On December 14, 2016, the California Energy Commission (CEC) approved the SB 350 Barriers Study mandated by Senate Bill 350 to address barriers for low-income households and disadvantaged communities to participate in energy efficiency and renewables opportunities. The purpose of the study is to identify how new legislation and joint agency efforts can establish transformative goals and policies to enable all Read More
Sixty leaders from housing, energy, environmental, and workforce development organizations gathered in Los Angeles and San Francisco this month to help the California Housing Partnership’s Green Rental home Energy Efficiency Network (GREEN), Natural Resources Defense Council, and Energy Efficiency for All (EEFA) partners set priorities for our collective energy efficiency, water and renewable energy work in California for 2017. In Read More
On November 10, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision that dedicates $80 million to empower government and non-profit owners of rent-restricted affordable housing to participate in Energy Savings Assistance (ESA) programs for low-income households. The Green Rental home Energy Efficiency Network (GREEN) and Energy Efficiency for All (EEFA) Coalition* secured these funds and significant ESA program improvements Read More
CHPC’s water affordability initiative works to increase access to water conservation resources for the nonprofit multifamily affordable rental housing sector in California. Below is the second article in a GREEN series focused on leaders, best practices, and emerging trends for water conservation in affordable housing. We will cover graywater reuse, high efficiency fixtures, sewer service fees, sub-metering, and landscape irrigation in urban Read More
CHPC’s water affordability initiative works to increase access to water conservation resources for the nonprofit multifamily affordable rental housing sector in California. Below is the first article in a GREEN series focused on leaders, best practices, and emerging trends for water conservation in affordable housing. We will cover graywater reuse, high efficiency fixtures, sewer service fees, sub-metering, and landscape irrigation in Read More
FIRST AFFORDABLE HOUSING & SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES FUNDED DEVELOPMENT IN SILICON VALLEY BREAKS GROUND The Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara (HACSC) this week celebrated the groundbreaking for its Laurel Grove Family Apartments in San José, a transit-oriented development that will provide 81 units of housing for low-income families earning between 20 percent and 50 percent of Area Median Read More
On June 27th, 2016, Governor Brown signed into law important changes to the State Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program that will substantially increase equity pricing for nonprofit developers of LIHTC-financed properties by allowing them to certificate state housing credits and sell them separately from federal LIHTCs. The California Housing Partnership and State Treasurer John Chiang co-sponsored and helped draft this Read More
The Housing Authority of the County of Tulare (HACT) has developed a promising model for enabling owners of low-income affordable rental housing to finance the cost of installing solar PV systems on tenant meters. In this blog, I describe how other housing authorities can and should emulate Tulare’s innovative and yet relatively simple approach, which has the power to overcome the Read More
The California Department of Finance (DOF) generally focuses only on the cost to the state of proposed new investments. Just last week they insisted that a common sense proposal by Senator Jim Beall (SB 873) should be limited to only three years because mistaken assumptions by the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) led the DOF to conclude that the change would cost hundreds Read More
Last week, Collin Tateishi joined the California Housing Partnership as a Sustainable Housing Policy Analyst. In this new role, Collin manages CHPC’s efforts to increase access to water efficiency and conservation programs for nonprofit affordable housing owners and the low-income tenants they serve. He also supports various energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives by assisting the Green Rental Home Energy Read More