Inland Empire Summit Reveals Majority of Rent-Burdened Households Spend Over 50% of Income on Housing

In the Inland Empire, three out of 10 households are considered rent-burdened — spending more than half of their income on rent just to keep a roof over their heads. The finding underscored urgent conversations at the Inland Empire Community Foundation’s Policy & Philanthropy Summit, held Aug. 6–7 at the Riverside Convention Center.

The two-day event drew nearly 500 nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and advocates from across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and even beyond, under the theme “Common Ground for the Common Good.” Conversations throughout the summit were framed by the “vital conditions” — seven interconnected pillars for building thriving communities: basic needs for health and safety, humane housing, meaningful work and wealth, lifelong learning, reliable transportation, belonging and civic muscle, and a thriving natural world.

During a humane housing panel, California Assemblymembers Dr. Corey Jackson and Robert Garcia tackled the Inland Empire’s affordability crisis head-on. Jackson stressed the need for government, nonprofits, and the private sector to end siloed work and coordinate strategies. 

“There isn’t a single report, study, or recommendation that doesn’t say we have to stop operating in silos,” Jackson said. “If we’re all serving the same population, we should be coordinating, sharing information, and creating spaces where nonprofits, government, and business can hear the same message and work together. That’s when we can truly call ourselves a community and deliver for the people we profess to care about.”

Pressed on why developers continue building larger, costlier homes, Jackson pointed to the economics of land value and profit margins. He highlighted his bill, AB 317, which incentivizes smaller, more affordable homes so younger generations can buy in the communities where they grew up. 

Garcia said decades of underbuilding are a key driver of high housing costs. “Housing is the issue of our time right now. It is increasingly more and more unaffordable for many families,” Garcia said. “One of the solutions is the supply side — the reason housing is so expensive is because we do not have the units that should have been built decades prior. But, with the recent legislation that was passed is to streamline the development for rental housing and single family homes. The Inland Empire is definitely a place where we can build more housing and make it affordable.”

Jackson pushed back on the stigma surrounding affordable housing. “The biggest misconception is that affordable housing is going to lead to crime and all kinds of other things that you should be afraid of. And it’s absolutely not true. If you want a safe community, you want to make sure everyone has housing they can afford,” he said. He also placed responsibility on bad actors in the housing market, singling out slumlords for failing to make repairs, ignoring sewage issues, and allowing infestations and mold to persist. “Anyone doing business in the housing market… has a responsibility, and those are not negotiable,” he said.

He also addressed “not in my backyard” opposition. “We need to stop saying we want housing, but I don’t want ‘that type of housing near me’ because that type of housing is going to ‘bring those kinds of people,’” Jackson said. “To be honest, those kinds of people don’t want to live near you anyway.”

The discussion expanded beyond housing to food insecurity, with Jackson noting recent federal cuts to SNAP benefits. He said he hosted a statewide listening session to prepare for the impact and secured funding to keep California’s food bank support at $60 million instead of dropping to $6 million. He also addressed environmental concerns about streamlined housing legislation potentially paving the way for unchecked warehouse or industrial development, saying, “We’re in a crisis. The status quo is no longer acceptable. If we see people taking advantage of it, there’ll be bills to close those holes — but we cannot be afraid to act.”

Following the panel, Inland Empire Community News sat down with Jackson one-on-one. He reiterated his call for coordinated, cross-sector action, stressing that housing, homelessness, and food insecurity are deeply interconnected. “We have to stop working in isolation,” he said. “Government, nonprofits, and business all need to be hearing the same message and working from the same plan.”

Throughout the summit, speakers linked humane housing to the broader vital conditions, arguing that neglect in one area — whether transportation, education, jobs, or environmental health — can cascade into others. The event challenged leaders to align policy, funding, and grassroots efforts to reinforce one another, rather than work in silos.