Legislative & Regulatory Advocacy - California Housing Partnership

The California Housing Partnership leads and coordinates housing advocacy efforts to increase funding for sustainability and housing production programs creating and preserving more low-income housing in the state, and we facilitate knowledge sharing across housing networks at the state and regional levels. Our efforts include:

Advocacy and technical assistance for COVID-19 response
State and federal policy recommendations
Action alerts and co-sponsorship of bills
Coalition work with advocacy partners

Call for COVID-19 Relief

The Partnership and other housing advocacy organizations statewide urge our Congressional delegation for bold leadership in service of the thousands of low-income Californians at risk of eviction, displacement or homelessness from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. This includes:

Rent relief measures such as those in the proposed Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act
Action items from our state and federal advocacy and coalition partners (resources below)

Visit our COVID-19 Response page for additional information.

Policy Recommendations

2020 State Recommendations
2020 Federal Recommendations

2020 State Recommendations

Streamline Department of Housing and Community Development rental housing funding programs through a single application and award process to reduce development costs.
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.
Create a new Affordable Housing Preservation Tax Credit to preserve existing affordable housing at risk of conversion and to fight displacement pressures.
Allow affordable housing to be built by right on land currently zoned for commercial or public uses and on church-owned lands.
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.
Exempt supportive housing and affordable housing funded by MHP, HOME or CDBG from CEQA reviews.

2020 Federal Recommendations

The California Housing Partnership urges Congress to:

1) Support HR 2, the Moving Forward Act of 2020, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package that would expand and improve California’s access to tax-exempt bond and Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) financing, and includes $100 billion to construct and preserve 1.8 million affordable homes.

2) Support the HEROES Act, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act of 2020, which responds to the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses.

3) Support the House-proposed HUD FY2021 appropriations levels to ensure adequate funding to vital federal housing programs as well as critical additional investments in housing infrastructure in response to COVID-19.

4) Support the 2020 Disasters Tax Relief Act to provide tax relief to individuals, businesses and states affected by catastrophic wildfires and other presidentially-declared disasters in 2020.

Action Alerts

State: Active Bills

Co-Sponsored by the California Housing Partnership in 2020

Please take action today to put the sample letter(s) for each bill on your letterhead, upload each letter to the Legislature’s Position Letter Portal, and send copies to mstivers@chpc.net.

AB 434 | Streamlining HCD Rental Housing Programs into a Single Application and Award Process (Author: Daly)
Harmonizes the statutes relating to the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP) and seven special purpose rental housing programs so that HCD can use a single application and scoring system to make coordinated awards for all eight programs at one time while maintaining the special intent of each original program

AB 434 CA.gov Legislative Information
AB 434 Fact Sheet (PDF)
AB 434 Sample Comment Letter (Word document) – June 2020
AB 434 Sample Comment Letter to Governor (Word document) – September 2020

Federal: Disaster Relief

Please take action today to express your interest in this legislation to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Mike Thompson and Rep. Jimmy Panetta.

2020 Disasters Tax Relief Act (Author: Wyden)
Among other measures, the bill increases the state credit ceiling for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) for 2021 to provide for additional projects within 2020 disaster areas. The increase is equal to the credits allocated to projects in disaster areas, up to 50 percent of the state’s total 2020 credit allocation.

California Affordable Housing Partners

The Partnership works with a coalition of housing advocacy organizations statewide (CAHP) representing diverse geographies and populations. Please visit their websites for more policy solutions: