The Berkeley City Council will vote on a revision of the Affordable Housing Preference Policy on Oct. 13. The updated policy, if passed, will change the current points-based system to a tier-based one for determining priority in housing displaced and low-income applicants.

Under the current system, applicants are given one “preference point” for every priority housing category they qualify for. These categories include displacement due to foreclosure, eviction or BART construction; residents of a current or former Berkeley redlined neighborhood and families with children, among others.

Applicants provide documentation as proof of eligibility for each category and are then sorted into the lottery process based on the number of preference points they accumulate. First priority is given to applicants displaced by BART construction.

Berkeley adopted the points-based system when affordable housing applications were submitted through the Alameda County Housing Portal. However, in May 2025, the county transitioned to the Doorway Bay Area Affordable Housing Portal, which mainly supports tier-based preference policies.

According to Anna Cash, housing policy specialist for Berkeley Health, Housing, and Community Services, the points-based system had issues integrating into the Doorway portal and required more documentation from applicants to verify preference eligibility.

“Running a custom points-based system meant waitlist information could not yet be displayed dynamically in applicant profiles. This led to long, static waitlist files that were confusing and difficult for families to navigate,” Cash said in an email.

The first project to implement the policy was the 87-unit Maudelle Miller Shirek Community, with applications opening in January 2024, according to the city’s current policy. City staff worked with research partners Healthy Black Families and Street Level Advisors to conduct a pilot assessment of the policy.

Even with the point system’s complications, the pilot was successful at helping displaced Berkeley residents “to return home,” Cash said in the email.

“At Maudelle Miller Shirek Community … 59% of preference units were successfully leased to households with verified preferences. This pathway was especially evident for residents with generational ties to Berkeley who have been impacted by redlining: more than one in four of the households that moved in had ties to Berkeley’s redlined neighborhoods,” Cash said in the email.

If the proposed revision to the policy passes, affordable housing applicants will be categorized into six tiers.

Tier 1, displacement due to construction of BART stations in Berkeley, will rank first in priority. Direct descendants of Berkeley residents who inhabited redlined neighborhoods are given priority at Tiers 2 and 3, while current or displaced Berkeley residents are assigned Tiers 4 and 5. Additionally, relative priority is given to households with children under 18 at Tiers 2–5. All other applicants fall under Tier 6, which is the lowest priority.

The new system could help stabilize lottery ranks and streamline documentation processes for applicants. Applicants would only need to submit documentation that proves their eligibility for their highest-ranked tier.

“Under a tier system, applicants hold a stable rank within a clear tier. If they cannot prove a preference, they simply drop to their position in the next qualifying tier without requiring the entire applicant pool to be re-sorted,” Cash said in the email.

According to the revision proposal, the tiered system would also remove homelessness or risk of homelessness as its own category. Sixty-nine percent of homeless applicants failed to meet the minimum income requirement for affordable housing programs, and resources such as the Berkeley Housing Authority are more effective for people with “extremely low incomes,” according to Cash’s email.

If the City Council approves the revision, changes will be effective Nov. 1. Applicants currently on housing waitlists that implement the preferences will continue to be considered with the points-based system under which they originally applied.