In an op-ed for the Palo Alto Daily Post, Siegman & Associates founder Patrick Siegman explains why homelessness has doubled in Palo Alto, and offers three ways to turn things around:
“My mom and dad bought their first house in Palo Alto for about $16,000. At the time, it cost about five cents per hour to park downtown. Today, that same house would cost nearly $3 million and it’s free to park downtown. In the space of a generation, we have completely solved our affordable housing problem — for our cars.
In 2019, surveyors counted 313 homeless people in Palo Alto, up 99% from 2013. They found no homeless cars.
How did Palo Alto become a city of expensive housing and free parking? In 1951, Palo Alto adopted a new zoning ordinance. The new law limited housing and required parking. In subsequent years, Palo Alto passed strict laws demanding more and more parking at more and more land uses. By 2004, a two-bedroom apartment could not be built unless it included 2.2 parking spaces…”