California has a reputation for being at the vanguard of environmentalism and climate change. The state’s creation of the Cap-and-Trade Program is a prime example. It sets limits on the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and uses market forces to achieve those limits in the most cost effective way. The proceeds from the sale of emission licenses are then invested Read More
The California Housing Partnership and the nonprofit and local government housing agencies we work with are among the biggest users of the state’s affordable housing finance programs and know all too well the delays, costs, and inefficiencies of the current fractured system. New research by the Partnership has now put a price tag to those inefficiencies. Using a comprehensive multiple Read More
A little known schedule of estimated utility costs paid by renters and published by public housing authorities (PHAs) is threatening California’s progress in decarbonizing affordable rental housing, a goal that is important not only because of its climate benefits but also because of the need to lower renter utility costs. Utility allowances, or UAs as we call them, are supposed Read More
Proposition 5 on California’s November 2024 statewide ballot would set the voter threshold to approve local general obligation (GO) bonds for public infrastructure and affordable housing investments at 55%, provided those bonds include strong accountability and transparency requirements. The same was done for school bonds when voters approved Proposition 39 in 2000. The California Housing Partnership cares about this measure Read More
Proponents of California Proposition 36, which would undo many of the reforms brought by voter approval of Proposition 47 in 2014, are claiming that voter approval of this new measure would reduce homelessness in our state. As a Sociologist with the California Housing Partnership, I can tell you these claims are patently false. Here’s why: What Did Proposition 47 Do Read More
While state leaders ultimately decided not to approve any new long-term funding for affordable housing production this year beyond the narrowly-focused resources included in Proposition 1 approved by voters in March, they did pass more than a dozen laws that should be helpful to affordable housing providers and low-income renters to varying degrees in the coming years. The California Housing Read More
This blog post and related research were prepared for the California Housing Partnership by undergraduate students at Stanford University as part of the Program on Urban Studies community engaged learning course “Gentrification.” Students learn about this complicated topic in class and through engaging in a real-world project with partner organizations including Faith in Action Bay Area, Silicon Valley at Home Read More
Earlier this month, California’s Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) released the final Neighborhood Change Map, which is intended to inform statewide policy for affordable housing and advance affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) objectives. The Neighborhood Change Map identifies low- and moderate-income communities of color that have undergone substantial racial/ethnic and economic changes. This map signals that the State Read More
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 Read More
As California’s housing crisis has deepened in recent years, more and more families have been affected, leading some state and local leaders to consider investing scarce resources to help the households earning at (or even above) the area median income (AMI). But what does the data show concerning the ability of households at each income level to afford market rents Read More