Strategies to Ease San Diego’s Housing Crunch

City of San Diego’s Kris Michell pointed out that the region needs to be concerned with placemaking in order to activate public space.

SAN DIEGO—San Diego must increase density, reduce development costs and foster community in order to help meet the demand for affordable residential builds, says the City of San Diego’s deputy COO for special projects Kris Michell at Thursday’s San Diego County Economic Roundtable here. Michell’s presentation focused on housing concerns and the strategies needed to lessen the market’s ongoing housing shortage.

Michell said each of the region’s current large projects—including SDCCU Stadium, the Convention Center and the Mission Valley redevelopment—has the ability to be a catalytic event for housing in San Diego as Petco Park did Downtown. In order to meet population growth here over the next 30 to 35 years, the market needs 400,000 housing units and 500,000 jobs. “Housing is needed—it’s a big problem.”