Dear Gavin Newson, greetings, my name is Miriam, and my partner's name is Daphne. We are constituents from Oakland. California. We have lived most of our lives here in the bay area, and throughout that time we have noticed many things. Especially within the community and the amount of people walking around, there has been an increasingly large percentage of people living in Oakland, according to "California’s Housing Costs Threaten The State’s Future": California’s population grew by about 6.7%, while new housing grew by only 4.8%. From being those having to move from place to place to now living in a forever home, we have seen many things, especially with cost and payment towards rent, let alone purchasing a house. 

With lots of people living here and not many buildings or homes to provide, it is hard to find a place to live. According to the same article, it is stated that "105%." Rising housing costs are driven by a lack of supply. as well as hard to construct housing since there are many single-family homes." Due to the way the area is being constructed, it is difficult to construct more housing. Especially with the affordability towards a living space, it is not cheap in the Bay. Most of people's checks go towards their living circumstances even though there have been new jobs added. It is also stated in the article that "the state added 2.54 new jobs per new housing unit," so even as the economy expanded, housing prices rose faster. By that, we would like to see changes within housing costs and the construction of more living spaces for people.

A potential solution would be to provide a higher wage with it already being hired; if it were to be hired at $30 an hour or more, that would result in not making it so laborious to live in California and having people be able to divide their pay for other needs. That will also help people not get evicted or lose their homes due to not being able to pay and end up homeless and having to leave or be in a difficult situation. Another solution is to clear areas that are abandoned and/or clean up the state and be able to construct housing that is low-priced. Please consider trying to fix this issue in our state, especially in our community. Thank you for your time and for considering my request for your support.