This week in affordable housing news…:

Top news stories:

Will Newsom’s new mental health plan reduce homelessness?
Gimme Shelter Podcast: Los Angeles Times & CalMatters
Later this year, Los Angeles and seven other counties will inaugurate Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new plan to address severe mental illness by compelling treatment for people who are in serious crisis—one of his signature efforts to fight homelessness. On this episode, reporters from the Los Angeles Times and CalMatters discuss how the program, known as CARE Court, is supposed to work, how it may affect the homeless population, and concerns from civil rights activists about its operation. They are joined by Dr. Veronica Kelley, director of behavioral health services for Orange County, who is in charge of that county’s implementation of the program.

San Diego declares ‘housing as a human right’ but does it mean anything legally?
San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to declare housing as a human right. San Diego’s resolution states housing is a “fundamental human right and reaffirms its commitment to providing more housing and services geared toward putting a roof over the head of every San Diegan.” Madison, Wis., made a similar declaration in 2011—making it likely San Diego is only the second, or at least part of a small minority of American cities, to put into writing that housing is a right. “I am opting for a future where everyone deserves a home,” said council President Sean Elo-Rivera. “This resolution is an important first step. The status quo in San Diego isn’t working, in California, or in America, for that matter.”

S.F. leaders don’t always agree on housing but plan to build 82,000 new homes got unanimous OK. Here’s why.
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco supervisors on Tuesday signed off on a state-mandated roadmap that details how the city intends to get 82,000 new homes built over the next eight years. The Board of Supervisors approved the plan, known formally as a housing element, in a unanimous vote that united the legislative body’s political factions. It’s an ambitious plan that would require the city to build 10,000 housing units each year—twice as many as it has built in its most prolific years and about four times as much as it has averaged over the past two decades. More than half of the 82,000 homes must be affordable to low- and moderate-income households. All 11 supervisors voted in favor of the plan without making any comments.

A powerful nonprofit owns apartments for poor tenants. Why are some tenants trapped in their rooms?
Los Angeles Times
For six days Richard Dever sat in his tiny fifth-floor apartment on skid row, desperate for some fresh air. But the elevator at the Madison Hotel was broken again, and Dever, 82, could not make it down the stairs. Gaunt and short of breath from lung disease, Dever hunched on the edge of the bed, his mood darkening by the day. “What bothers me is that I cannot get out like everybody else and enjoy the world,” Dever said on the second day of his confinement. The nearly weeklong failure in December was the third time in just over a month that the Madison’s elevator was out of service for multiple days, Dever and other tenants said. The building’s owner is one of the nation’s most prominent crusaders against bad landlords: the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

L.A. County extends eviction moratorium by 2 months
Los Angeles Times
With Los Angeles County’s pandemic eviction moratorium set to lapse in days, the Board of Supervisors has voted to extend the countywide renters protections once more. The moratorium will now expire at the end of March. This, county leaders say, will be the last time they push the end date. The moratorium, first put in place at the coronavirus pandemic’s outset, was initially set to end Jan 31. With some on the board still worried about the lingering financial impacts of the pandemic, county leaders voted Tuesday to extend the countywide moratorium, which prevents landlords from evicting low-income tenants who say they were financially harmed by COVID-19 and can’t pay rent.