For as long as California has had a housing shortage, pro-housing advocates have decried the burdensome development process that both stifles construction and inflates development costs, leading to more market-rate units than affordable units.

But a new Alameda County pilot program called the Scalable Housing Investment Funding Toolkit, or SHIFT, seeks to make more housing for less money with an innovative, first-in-the-state approach to affordable housing. On Thursday, county officials chose an Oakland-based firm as the primary developer for the project, which is supposed to break ground on projects in late 2026.

SHIFT utilizes pre-approved, generic designs targeted at in-fill lots to create affordable housing units aimed at residents who make between 60-80% of area median income, accor

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