How can real estate be more inclusive for low-income and working-class buyers?

A: I’ve been thinking about the lack of housing, how far out folks have to live, the hour or two commute stuck on the freeway, the $10- to $20-per-hour job. When do they decide to just chuck it and move somewhere else? We as a society have to address this issue. If we don’t, there won’t be anyone around to serve the food, fix the telephone poles or clerk in a retail store. If enough folks leave, rental rates and housing demand may go down. But at what cost?

Geographically maybe we don’t have many options. In Phoenix they just keep building out into the desert. Of course, the lack of water may curtail that strategy.

What are some ideas to fix this? Increase the minimum wage to an actual living wage, allow more density as Oakland has done for accessory structures in residential neighborhoods, and allow more multiunit housing in areas close to bus/BART.

Then there are affordable housing programs wherein the city offers developers extra floors and exemptions from other requirements in exchange for promises to include affordable housing.

Of course, we can’t leave out rent stabilization to hold rents down. Every solution has its proponents and detractors.

If we don’t act, I feel the next economic downturn will come from the weight of our own success. A: Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) workshops and free coaching help low-income and working-class, first-time home buyers learn of their many options to get into the tight and costly San Francisco market.

One way is below-market-rate (BMR) condos, won by lottery. The guidelines for Area Median Income (AMI) vary by property, ranging up to 120 percent, and are dependent on the family’s available down payment.

Being able to put 20 percent down can be a burden in our expensive market. That’s why the city started the Downpayment Assistance Loan Program — a deferred payment loan up to $375,000, to qualified low- and middle-income, first-time home buyers for the purchase of a market-rate principal residence. DALP is a silent second loan that requires no monthly payments for 30 years, plus it has only a 5 percent down payment requirement. The principal amount, plus an equitable share of appreciation, is paid at the end of the loan term, or repaid upon sale or transfer.

With the city cognizant of the need to help our middle-class SFUSD educators live where they work, the Teacher Next Door program was created for households making no more than 200 percent AMI. A loan is forgiven after 10 years of service in SFUSD. There is neither interest nor shared appreciation on TND loans. Juan Diego Castro, Mission Economic Development Agency, (415) 282-3334, Ext. 101, homeownership@medasf.org. A: The Bay Area in fact has quite a bit of land which could be used for housing. At least some of this new housing, if built, can be designated as affordable.

Just look around at the huge parking lots surrounding business parks and malls. The cars sit there, baking in the sun, when they could either be underground, or even better, decreased in numbers so employees would have frequent, affordable public transportation with a well-researched network of routes.

At the moment there are a number of impediments to achieving more housing. Cities literally take years, not months, to approve projects, and a great deal of the blame for that lies squarely on us.

Existing residents do not want more housing in their neighborhood because more housing brings more traffic. A good example of that is the old naval facility in Alameda, closed for almost 20 years, which is finally under development. It is also true that city planners seem to have tunnel vision regarding parking requirements and zoning. Where is the harm in mixing uses? Many an R&D park or shopping center, for example, could have housing built on the second floor.

Astrid Lacitis, Vanguard Properties, (415) 860-0765, astrid@vanguardsf.com.