The idea for the regional entity — dubbed the Housing Alliance for the Bay Area (HABA) — was birthed from CASA, a committee of elected officials, developers and affordable housing advocates who drew up a set of ideas to ease the housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area.

The ideas included emergency rent and legal assistance to tenants facing eviction, a regional rent cap, streamlined approval for more developments and minimum zoning standards for housing around transit stops. Many of those ideas have already been introduced in the state Legislature.

The committee also drafted a price tag for their list of solutions: $2.5 billion annually over the next 15 years.

AB 1487 would give state authority to HABA to raise up to $1.5 billion through ballot measures voted on in all nine counties.

"[It] would allow for funding to be raised regionally and spent regionally," Chiu said. "It would allow tenants from across the region to access services, even if their city doesn't have tenant services available. It would allow cities across the region to get access to technical assistance that they may not already have."

The entity would not have any land use authority, and while it could purchase land for affordable housing, it would not be able to take property through eminent domain.