A Housing Element presents a City’s strategy for meeting its housing needs and addressing local housing issues such as high costs, lack of supply, overcrowding, and homelessness. It is part of the General Plan, the policy document guiding the city’s long-term growth and development.
A number of Southern California cities received grant funding to prepare videos explaining the Housing Element process. Several of these videos have been translated into other languages, including Spanish and Mandarin. The links below provide easy-to-understand animated explanations of Housing Elements and what they cover. While they were prepared for communities in other parts of the state, the content is transferable to San Rafael.
Housing Element – Orange County (in Spanish) – 3 min 49 sec (this is focused on RHNA)
Housing Element – Temecula (in Spanish) – 24 min 35 sec
Housing Element – Los Angeles (in Spanish) – 1 min 33 sec
Housing Element – Azusa (Mandarin Subtitles) – 3 min 59 sec
In addition, Sonoma County has prepared this video as part of their update process (in English).