-backyard activism.
California's median home price is just over $500,000, more than twice the national level, and up about 60 percent from five years ago, according to Zillow. “The housing crisis was caused by the unwillingness of local governments to approve new-home building, and now they’re being held accountable,” said Brian Hanlon, executive director of housing lobbying group California Yimby, per CNBC.
Around the country, many fast-growing metropolitan areas are facing a brutal shortage of affordable places to live, leading to gentrification, homelessness, even disease. As cities struggle to keep up with demand, they have remade their skylines ... but single-family neighborhoods, where low-density living is treated as sacrosanct, have rarely been part of the equation.
