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HOUSING TYPES AND MIX The Housing Element of the General Plan establishes the overall goal and housing program for the city. Goal 5: To promote and ensure the provision of adequate and diversified housing for all present and future residents of Pleasanton, regardless of age, income, or ethnicity. New residential development must play an important role in providing the diversified housing which is the goal of the Housing Element. But current market and institutional forces are such that, left alone, developers would build predominantly detached, single family residences affordable by only the upper middle class. Dwelling units for small households - singles and couples - and for the elderly, the young, and the poor would not be built. Diversified housing opportunities would allow some households to live where they work (for the commer- cial and industrial growth Pleasanton desires to attract will not provide wholly white collar jobs), reducing commuting; young house- holds, raised in Pleasanton and wishing to stay, could remain; and the newly retired residents of Pleasanton, with friends and activities here, could find appropriate housing in the city. In order to meet the diversified housing needs of Pleasanton, it is necessary to have a range of housing types and sizes, a mixture of ownership and rental housing, and a range of housing cost. The existing housing stock provides a base of diversified housing New housing must continue to provide diversified housing if Pleasanton is to continue to house a diverse cormiunity. Multiple family residences typically provide housing at costs less than single family residences. Such development also provides units of smaller size and of different tenure than single family development. Pultiple family residences, of all types and sizes, are necessary if Pleasanton is to achieve its housing goal. The Land Use Element has provided appropriate locations for new multiple family housing in the ratio designated in the Housing Element. As Pleasanton develops, multiple family housing should grow along with new single family development. Policy 22: To ensure that 25 per cent of all new housing units are multiple family residences. Provision for multiple family housing alone will not provide housing for the full range of income groups desiring housing in Pleasanton. Typical multiple dwelling rentals in Pleasanton are too expensive for lower income households (as defined in the Housing Element) to afford, and the costs of construction and interest rates are pushing the costs of multiple units farther from the reach of the poor. A variety of housing programs utilizing both the public and private sector is necessary if lower-income housing is to be provided as stipulated by the Housing Element. -14-