I am pleased to announce that Tiyesha Watts has joined the California Housing Partnership as our new Associate Director of Policy Advocacy. Tiyesha previously directed government relations strategy for the 11,000-member California Academy of Family Physicians and worked as a legislative aide to former Senator Dr. Richard Pan. Tiyesha holds a bachelor’s in political science from UC Davis and a 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
With the Governor’s signature yesterday on the main state budget bill (a few others remain pending), the Partnership is pleased to summarize the outcomes of this year’s difficult budget process. Facing a budget deficit of more than $45 billion, the Governor and lawmakers made many cuts to affordable housing programs but, importantly, spared those programs most critical to the continued Read More
Interested in a new funding source to support climate-friendly affordable housing? The 2022 federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers potentially billions of dollars toward decarbonization affordable housing in California. Unfortunately, the regulations and timing are different for each program which makes accessing IRA resources challenging. The California Housing Partnership held a series of workshops to provide information about the resources Read More
Dungeons and Dragons, in its most basic form, is a game where players overcome obstacles while on a quest. Players have near endless options when making decisions, and, even though it is imagined, the creative solutions discovered offer insights into solving problems more generally. Teamwork is fundamental. When an obstacle has multiple threats, like a two-headed beast, there are three Read More
Have you ever heard someone say that affordable housing costs too much to build? It’s hard to justify that statement unless we first compare the cost of affordable housing to the cost of private market-rate housing. Until now, we’ve never had public data on the latter, but recently, the Terner Center at UC Berkeley published Making It Pencil: the Math Behind Read More
It seems difficult for many people to escape or deflect the preconceived notion that low-income people or housing dedicated to low-income people will bring “criminal elements” to a neighborhood when much of what they see on TV/online keeps perpetuating these ideas. News media and social media users routinely show images and videos of low-income neighborhoods with dilapidated properties or crimes Read More
California Housing Partnership and UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute Research Helped Shape the City’s New Policy On December 6th, the City Council of San José, CA, adopted a policy to address persistent patterns of segregation and unequal access to neighborhoods where residents experience better life outcomes. The new policy will place more affordable housing in San Jose’s well-resourced neighborhoods 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