The 2026 SLO County Housing Summit took place on Wednesday. Attendees and speakers filled the conference room at the Embassy Suites in San Luis Obispo to talk about the issue and possible solutions.
One of the keynote speakers was Shane Phillips, the Housing Initiative Manager at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
He explained that although Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo are different, when it comes to housing, they both do not have enough to meet the demand that exists.
Garett Olson, the CEO of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, said the lack of affordable housing makes it especially difficult for young professionals, families, and service workers.
Phillips said that San Luis Obispo County does not offer a wide range of housing options, and those that are available are expensive. He said there is a lack of affordable middle options, like duplexes, townhouses, four-story condos, and apartment buildings
"I would say they don't have a sufficient mix of housing like many other places," Phillips said. "There's been a very heavy focus on single-family detached houses.”
Olson said a large group of renters are college students, but due to the high cost of housing, the county struggles to keep this population once they enter the workforce. This gap between young college students and wealthy retirees is what the 2026 Housing Summit looked to address.
"You go from an apartment to a townhome to a home, and then at some point, maybe you move to a smaller home when the kids are out of the house," Olson said. "One of the real challenges here is we have missing rungs on that ladder.”
A success celebrated at this summit was Grover Beach, a local area in the works of adding several new housing projects.
