At the end of the first three years of California’s eight-year housing cycle, San Rafael has reached 6.5% of its mandate to foster the creation of 3,220 new homes.

Although projects consisting of more than 2,000 residences have been approved in that time frame, the city has only issued building permits for 209 new homes. That issuance of permits is what counts toward fulfilling the Regional Housing Needs Allocation mandate, said Greg Minor, assistant director of community and economic development.

“In terms of satisfying the overall housing deficit,” Minor said, “we still have a ways.”

The Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, is determined by the Association of Bay Area Governments based on state population and job growth projections. The state projects how many more homes will be needed to meet the growth, and ABAG assigns the allocation to the various jurisdictions.

Vice Mayor Rachel Kertz said she is disappointed that the city wasn’t able to support new affordable housing projects through the trust fund awards this year.

“I’d love to see other tools that we can look at to improve us funding for affordability,” Kertz said.

Kertz also said she is concerned that accessory dwelling units might be used for short-term rentals, thus “not helping us meet those housing goals.”

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