FAQs

The Housing Element establishes goals, policies, and implementation measures to guide the development of housing in Eureka. The Housing Element is one of the mandatory elements of the City’s General Plan. It must be updated every five years and certified by the State.

The housing element typically includes: 

1. Housing Needs Assessment: Examine demographic, employment, and housing trends and conditions that affect the housing needs of the community.
2.   Assessment of Fair Housing: Analyze fair housing issues, including patterns of segregation and integration, disparities in access to opportunity, and disproportionate housing needs.
3.  Evaluation of Past Performance: Review the previous housing element to measure progress in implementing policies and programs.
4.  Housing Sites Inventory: Identify available sites for housing development or redevelopment to ensure that there is adequate capacity to address the Regional Housing Needs Allocation.
5.  Community Outreach and Engagement: Implement a robust community outreach and engagement program, with a particular focus on outreach to traditionally underrepresented groups. 
6. Constraints Analysis: Analyze and recommend remedies for existing and potential governmental and nongovernmental barriers to housing development. 
7. Policies and Programs: Establish policies and programs to fulfill the identified housing needs.

Every eight years, California requires cities and counties to plan for a certain number of new homes based on regional growth projections. This process is called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA (pronounced "REE-nah").

For the 2027–2035 cycle, the Humboldt County Association of Governments determined that the region needs to plan for approximately 5,962 new homes total. Eureka's share — 1,740 units — was calculated based on two factors: the city's share of regional jobs (about 38.8%) and its share of regional population (about 19.5%).

Because Eureka is the region's employment center, it receives a proportionally larger share of the regional housing need. The state requires Eureka to demonstrate, through the Housing Element, that there are enough appropriately zoned sites to realistically accommodate those homes — not that the city must build them itself, but that the conditions are in place for them to be built.

This is one of the most common concerns we hear, and it's a fair one. Here's what the data shows:

A 2022 city-commissioned parking study found that even during peak hours, downtown and Old Town parking lots were less than 50% full — meaning over 1,500 spaces were sitting empty at the busiest time of day. 

There's also a broader tradeoff worth understanding: requiring new housing developments to include parking significantly raises the cost to build. For affordable housing projects in particular, parking requirements can add 30% or more to construction costs, sometimes making projects financially impossible to move forward.

The goal isn't to eliminate parking — it's to make sure the parking we already have is working well, while prioritizing limited land for homes rather than car storage. More residents living close to jobs and services also means, over time, fewer people who need to drive for every trip.