In affordable housing news this week, CHC’s sponsored bill, AB 1763 by Assemblymember David Chiu (D- San Francisco), was advanced by the Senate Governance & Finance Committee! This bill, the biggest legislative proposal remaining this year to increase affordable housing production, will reduce barriers to building 100% affordable developments—and help reduce the costs of affordable projects. After passing the Assembly 72-0 in May and getting only one no vote in four policy committee hearings, the legislation is headed to the Senate Appropriations Committee in August before going to the full Senate for a floor vote.
STATE HOUSING POLICIES
Rent control bill struggles in California Legislature
San Francisco Chronicle
Lawmakers and landlords are haggling over how much California housing to carve out of a tenant protection bill that would cap rent increases and require a just cause for evictions. Although it passed in the state Senate Judiciary Committee late Tuesday, AB1482 faces continued opposition from groups representing apartment owners, developers and real estate agents that could sink the measure in the final weeks of the legislative session. The proposal has struggled to win support from legislators amid concerns that imposing new restrictions on landlords would discourage housing construction during a historic shortage. AB1482 narrowly passed the Assembly in May, only after proponents reached a last-minute agreement with the California Association of Realtors to scale down the bill.
Prop. 13 reform headed to California ballot could swamp counties
San Francisco Chronicle
Progressives are excited about an initiative to change Proposition 13 that could generate billions of dollars every year for schools and local government — and it’s already qualified for the November 2020 ballot. The California Democratic Party backs the idea, and so do 54% of likely voters, according to an April survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. All it would take to unleash that new waterfall of tax revenue would be to reassess commercial and industrial properties in California every three years instead of whenever they are sold. But that may not be as easy as it sounds. Assessing the estimated 642,502 commercial properties that would be eligible for an adjustment in California would be a logistical and legal nightmare, and the state might not see much more than a trickle of new revenue for years, say the people who would have to do the grunt work: county assessors.
NATIONAL HOUSING POLICIES
Thousands of Families Could Lose Housing in California Under Trump Proposal
KQED
A federal plan to deny public housing and rental aid programs to households that include an ineligible immigrant could leave thousands of families homeless in California. Nationwide, 70% of people who would be impacted by the proposed rule change are U.S. citizens or lawful residents — often children with parents who are undocumented immigrants, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A period of public comment on the change ends Tuesday night. Overall, the agency estimates that 25,000 families could lose their housing across the country; the largest share of those — 37% , or 9,250— live in California. In Los Angeles, that translates into 11,500 people who could be left without a home — the most of any city in the country, local housing authorities say.
STATE POLITICS
Prop. 13 reform headed to California ballot could swamp counties
San Francisco Chronicle
Progressives are excited about an initiative to change Proposition 13 that could generate billions of dollars every year for schools and local government — and it’s already qualified for the November 2020 ballot. The California Democratic Party backs the idea, and so do 54% of likely voters, according to an April survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. All it would take to unleash that new waterfall of tax revenue would be to reassess commercial and industrial properties in California every three years instead of whenever they are sold. But that may not be as easy as it sounds. Assessing the estimated 642,502 commercial properties that would be eligible for an adjustment in California would be a logistical and legal nightmare, and the state might not see much more than a trickle of new revenue for years, say the people who would have to do the grunt work: county assessors.
HOUSING CRISIS
Bay Area renters looking to flee high prices aren’t looking far
Mercury News
When San Jose renters are looking to get out, they turn to San Francisco and the East Bay. And when San Francisco metro dwellers want to flee, they look to San Jose. An analysis released this month by Apartment List found Bay Area renters looking to move are searching other local cities far more often than out-of-state tech hubs like Seattle, Portland or Austin, Tex. Apartment List economist Chris Salviati said the analysis, based on more than a million online searches across the country, gives a strong signal about where renters want to move. Bay Area renters, he said, mostly want to stay in the Bay Area. “There’s certainly turnover, and there’s certainly folks looking to leave,” he said. But, he added, most often high rents are “driving people more to the outer limits of the region.”
Long Beach Press-Telegram
Mary Zendejas needed to leave her home. She’d had a good run. For a decade she’d cultivated a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment into a place she could call home. But eventually, the realities of renting – of her home not really being hers – arrived, as it has for so many others in this apartment-strapped city of 500,000 residents: Her rent shot up from $640 a month to $1,025. Zendejas, who works for a medical-supplies company, had to apartment hunt for the first time in years. But she had certain requirements for a future residence, which made finding a place tough: She needed a ground-floor unit or a place with an elevator. A parking spot close to her front-door would be ideal. Her bathroom door needed to be wider than usual.
HOMELESSNESS
Condos may be coming to skid row — but not for the homeless
Los Angeles Times
Apartments and condominiums for the middle class could be coming to skid row, under a rezoning plan unveiled Tuesday. But skid row advocates warn the plan, currently in draft form, would displace many of the approximately 4,000 homeless people living in the blighted downtown area, or leave them in the streets. The plan, more than a year in the making, still must withstand further review before going before the L.A. City Council for approval next year. It would convert parts of skid row and the adjoining fashion and arts districts from warehouse and industrial uses to residential. If approved and implemented, 100,000 new housing units could be built by 2040, accommodating 176,000 new residents. Downtown currently has 76,000 residents, up from about 18,000 two decades ago.
Editorial: Sacramento’s homeless population is rising. Are we doing enough to solve the crisis?
Sacramento Bee
There’s no sugarcoating it: Sacramento’s homeless crisis is getting worse. The number of homeless people in Sacramento County has surged by at least 19 percent over the past two years, according to a federally mandated point-in-time survey conducted by Sacramento Steps Forward. That’s a total of 5,570 homeless people, around 3,900 of whom are living unsheltered, according to a story by The Sacramento Bee’s Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks and Theresa Clift. The count, which is conducted every two years, found a total of 1,905 more human beings living homeless in Sacramento County. This year’s survey covered a lot more ground than previous ones. Sacramento Steps Forward deployed triple the number of volunteers while doubling the size of the area covered.