When Alameda County voters go to the polls in November, they may be asked to decide how affordable housing is financed for decades to come. At Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, local and regional housing experts stressed the importance of an upcoming $20 billion regional bond measure that could bring as much as $765 million to Oakland. “It really is the most ambitious affordable housing program that we have ever embarked upon in the region and even in the state of California,” Kate Hartley, Bay Area Housing Finance Authority director, said during a presentation to the council. BAHFA, which is spearheading the project, was established in 2019 under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a way for communities to collectively address one of the region’s most pressing challenges. The approach is meant to transform an affordable housing finance system that has become something of a zero-sum game. “It really was an effort to find a …