This Bay Area county is experimenting with a first-in-the-state pilot program for faster housing construction. Can it help solve the affordability crisis?

"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, according to the Community Development Agency. Through eliminating bureaucratic barriers such as environmental review and local planning commission approval, the program enables a developer to put their money in the ground, not into paperwork."

"We're trying to build affordable housing more affordably, and so we're trying to do a bunch of different things at once to figure out where we can save the most money, said Dylan Sweeney, the program and policy manager for Alameda County Housing and Community Development Agency. If we're not able to leverage the advantages of government to produce housing more cheaply, we're missing out on opportunities."

"On Thursday, Alameda County selected the Oakland-based development firm Inspired ADUs as SHIFT's primary developer. The firm has built affordable in-fill developments in Berkeley, Oakland, and Santa Clara that makes it aligned with Alameda County's goals in the pilot, Inspired ADU CEO and Principal Architect Carrie Shores Diller said. . Alameda County's SHIFT Program is among the most forward-thinking housing initiatives in the state, and Inspired ADUs is uniquely equipped to help realize its vision, explained Carrie Shores Diller, Inspired ADU CEO/"

Alameda County launched the Scalable Housing Investment Funding Toolkit (SHIFT) to produce affordable housing at lower cost. The program uses pre-approved, generic designs targeted at in-fill lots to speed construction and reduce design expenses. SHIFT targets units for households earning between 60–80% of area median income. The program removes bureaucratic steps such as environmental review and local planning commission approval so developers can invest in construction instead of paperwork. Alameda County selected Oakland-based Inspired ADUs as the pilot's primary developer, with projects planned to break ground in late 2026. Multiple strategies will be tested to identify the largest cost savings and leverage government advantages to produce housing more cheaply.

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