This week in affordable housing news…:

State update:

• One of this year’s CHC-sponsored bills, AB 215 (Chiu), was highlighted as a critical part of the new state “Housing Strike Force” announced this week by Attorney General Rob Bonta. The new Strike Force, housed in the Department of Justice, will ramp up enforcement of state housing laws. “California is facing a housing shortage and affordability crisis of epic proportion,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Every day, millions of Californians worry about keeping a roof over their head, and there are too many across this state who lack housing altogether. Our Housing Strike Force … will allow DOJ to ramp up our efforts to tackle this crisis.” The Attorney General highlighted AB 215 for providing his office with the authority it needs to establish and operate the new Strike Force. CHC called this week’s announcement “a major step forward for affordable housing in California.”

• The San Francisco Board of Supervisors continue to attract attention from state lawmakers after their vote last week to reject a proposed 495-unit apartment building in a Nordstrom parking lot. The project, which included 100 units of affordable housing, was sent back to the “drawing board,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, even after it won approval from the city Planning Commission, with supervisors citing concerns about gentrification, shadows, and seismic safety. “The reason that you see state-level policy is because of situations exactly like this,” said Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland. “We should be rallying around this type of project.”

• Two new reports from the Terner Center this week demonstrate the potential for building more affordable housing on commercial land—an idea considered in the Legislature this year during debates over AB 115 (Bloom) and SB 6 (Caballero). After mapping commercial land development in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento, Terner found less than 1% of commercial land was converted to residential use between 2014 and 2019, but commercial conversions contributed significantly to the overall supply of housing—providing sites for 13.8% of new housing in LA County and 8.5% in the Bay Area. Overall, during the five-year period, 38,000 homes were built on commercially zoned land across the state’s four major metro areas. To expand production, Terner suggests local jurisdictions should create zoning overlays and reform zoning codes to allow for more multi-family residential development on commercial sites. 

Federal update:

• The Build Back Better legislation was amended this week to incorporate several major Low Income Housing Tax Credit provisions, which had been removed from previous versions of the bill. The current legislation now includes $12 billion for the Housing Credit, including several major reforms sought by housing advocates: Lowering the bond-financing threshold from 50% to 25 percent for five years, increasing the annual Housing Credit allocation and tying it to inflation, and providing a permanent 50% basis boost for properties serving extremely low-income households. AHTCC has a helpful summary of the bill here.

• The House is expected to vote on the $1.9 trillion Build Back Better legislation and $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill later today, though some House moderates continue to seek a delay. Prospects for Build Back Better remain uncertain in the Senate, after House Democrats added provisions on paid family leave and other issues that have been previously rejected by key moderates, including Senate Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia).

ICYMI – Top news stories:

California to get tough for new housing and hold local governments accountable
CalMatters – Oped by Gustavo Velasquez
The California Dream is threatened by a housing supply shortage that has resulted in exorbitant housing costs and far too many people living on the streets. In the past few years, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature established new laws and regulatory streamlining to move Californians from homeless, to housed, to homeowners. But one fact remains: local jurisdictions hold the keys to approve how much, how fast and where housing is developed. So our challenge now: placing an even greater emphasis on making sure local governments are approving housing, and at a much, much faster clip than they ever have before, and enforcing housing laws on the books whenever necessary.

California’s top housing officials share their vision for affordability and accountability
CalMatters & Los Angeles Times
In this special edition of the California Housing Crisis Podcast, Liam Dillon and Manuela Tobias interview Lourdes Castro Ramírez, secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency; Gustavo Velasquez, director of the California Department of Housing & Community Development; and Tiena Johnson Hall, executive director of California’s Housing Finance Agency. They each weighed in on the most controversial issues dominating the California housing crisis debate—including rent control, Proposition 13, and building market rate homes in low-income neighborhoods—and provided some insights into what their agencies are working on to address housing affordability.

L.A. just changed its entire approach to homelessness. Does it place politics above need?
Los Angeles Times
The city of Los Angeles has undertaken a major shift in its approach to homelessness, one that puts a priority on clearing unsightly street encampments even when insufficient permanent housing exists for the people being moved. In the past month, City Council members have identified nearly 300 locations where they would like to ban camping under a new law that was passed in August. There is widespread agreement that the street encampments, which have spread from skid row to almost all parts of the city, are unsafe, unsanitary and inhumane, reflecting a profound societal failure. But there is also a concern that the change in policy elevates politics over need, creating a squeaky-wheel strategy of clearing those street encampments that have become the biggest liabilities to members of the City Council.