Preservation

Fast Facts

• 42% of all Californians rent their homes.
• Profile of households living in affordable housing in California:
• – Nearly 80% of households include an elderly person
• – 20% struggle with physical and/or mental disabilities
• – 32% are families with children
• Nearly 1 million low-income households do not have access to available, affordable rental housing.

Housing at Risk

The shortage of affordable homes in California cannot be reversed by new construction alone; we must ensure existing affordable homes remain affordable to those who need them most. CHPC estimates that 57,000 of the existing federally subsidized affordable APARTMENTS in California are at risk of conversion to market rate in the next five years. CHPC works in several ways to make sure these homes remain affordable to low-income Californians.

Read the full CHPC report, “2014 Statewide At-Risk Summary”

Clearinghouse

CHPC’s Preservation Clearinghouse is the state’s most comprehensive source of information on subsidized affordable housing at risk of losing its affordable status and converting to market-rate housing. CHPC maintains the only comprehensive database of all HUD subsidized properties, USDA Section 515 rural properties, and properties financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits in California. CHPC uses the database to identify affordable properties that are at risk and should be targeted for preservation.

Local Preservation Strategies

CHPC works to uncover regional trends and to engage with local governments, nonprofit developers, tenant advocates and other partners to develop local preservation strategies. Click here to learn about these efforts.

Advocacy

The Preservation Program is building a voice for California’s affordable housing industry in state and national policy debates. CHPC is an active member of the National Preservation Working Group, which has developed a federal policy platform of new strategies and solutions to preserve affordable housing. Closer to home, CHPC serves as facilitator of the California Preservation Working Group, which is comprised of affordable housing advocates, including legal and tenant organizations, that work on local, state and national preservation issues.

Newsletter

CHPC publishes the monthly e-newsletter Housing Preservation News, which provides information to readers on preservation policy, legislation and strategies as well as case studies of preservation properties.

Sign up here to receive Housing Preservation News once a month.

For more information on CHPC’s Preservation Program, contact: James Pappas, Housing Policy and Preservation Associate, at (415) 433-6804, ext. 320, orjpappas@chpc.net

2021 State Recommendations

The California Housing Partnership urges state leaders to:

Adopt California’s Roadmap Home 2030 – a comprehensive framework of equity-centered, evidence-based policy solutions to create structural change in how California addresses housing and homelessness over the next decade, with clear mileposts for success.

In 2021, the Partnership urges state leaders to take the following specific actions:

1. Make permanent the $500 million annual increase to the California Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program to jump-start affordable housing production and provide an additional $100 million annually to rehabilitate existing affordable rental properties.
2. Create a new Affordable Housing Preservation Tax Credit to preserve existing affordable housing at risk of conversion and to fight displacement pressures.
3. Allow affordable housing to be built by right on land currently zoned for commercial or public uses and on church-owned lands. 
4. Streamline all state financing sources for rental housing funding programs through a single application and award process to reduce development costs.
5. Reduce the threshold for voter approval of local funding of affordable housing and infrastructure from 67% to 55% as was done for educational facilities in 2000. 
6. Exempt supportive housing and affordable housing from CEQA reviews.

Please visit roadmaphome2030.org/solutions for additional state policy recommendations.

Affordable Housing Need

• Housing Tenure Trends
• Gap Analysis
• Cost Burden Analysis
• Overcrowding Analysis
• Homelessness Analysis

Affordable Rental Housing Inventory & Risk Assessment

• Inventory of federal and state-administered affordable rental housing (county-level if provided by jurisdictional partner)
• Federal and state-assisted homes at risk of losing affordability
• Unsubsidized affordable housing inventory

AFFH & Displacement

• Neighborhood Resources and Opportunity
• Transit Access
• Displacement Risk
• Affordable Housing Siting Plans and Strategies

Development Costs

• Development Cost Analysis

Affordable Housing Financing & Policy Strategies

• Increasing funding for affordable housing
• Ensuring viability of existing affordable housing properties
• Increasing availability of sites for affordable housing
• Supporting innovative and cost-saving strategies
• Increasing tenant protections and strengthening state and federal advocacy