The Legislature wrapped up the first year of the session early Saturday morning, and I’m pleased to report several major CHC-sponsored bills have now made their way to the governor’s desk—including bills that will dramatically boost the number of affordable homes that can be built each year, significantly reduce the cost of affordable development, and increase transparency around fees imposed on affordable housing projects.

We are not taking the governor’s support for granted and are actively encouraging him to sign all of the bills in CHC’s affordable housing package before the October 13^th deadline.

While these efforts are underway, I wanted to share what I see as the biggest highlights of the year—and why I believe this year’s affordable housing proposals are connected. This has been another successful year for CHC—and with the governor’s support, it could be another important step toward building the 1.4 million affordable homes Californians desperately need.

The state budget – a $500 million housing tax credit

It can get lost in the frenzy of activity at the end of the session, but we shouldn’t forget the strides made in this year’s state budget, which invested $2 billion in affordable housing—and included a $500 million expansion of the state low-income housing tax credit. The tax credit program is one of the state’s most successful tools for promoting affordable development, and thanks to the leadership of the governor and our legislative housing champions, CHC’s long-held goal to dramatically expand the program was realized.

AB 1763 – the year’s biggest affordable housing production bill

It flew below the radar for much of the year, but thanks to the tireless work of our staff and partners, CHC also sponsored the most substantive policy change this year to increase affordable housing production. AB 1763 (Chiu) will allow every single new 100% affordable project in the state to include 80% more units than it can today—with options for even more density when projects are near transit stops. This is another huge potential victory for affordable housing—and a chance for the state to make its new funding for affordable housing go further.

These new density bonuses offer real benefits to affordable developers competing with market-rate builders for housing sites—and they also target the very issue many experts believe is the key to addressing California’s housing crisis: increasing the amount of housing built on existing residential land. It’s no accident outgoing HCD director Ben Metcalf recently said Asm. Chiu’s legislation is one of the most “important” steps the state can take to ensure more Californians have a safe, affordable place to live. I’m proud CHC helped this bill get to the governor, and I hope he will sign it.

The next big step – protections for renters

We’ve been saying it for years: California’s housing crisis requires more affordable homes—and more protections for the millions of Californians who can’t keep up with rising rents. That’s why we supported Asm. Chiu’s legislation this year to extend major new protections to renters—preventing landlords from gouging tenants with unfair rent increases and making it more difficult to evict renters without cause. This bill was a significant political lift, and it’s to the author’s credit—and the governor’s—that it is now poised to become part of this year’s legislative housing package.

CHC’s 2019 Housing Package

We share Gov. Newsom’s view that a combination of approaches will be needed for California to address its housing challenges—increasing affordable housing production, while also ensuring more people can stay in their homes. That’s why we’ve worked hard to put these CHC priority bills on the governor’s desk:

CHC-sponsored bills:

• AB 1743 (Bloom) – Exempts affordable housing developments from Mello Roos fees
• AB 1763 (Chiu) – Allows 100% affordable projects to build up to 80% more units under Density Bonus law, with increased density options for projects near transit
• AB 1483 (Grayson) – Increases transparency around fees imposed on housing by requiring local governments to post fee information on their websites

CHC-supported bills:

• AB 1482 (Chiu, Bloom, Bonta, Grayson, Wicks) – Caps annual rent increases at 5% plus inflation and strengthens eviction rules, allowing more tenants to stay in their homes
• AB 1486 (Ting)/SB 6 (Beall, McGuire) – Expands the state’s inventory of surplus public land available for affordable housing development
• AB 1197 (Santiago) – Exempts from CEQA for City of Los Angeles certain types of emergency shelters and supportive housing projects

Other housing bills of note:

• SB 5 (Beall) – Creates a new $2 billion pool of statewide funding for affordable housing
• SB 329 (Mitchell) – Prohibits landlords from discriminating against tenants on the basis of their participation in a housing voucher program
• SB 330 (Skinner) – Declares a statewide “housing crisis” and, for the next five years, reduces the length of time it takes to obtain building permits, limits fees on housing, and bars local governments from reducing the number of homes that can be built

Stay tuned for more updates on this year’s legislation, and we look forward to sharing more details on our plans for next year.

Sincerely,

Ray Pearl
CHC Executive Director