Event Description

​Infrastructure across California needs repair; water and wastewater alone need 50 billion dollars in funding to maintain basic functioning. California also needs to build 3.5 million homes in the next 10 years. These two issues are directly related. Affordable housing development where water infrastructure is in the worst condition is likely the place where new housing is least likely to “pencil out.” 

​Last year, BIG and PRE-Collective conducted research that confirmed this pressing issue. We are hosting a vital conversation to bring attention to this barrier and the untapped potential we see in how funding can be deployed. We recognize the pivotal role developers, public officials and funders have in supporting place-based, community-led, and community-centered pilots to address this challenge. These new approaches aim to leverage federal water infrastructure funding to improve existing infrastructure conditions in disinvested areas and enable the construction of new affordable infill housing. In addition to that, BIG and PRE Collective would like to set a north star on how cities can pre-develop around expected and current infrastructure needs so that vital housing development can happen without putting the burden on individual businesses and affordable housing developers.

​Shalini Vajjhala, Executive Director of PRE-Collective, will moderate a conversation between speakers bringing diverse perspectives on the role of infrastructure, and water in particular, to enable faster and more equitable housing development — the current way improvements happen and how we might tap into new sources of funding to pre-develop and prepare our communities for the housing they need. 

​This event is hosted by Build It Green and PRE Collective.