This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

• HCD released its new, updated Statewide Housing Plan this week, outlining a path forward to meeting the state’s goal of producing at least 2.5 million new homes in the next RHNA cycle—including 1 million homes targeted for lower-income households. “It is imperative that we utilize every resource to get the housing we need for our state’s residents,” said HCD director Gustavo Velasquez said. The state’s new plan features an array of digital, interactive tools affordable housing developers can use to track everything from site availability to funding resources. HCD also acknowledged contributions from CHC representatives for shaping the final plan.

• “Is California souring on CEQA?” That was the headline of a CalMatters report this week on a state Supreme Court decision that will require UC Berkeley to cut enrollment by 3,000 students this fall as a result of an environmental lawsuit brought by neighbors opposed to new housing in the city. “This is against everything we stand for—new pathways to success, attracting tomorrow’s leaders, making college more affordable,” Governor Newsom said this week. “UC’s incoming freshman class is the most diverse ever but now thousands of dreams will be dashed to keep a failing status quo.” Affordable housing projects have been delayed for years by similar NIMBY lawsuits, but the Legislature has been unable to tighten the law’s provisions to allow much-needed housing to be built . Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced a bill, SB 886, that would exempt the state’s public universities from conducting CEQA reviews on new faculty or student housing.

• Only 16% of the nearly 500,000 renters who have applied for rent relief through the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program have received their payments, according to a new analysis from the National Equity Atlas. The majority of applicants—289,000 households—are still waiting for their applications to be reviewed, with the median wait time at 135 days. State legislators have been in a ‘wait and see’ posture with this program, but this analysis shows that it’s time for them to act and shift current policies,” said Francisco Dueñas, Executive Director of Housing NOW, which partnered on the report with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. HCD spokesperson Monica Hernández disputed the report’s findings, saying of the 467,000 complete applications to date, 191,000 payments—or 41%–have been made. HCD told CalMatters that a February budget bill allocating General Fund dollars to state and local rent relief programs “means that every eligible applicant seeking assistance for eligible costs submitted and incurred on or before March 31, 2022, will be assisted.” The state’s remaining eviction protections are set to expire on the following day.

ICYMI – Top news stories:
Gov. Newsom announces plan to overhaul California’s mental health care
San Jose Mercury News
In a bold new effort to combat homelessness, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration plans to overhaul a behavioral health system that for years has failed thousands of Californians with severe mental illness, leaving many to cycle in and out of jail or hospitals and languish on the streets. The centerpiece of Newsom’s proposal is a system of court-ordered mental health care for people suffering from psychosis who have lost their ability to care for themselves. It would bring them before a judge, who could place them in a mandated treatment plan that would include psychiatric treatment, medication and housing. Counties would be required to provide the treatment ordered. 

California counted its homeless population, but can it track the money?CalMatters
California last tallied its homeless population in January 2020, and found at least 161,000 people without a roof over their heads on any given night. As new homelessness numbers trickle in over the summer—two years into the deadliest pandemic in a century—experts believe the data will help illustrate the reality Californians can no longer ignore: Homelessness has reached a tipping point. But if tracking data on how many people are homeless is difficult, tracking the payoff from billions of dollars the state is now spending to help them is even more challenging. “I know (the governor) is frustrated, I know the Legislature is frustrated, the public is frustrated,” Assembly Budget Chairperson Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, said during a recent hearing. “We have appropriated billions and billions of dollars to this issue. And it’s not clear where we’ve made progress.”

California is overlooking this vast supply of public land for affordable housing
Sacramento Bee – Oped by Asm. Cristina Garcia
California’s public golf courses have a role to play in delivering affordable housing. Cities are scrambling to find adequate sites to fulfill their legal obligation to plan for sufficient housing. In California communities where housing costs are high and jobs are plentiful, golf course redevelopment offers a unique opportunity to create mixed-income communities with more housing options than most cities currently offer. Assembly Bill 1910 would establish a grant program to provide incentives to local governments that make publicly owned golf courses available for housing and publicly accessible open spaces. This bill expands the options that local governments have should they decide to convert a public golf course to housing.