The 2022 Statewide Housing Plan finds that California needs to construct more than one million new homes affordable to lower-income families by 2030 to meet the need. While this may sound like an expensive proposition in today’s high construction cost environment, the reality is that each state dollar invested in producing affordable rental housing leverages private, federal, and local funding at a ratio of more than four to one. In other words, the state’s contribution Read More

HOUSING PROVISIONS Budget investments toward preserving/ protecting/ producing sustainable, affordable housing include: $500 million in enhanced state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) $400 million for Homekey $250 million for the CalHome program $250 million for the California Housing Accelerator (CHA) Program $200 million for the Infill infrastructure Grant (IIG) Program of 2019 $150 million for Adaptive Reuse $145 million for CalHFA $100 million for the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP) Read More

The American Jobs Plan (AJP) includes: $45 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund for the construction and preservation of homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes, $2 billion for new project-based vouchers; $35 billion for the HOME Investment Partnership Program; $55 billion for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit; $3 billion to fund lead-based paint testing and abatement; $2 billion to meet the housing needs of tribal communities; and Read More

This week the House of Representatives will vote on a COVID-19 relief bill (the American Rescue Plan Act) to help America’s lowest-income renters address rent arrears and remain housed and to bring people experiencing homelessness indoors.  The bill provides $25 billion in rental assistance including: $19.05 billion for emergency rental assistance (ERA) for low-income families experiencing a financial hardship during or due to the pandemic; $750 million for tribal families; $100 Read More

A SYSTEMS ISSUE WITH A HEAVY PRICE TAG (WHITE PAPER)   Numerous policymakers have cited the pressing need to reduce the cost and time involved in producing new affordable rental homes in California; as have taxpayers, the media, and stakeholder groups taking a critical look at accountability in this realm. New analysis from the California Housing Partnership (the Partnership) finds that each additional state funding entity involved in the financing of an Read More

At a time when access to affordable homes was already extremely challenging (as described in this recent report by the California Housing Partnership), COVID-19 has devastated California’s low-income communities by taking away incomes and mobility and in some cases, health. The California Housing Partnership thanks Congress for the critical supports provided in the March 25th CARES Act and the Governor and Legislature for their emergency assistance to ensure that households are Read More

In the midst of the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 crisis and the need to focus on immediate responses, it is difficult but essential to recall what else is important to the future of our ability to continue creating high quality affordable homes. One of the most effective tools to our success in building affordable homes has been the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and it is at risk in this very Read More

This week, California Housing Partnership joined affordable housing advocates nationally to thank our members of Congress for supporting the recent 12.5% increase in the 9% Housing Credit program and a 10% increase in the FY 2018 HUD budget. While this omnibus is a much needed boost to offset federal cuts in these programs, as our recent report makes clear, there is still much work ahead of us. Tweet     It Read More

Dear Colleagues:    Below are my highlights from the FY 2018 federal spending bill that was finalized yesterday by Congressional leaders. I am pleased to report that thanks to the heroic efforts of our national advocate allies and several members of our state’s Congressional delegation, there is relatively good news to share:   The bill includes language allowing Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contract (PRAC) properties to convert under RAD, a Read More

The U.S. House of Representatives is negotiating final changes to the March 23rd 2018-19 spending bill as I write, meaning that the last chance to affect the contents of the House proposal, including fixes to problems created by the GOP Tax Bill, is likely TODAY. While the Senate will have a lot to say about what the final spending bill looks like, fixing the House bill is the best way to Read More

Now that the U.S. Senate has approved its own tax reform bill replete with hastily scribbled hand-written notes, which you can read here, Congress has entered the final stage in which the Senate and House will attempt to reconcile differences between their two bills through a conference committee. While significant differences between the two bills remain, all expectations are that they won’t be enough to stop the leaders from the majority Read More

Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) released his modifications to the tax reform bill last night having just added a provision that repeals the Obamacare individual mandate to generate approximately $330 billion in savings over 10 years to pay for the 20% corporate tax rate they are desperately trying to achieve. (Unlike the House, the Senate is bound by the Byrd Rule to demonstrate that the bill will not increase Read More

I am writing you from Washington, D.C. to alert you that there is a time-sensitive effort today being led by Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL-14th), who is co-chair of Congressional Municipal Finance Caucus, to restore Private Activity Bonds in the House tax reform bill, H.R.1.  My October 27th blog described the damage that will be done to California if the Republican House tax reform proposal eliminates tax exempt private activity bonds (PABs) including multifamily housing bonds, thereby Read More

My October 27th blog described the damage that will be done to California if the Republican House tax reform proposal eliminates tax exempt private activity bonds (PABs) including multifamily housing bonds, thereby also eliminating California’s ability to use 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits. Unfortunately, the draft bill released by House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) last week as H.R.1 eliminates PABs and therefore 4% Housing Credits, which I Read More

Saving the Low Income Housing Tax Credit: Now is the Time More than 325,000 lower income California households are currently living in apartments produced and made affordable through federal Low Income Housing TaxCredits (Housing Credits) authorized by Congress 30 years ago. More than 7 million Californians will directly benefit from these affordable apartments over the next 50 years thanks to these federal Housing Credits. After years of talk, the U.S. Senate Read More

The California Housing Partnership Supports State Efforts to Increase Access to Opportunity for Low-Income Families, but Funding Regulations Must Reflect Cost Premium Developers Face in Higher Resource Areas. Low-income families in California, particularly those of color, have for decades faced a landscape of constrained choice when it comes to finding a place to live. Discriminatory policies and land use decisions have restricted these families’ access to high-resource areas that are most Read More

It’s not news that our state has an affordable housing crisis. The California Housing Partnership has consistently documented the shortage of affordable homes in every county of the state and shown that the gap has grown each year. Californians feel the impacts directly, for ourselves, our families, and the people in our communities. It’s also no mystery how we got here. When the state stopped investing in affordable housing for our Read More

Late last week, the White House released President Trump’s so-called “Skinny Budget” for 2018, which proposes cuts of $54 billion to domestic programs including more than $6.2 billion (13%) to HUD programs and likely deep cuts to USDA’s housing programs. In addition to eliminating the valuable Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program ($357 million for California) and making deep cuts to the already underfunded public housing capital and operating funds, the 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 legislation as this year’s SB 873, which was authored by Senator Jim Read More