It was an exciting week for the California Housing Consortium! Our Executive Director, Ray Pearl, received a Housing Visionary Award at the National Housing Conference’s 47th annual “Housing Oscars” in Washington D.C. Ray received the award – for “significant contributions toward advancing affordable housing” – along with the fellow co-chairs of the 2018 Proposition 1 & 2 Ballot Initiative Team, including Lisa Hershey, Executive Director of Housing California, Carl Guardino, President and CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and Cesar Diaz, Legislative and Political Director of the California Building Trades Council. We were proud to be there!
We’re also excited to share that Ray was elected to serve as the president and chair of the board for another D.C.-based affordable housing group – the Council of Independent State Housing Associations (CISHA). CHC supported efforts in 2015 to create CISHA, which reinforces state initiatives to support the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and other policies. As Ray put it when the news was announced earlier this week: “I’m excited by the opportunity to serve CISHA, an organization that has demonstrated its ability to amplify the voices of state affordable housing advocates – and that has an important role to play in strengthening funding for the housing tax credit program.” (On that note, a new version of the national Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act was introduced this week, with provisions that could boost production of affordable housing nationally by more than 500,000 units over the next 10 years.)
Back in California, the biggest news this week came from the Public Policy Institute of California, which released a survey finding a “strong majority” of adults (62%) want to create more affordable housing near transit and job centers—the central idea behind AB 1763 (Chiu), a CHC-sponsored bill to remove obstacles to producing 100% affordable developments near transit. The new poll found this increasingly positive outlook on affordable housing all over the state, with at least 60% of voters in every region saying they favor state government proposals that would lead to more multi-family housing in transit areas.
STATE HOUSING POLICIES
6 in 10 Californians want to end single-family-only zoning near transit and jobs, poll says
Los Angeles Times
A strong majority of Californians want the state to force local governments to allow apartments in single-family-home neighborhoods near transit and jobs, according to a new statewide poll. The survey from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released Wednesday found that 62% of adults surveyed were in favor of requiring cities and counties to permit apartment construction in communities that now comprise only single-family homes if they’re near rail stations or clusters of jobs. The question mirrored the policy proposed in Senate Bill 50, now-shelved state legislation that would have allowed for four- to five-story apartments near mass transit and four or more homes on parcels of land in single-family home neighborhoods.
California has housing crisis, Legislature has no fix yet
Associated Press
Crisis. Emergency. California lawmakers are describing the state’s housing crunch in dire terms. But few seem to agree on what to do about it. The political wrangling over the last few weeks around bills to cap rent increases, set new rules for evictions and cut red tape to build more housing reveal big splits in the Legislature when it comes to one of the most pressing issues of the session. All of it comes even after Democrats expanded their majorities in the Senate and Assembly during the 2018 election while also watching a new governor from their own party ride to office pledging that California would build millions of new housing units. Randy Shaw, a longtime housing activist in San Francisco, is among those who believe Gov. Gavin Newsom must get more involved to follow through on his pledges of building new housing and curbing homelessness.
Developers and unions “not close” on deal to spur housing construction
CALmatters
In January, two of the biggest adversaries in California housing politics appeared on the verge of detente. California developers and the construction unions that build their homes were reportedly near a deal that both sides hoped would unleash a bounty of homebuilding across the state. Developers would agree to employ more unionized carpenters, plumbers and other skilled craft workers on more housing projects at higher wages. And in exchange, construction unions would push for a more streamlined housing approval process yearned for by developers for decades. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration was involved in the negotiations, hoping a deal could spur construction of the 3.5 million new homes Newsom is hoping to build by 2025 to alleviate the state’s housing shortage.
Opinion: California lawmakers seem to think our housing crisis can wait. It can’t
CALmatters
California’s lawmakers continue to ignore the root cause of the housing crisis, one of the most serious threats to our state’s future. The Assembly last week approved a rent cap, sending the measure to the Senate for its consideration. While this would provide short-term relief for tenants, the legislation would do nothing to address what’s increasing rents in the first place: the lack of housing supply. On behalf of the California Association of Realtors and its 200,000 members, I am disappointed in the lack of focus on increasing the housing supply.
HOUSING CRISIS
Bay Area housing crisis pushes millennials back home with mom and dad
Mercury News
An empty nest isn’t in the cards for everyone. One San Francisco mother, Darcie, had a full house even before her 24-year-old son, Brendan, moved back home. But now she has a built-in babysitter for her two youngest children, who are seven and four. “People say I’m very chill and I’ve got a lot of patience as a parent, but in reality, I’m just exhausted,” said the mother of three who lives in San Francisco. “It’s nice to have all hands on deck.” As housing costs soar in the Bay Area, more millennials are living with mom and dad. In the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas, more than a fifth of young adults between the ages of 23 and 37 lived with their parents in 2017, according to a Zillow analysis of U.S. Census data, increasing 65 percent in San Francisco and 56 percent in San Jose since 2005. The growth is striking, Zillow noted, because young adults are living at home even as the economy booms and unemployment rates are low.
What It’s Like to Live in an RV and Work in Silicon Valley, But Call Fresno Home
KQED
Throughout the Bay Area, you can find RVs and campervans regularly parked along the road in many communities, as sky-high housing costs push some people into creative living situations. Over the past couple of years, this phenomenon has taken off. In the course of my own daily living on the Bay Area’s Peninsula, I’ve watched the number of those living in RVs ebb and flow. In Mountain View, where some Google staff live right off the campus in campervans, the Silicon Valley city has banned RVs from parking overnight on public streets (the ban has yet to take effect), Bloomberg reported, as has the city of Berkeley.
People Living In Vehicles Call New San Diego Law Prohibiting It Unfair
KPBS
In San Diego it is now illegal to live out of a vehicle. The law was passed with the idea that people can go to city funded “safe parking” lots to sleep overnight — but while some people are looking to get out of their vehicles, others are not. Paul Grasso said he has been living out of his van for the last year in San Diego. “It’s a lifestyle for some,” Grasso said. “Some chose it, but I’m just traveling and I got kind of stuck in this for a little bit — I can’t afford rent.” Grasso sleeps in his car in Ocean Beach. He said he cannot afford renting a place on his disability income. “You’re living off $1,000 a month, you can’t rent a one bedroom for $1,000 a month so — what are you to do?” He said living out of a van is not easy.
TENEANT PROTECTION
Alameda’s new ban on ‘no-cause’ evictions praised
Mercury News
Alameda renters now have an extra safeguard to help them stay in their homes after the City Council voted that landlords cannot evict tenants without a specific reason, aka a “no-cause” eviction. A tenants-rights advocate called the council’s decision “a milestone in the renters’ struggle” in Alameda. “In a democracy, there have to be housing rights and people have to be protected,” said Laura Thomas of Renewed Hope Housing Advocates, an Alameda group that campaigns to make housing more accessible. “That’s what’s fair, and that’s what’s just,” Thomas told the council at a recent meeting. Only Councilman Tony Daysog voted against amending the ordinance to eliminate “no-cause” evictions, saying he wanted an exemption for landlords who live at smaller properties with their tenants, such as those in duplexes or triplexes.
FEDERAL HOUSING POLICIES
Californians’ rents could go up under Kamala Harris’ housing plan
Sacramento Bee
California senator and 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris says she has a plan to help Americans struggling to keep up with skyrocketing rents. But in California, where housing scarcity is driving an affordability crisis, experts warn that Harris’ proposal could have the unintended consequence of increasing rents for everyone. Harris’ Rent Relief Act, which she re-introduced in the Senate in April, would create a monthly refundable tax credit for households whose housing costs exceed 30 percent of their income, including rent and utilities. The goal is to help low-income people across the country afford their rent. Supporters of Harris’ bill include the National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Alliance to End Homelessness, Fair Housing of California, and the National Housing Law Project.
HOMELESSNESS
Homelessness Grows in California Despite New Government Spending
Wall Street Journal
California’s homeless population is going up despite billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded efforts, according to recently released data and officials. Homelessness jumped 12% and 16% from a year ago in the county and city of Los Angeles, respectively, according to figures released this week based on a count conducted in January. The tally showed 58,936 homeless people in Los Angeles County, which includes 36,300 in the city. The county has the nation’s largest outdoor-homeless population. Other localities in California saw substantial increases compared with 2017, when they last conducted a count. In San Francisco, the number rose 17% while Alameda County, which includes Oakland, saw a 43% increase.