At a signing ceremony in Los Angeles today, Governor Newsom signed several bills designed to help jumpstart housing production. Included was AB 1763 (Chiu), a CHC-sponsored bill that will significantly boost production of affordable housing.

CHC released the following statement from Ray Pearl, Executive Director:

“The California Housing Consortium worked closely with Assemblymember David Chiu on this legislation, and we want to thank the Assemblymember for his leadership and his support in championing the cause of affordable housing.”

“With his signature today, Governor Newsom has demonstrated yet again his willingness to take decisive action to address California’s crushing housing affordability crisis. This legislation will dramatically boost the production of affordable housing and ensure tens of thousands of lower-income Californians struggling to keep up with rising housing costs will have a safe, affordable place to call home.”

“This legislation is one of the most significant policy changes the state has ever made to increase the production of affordable housing. It will allow every single new affordable housing development in California to include 80% more units than it can today—with options for even more density for housing within ½ mile of transit. These are projects where every single unit represents an opportunity to house a California family that can’t afford to pay rising rents.”

“In spite of the Legislature’s recent progress and the success of Propositions 1 and 2 last year, California still faces a shortage of 1.4 million affordable rental homes. While some of the bills signed by the governor today will promote production of market-rate housing, AB 1763 takes the next critical step toward closing the state’s enormous affordable housing gap—reducing the cost of construction, increasing transit ridership, and producing thousands of new affordable homes each year, while also preserving local control over where this housing should be built.” “As housing costs continue to rise, the California Housing Consortium remains committed to building the affordable homes struggling Californians desperately need—and we applaud Governor Newsom and the Legislature for giving us the tools to do the job.”

The Governor also signed the following CHC-supported bills:

• AB 1743 (Bloom), also sponsored by CHC, which expands the properties that are exempt from community facility district taxes to include properties that qualify for the property tax welfare exemption, and limits the ability of local agencies to reject housing projects because they qualify for the exemption
• AB 1483 by (Grayson) requires local jurisdiction to publicly share information about zoning ordinances, development standards, fees, exactions, and affordability requirements. The bill also requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop and update a 10-year housing data strategy.
• AB 1486 (Ting), which expands Surplus Land Act requirements for local agencies, requires local governments to include specified information relating to surplus lands in their housing elements and annual progress reports (APRs), and requires the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to establish a database of surplus lands, as specified. 
• SB 6 (Beall), which requires the state to create a public inventory of local sites suitable for residential development, along with state surplus lands.