Legislative & Regulatory Advocacy - California Housing Partnership

The California Housing Partnership leads and coordinates regulatory and legislative 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

ACTION ALERTS LEGISLATIONADVOCACY PARTNERS

Policy Recommendations

2021 State Recommendations
2021 Federal Recommendations

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:

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.
Streamline all state financing sources for rental housing funding programs through a single application and award process to reduce development costs.
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 from CEQA reviews.

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

2021 Federal Recommendations

The California Housing Partnership urges Congress to:

1) Cosponsor and enact the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) of 2021, S. 1136 and H.R. 2573:

CA Fact Sheet
A.C.T.I.O.N. Toolkit
117^th Congress AHCIA Cosponsors (updated 4/16/2021)

2) Advance bold housing solutions that move our nation towards universal, stable, and affordable homes for everyone; advance anti-racist policies; and achieve the large-scale, sustained investments and reforms necessary to ensure that renters with the lowest incomes have an affordable place to call home — by learning about NLIHC’s HoUSed USA national campaign priorities for major housing investments in the American Jobs Plan Act and other legislation that advances the HoUSed campaign’s policy agenda to:

Bridge the gap between incomes and housing costs by expanding rental assistance to every eligible household. Today, only one in four households eligible for rental assistance receives it.
Expand and preserve the supply of rental homes affordable and accessible to people with the lowest incomes. There is no state or congressional district in America with enough supply of affordable housing for families with the lowest incomes.
Provide emergency rental assistance to households in crisis by creating a national housing stabilization fund. Millions of households are one financial shock away from economic hardship that could quickly spiral out of control.
Strengthen and enforce renter protections. The power imbalance between renters and landlords puts renters at risk of housing instability and homelessness.

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:

Passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a spending bill to ensure housing benefits for millions of low-income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, veterans and other individuals afford their homes, among other domestic emergency measures
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.

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: