COVID-19 Affordable Housing Finance Resources
Technical Assistance, Resources & Training |
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Statewide Research & Coalition Work |
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LENDER/INVESTOR PANEL SERIES The California Housing Partnership is hosting a series of webinars on the financial and operational impacts of COVID-19 on lending and investing in the multifamily affordable housing sector. The first virtual lender/investor panel, cohosted with NPH and sponsored by other regional and state partners, covered an overview of developments in construction, in operations and in the pipeline (presentation slide deck) and took place on April 30th. More to come on additional webinars in the series.
We are continuing to provide housing finance technical assistance to partners statewide who are struggling to maintain production schedules in the midst of the turmoil in the financial and construction markets caused by COVID-19. These partners remain dedicated to the ongoing construction and preservation of affordable housing, an essential service.
In June, the Partnership launched a new interactive “Housing Needs Dashboard” online to enable policymakers, planners, affordable housing providers, and advocates access to interactive data charts and exportable reports on statewide and county-level affordable housing metrics and indicators:
Visit the dashboard using the “Data Tools” quick link at the top right of our website. |
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CALL FOR COVID-19 REGULATORY RELIEF The California Housing Partnership and other housing organizations from across the state have been advocating with our Congressional delegation for the federal policy recommendations described below, including rent relief measures such as those in the proposed Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act. The coalition also sent a letter to the Governor’s Office in early April detailing immediate actions necessary to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 on affordable housing developments in California.
Given the needs of very low-income families no longer able to pay rent and in danger of becoming homeless or displaced once the eviction moratorium ends, the Partnership is working with the California Housing Consortium to support the broader “Keep California Housed” initiative. In April, the Partnership provided the Governor’s Office with an initial proposed program “Keeping California’s Homeless Housed” to support long-term housing solutions for formerly homeless individuals and families that are being moved into hotel rooms and other short-term housing during the pandemic.
The Partnership’s Research Team is modeling scenarios to develop preliminary estimates of the impacts that COVID-19 income and rent reductions may have not just on tenants but also on the financial stability of the state’s portfolio of 380,000 existing affordable LIHTC homes. Read more: California Affordable Housing Providers Face Potential $1.7 Billion COVID-19 Loss This research is derived primarily from our unique database of federal and state-assisted existing affordable housing in California (Affordable Rental Housing Benefits Map). It is supported by a grant from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. |
Policy Recommendations
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2020 State Recommendations
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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.
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