This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

  • CHC-sponsored bill, AB 1307 (Wicks), advanced this week, with members of the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources approving the bill 11-0. The legislation would reverse a troubling recent court decision, which concluded that noise from residents’ voices in a proposed Berkeley student housing development must be considered an environmental impact under CEQA. “Using CEQA to block desperately needed student housing—by deeming people as pollution—is NIMBYism at its worst,” Asm. Wicks said in response to the decision. AB 1307 would reestablish existing precedent that minor and intermittent noise nuisances, such as from unamplified human voices, be addressed through local ordinances and not through CEQA. The bill moves next to Assembly Appropriations and will be placed on the consent calendar. 
  • The Los Angeles Times published an editorial this week endorsing SB 423 (Wiener), the CHC-sponsored bill to extend SB 35 before it expires in 2025. “What’s expected to be the most contentious housing bill before California lawmakers this year shouldn’t be controversial at all,” the Times said: “It’s an extension of a proven model that has helped put affordable housing in some of the state’s most Not In My Backyard communities.” Calling SB 423 a “critical tool” for addressing the state’s affordable housing crisis, the Times dismissed criticisms from local governments and labor groups about the bill. “Developers say SB 35 has done more to accelerate affordable housing construction than almost any other reform in the state,” says the Times. “State leaders know this model works. They just need the courage to say yes.”

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ICYMI – Top news stories:

California has already run out of cash to help first-time home buyers. Here’s what happened.
Los Angeles Times
You may have seen the videos on TikTok promising something that sounds too good to be true: Free cash from the state of California to help you buy your first home. The good news is, that program actually exists! The bad news is, it’s already out of money. The California Housing Finance Agency launched the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation loan program two weeks ago, offering qualified first-time buyers up to 20% of the purchase price of a house or condominium. The help was available only to households whose earnings were below CalHFA’s income limit, which is $180,000 in Los Angeles County and $235,000 in Orange County. State lawmakers had set aside $500 million for the program as part of the 2022-23 budget. But a looming fiscal shortfall led Gov. Gavin Newsom to propose a 40% cut, so when CalHFA launched the program late last month, it was allocated only $300 million and expected to assist about 2,300 home buyers.

Bay Area exodus: Wealthy resident departures worsen ‘doom loop’ fears
San Jose Mercury News
Wealthier residents, liberated from the office by remote work, are leaving the Bay Area at a higher rate than before the pandemic — a trend that could exacerbate a dreaded economic “doom loop” for the region’s slowly recovering job centers and downtown cores. In 2021, households earning more than $150,000 made up 32% of all those moving out of the nine-county Bay Area, up from 27.6% in 2019, according to a new analysis of census data by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. Although most of those departing are lower-income residents struggling to afford the region’s high housing costs, the uptick in wealthy households moving out is beginning to strain local tax bases, said Abby Raisz, the institute’s research director. “The implications are really serious,” Raisz said. “We have to start thinking pretty creatively to break this cycle.”

State of California goes after Huntington Beach following housing plan rejection
Los Angeles Times
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom and HCD jointly announced a motion to amend the state’s existing lawsuit against Huntington Beach, which was filed on March 8. The move came after the Huntington Beach City Council, by a 4-3 vote led by the conservative majority, decided last week not to approve a state-compliant draft housing element of the city’s general plan. Mayor Tony Strickland, Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, Councilman Casey McKeon and Councilman Pat Burns voted against the plan, which would zone for slightly more than the 13,368 units required as part of the mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The state seeks both penalties and injunctive relief. It also seeks suspension of the city’s permitting authority and mandating the approval of certain residential projects until the city comes into compliance with the law — known as builder’s remedy.

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