Calculating the Housing Crunch

Although Bradley Inman’s Feb. 28 California Trends column (“Finding Solutions to the Housing Crunch”) suggests the difficulty of housing California’s future numbers, it falls far short of stating how complicated the problem will be.

He is worried about the 10 million people who will arrive here from elsewhere by 2040 and concludes by asking, “How will we possibly house 10 million more people?”

But Inman has counted only those who are expected to move to the Golden State; he has not even considered the excess of births over deaths that will also feed our numbers.

State demographers have projected a population of 58.7 million by 2040. That means that we need to house not 10 million more people, but closer to 26 million more.

Not only is the problem of housing the projected future population going to be far worse than Inman suggested, it is only one of many. Consider providing jobs, schools, medical care, cleaner air, water energy and a host of other services to those folks as well. The task will be monumental.

Inman talks about letting the Great Central Valley absorb much of the growth, but it cannot absorb new residents by the millions without serious complications.

GARY PETERS

Professor

Geography department

Cal State Long Beach