This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

• Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) introduced a new constitutional amendment last Friday that would create a permanent, ongoing source of funding for affordable housing through the state general fund. ACA 14, the Housing Opportunities for Everyone (HOPE) Act, would dedicate 5% of the state budget each year for the next decade to the state’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis—an investment of approximately $10 billion each year. “The Governor and Legislature have demonstrated their commitment to affordable housing time after time in recent years, using budget surpluses to support some of our state’s most effective housing programs with much-needed, one-time investments,” said CHC’s Ray Pearl in Asm. Wicks’s press statement on the legislation. “This bill will build on these efforts—and provide a permanent, ongoing source of funding at the scale needed to close our state’s shameful gaps in affordable housing. This is an idea whose time has come.”

• Another important Wicks bill co-sponsored by CHC, AB 2334, passed out of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee last week with a vote of 6-1. The bill is seeking to expand enhanced density bonuses created by AB 1763 (2019) to all 100% affordable housing developments located in low vehicle travel areas. The bill will be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee later in April. There is still time to endorse this bill (along with our other sponsored bill, AB 2006, which will be heard in April as well)! Please submit support letters through the Legislature’s Position Letter Portal and email copies to CHC’s Policy Associate, Jennifer Armenta, at jarmenta@calhsng.org. Sample letters are available here. 

• California’s eviction moratorium was extended this week from March 31 through June 30, after the Legislature passed emergency legislation that will give the state three more months to disburse $5.2 billion in federal rent relief funding. The program allows both landlords and tenants to apply—and will pay up to 100% of rent and utility in arrears. Low-income residents hardest hit by the pandemic and most likely to be evicted were prioritized, but thus far, fewer than half of the 506,796 household applications submitted to the state’s rent relief program have been served, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The department remains absolutely committed to paying every eligible applicant,” said Geoffrey Ross, a deputy director at the state Department of Housing and Community Development. Ross said the department’s goal is to finalize payments by “early summer.”

ICYMI – Top news stories:
Editorial: Speed up affordable housing development on government-owned land
Los Angeles Times
Shortly after he was inaugurated in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order meant to spur construction of affordable housing on state-owned land, saying that “the California dream is in peril if we don’t act to address this housing crisis.” Three years later, a new audit shows that the effort has hardly been transformational. Officials reviewed 44,000 parcels owned by the state government and found 92 properties that were suitable for developing affordable housing. Of those, just 19 are in the process of being developed into about 1,700 homes. Construction on one project is scheduled to wrap up this year, but some others will not be complete until 2026. It’s disappointing that this effort has not yielded more results, because California desperately needs more affordable housing.

As San Diego mayor, I hear your frustration. Here’s my plan to address homelessness.
San Diego Union-Tribune – Oped by Mayor Todd Gloria
Recently, while blessing Saint Teresa of Calcutta Villa, a new affordable housing project in the East Village, Bishop John Dolan quoted a proverb: “It is far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” The line resonated with me with respect to homelessness, an issue where plenty of San Diegans are cursing the darkness. And I certainly understand that. Residents don’t see progress being made; they’re frustrated, impatient and angry. I am, too. But cursing the darkness won’t do a thing; only action will improve a crisis that deepened during the pandemic and threatens to become even worse with steeply rising rents. Am I frustrated? Yes. But I’m not hopeless. That’s because I know my administration has a plan, and that plan can work to end people’s homelessness.

California AG takes aim at landlords, attorneys
San Jose Mercury News
As statewide tenant protections extend through June, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday he has warned nearly 100 law firms against filing false claims in eviction cases. The attorney general’s housing strike force sent letters to 91 law firms in recent days, alerting attorneys not to file evictions against tenants who have applied for state emergency rental assistance. The state bans evictions for nonpayment if a tenant has applied to the state’s relief program, Housing is Key. More than 100,000 California tenants have pending relief applications. The program was set to close at midnight March 31. “We have reason to believe that some landlords and their attorneys may be filing false declarations to push hardworking Californians out of their homes,” Bonta said. “This is unacceptable, and more importantly, absolutely illegal.”