California’s ability to address our housing crisis is increasingly being hurt by high development costs including those caused by the state’s fragmented affordable housing finance system. New research from the California Housing Partnership finds that the impact of the current system on affordable housing providers applying to multiple state agencies adds $25,351 per home. Governor Newsom’s January budget proposal offers a solution: consolidate the state affordable housing funding allocations into a “one-stop shop” Housing Development and Financing Committee and save an average of $42,336 per new affordable home. The Partnership finds that by adopting the Governor’s proposal, the state could save an estimated $439 million annually—enough to build roughly 2,300 additional affordable homes each year.
Read more for the detailed findings and study methodology.