A new report from the California Housing Partnership finds that the Bay Area needs 235,656 more affordable homes just to meet existing needs. The report finds that: High housing costs are effectively doubling official county poverty rates. More than two-thirds of the lowest income households are severely rent burdened, meaning they are paying more than half their incomes in housing Read More
Today, the California Housing Partnership released a new policy brief — co-authored with Enterprise Community Partners — that documents the substantial community and environmental benefits made possible by the first four rounds of the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. By requiring coordination of housing, transportation, and land use planning, AHSC simultaneously and holistically addresses three of California’s most pressing challenges: housing affordability, transportation, Read More
The launch of the Solar On Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program on July 1, 2019 marked the largest solar energy investment in multifamily affordable housing to date in the State of California. The overall goal of the SOMAH program is to provide financial incentives for installing photovoltaic (PV) systems on multifamily affordable rental housing homes. What makes SOMAH unique and exciting Read More
Under a new directive from the Governor who understandably wants to reward jurisdictions doing their part to help the State increase the supply of homes, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) will soon be required to award points to funding applications from “pro-housing” cities and counties for several key affordable housing programs – including the Infill Infrastructure Read More
What social and economic benefits are generated when we relieve low-income families of housing insecurity and rent burden? Or when we help households move to healthier higher resource neighborhoods? How much local economic activity, job creation, and tax revenue is generated when we build and preserve affordable housing? To help answer these questions, the California Housing Partnership recently launched the Affordable Read More
As a member of the campaign’s advisory committee, I am excited to announce the launch of the investAHSC campaign website to advocate for the Affordable Housing & Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program’s continued funding through the State of California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. With its first three funding rounds, AHSC has invested more than $701 million statewide to build affordable housing Read More
This report published by the California Housing Partnership and the Association for Energy Affordability presents new findings on the climate and community benefits delivered by the Cap-and-Trade-funded Low-Income Weatherization Program (LIWP) Multifamily since its launch in 2016. The report finds that LIWP Multifamily has delivered on its ambitious goals, including: Statewide impact: The program has committed $54.4 million to invest in 90 properties Read More
A new report from the California Housing Partnership shows that recent state initiatives designed to stimulate production of more affordable rental housing have yet to make a significant impact in reducing the shortfall of 1.4 million affordable homes needed or in housing the 130,000 Californians experiencing homelessness on any given night. California Housing Partnership CEO Matt Schwartz says, “It is unacceptable that Read More
Virtual Net Energy Metering (VNEM) has been a requirement for many California solar programs including the Low Income Weatherization Program (LIWP), Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) and Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) which incentivizes a significant portion of tenant solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) system loads in multifamily affordable housing properties. The California Housing Partnership hosted a GREEN Talk on October Read More
As we head into the first full week of 2019, I wanted to share five reasons why I am feeling optimistic about the state of affordable housing in California: 1. California’s own Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives last week. While she can’t take us back in time to pass the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2017 bill or change Read More