This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

• Labor support continues to grow for CHC’s sponsored bill, SB 423 (Wiener), which earned the endorsement over the last week from two major unions, the California-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers and the Northern California District Council of Laborers. “Our local unions have long recognized the current housing crisis facing the citizens of our state and impacting our membership,” Tim Cremins, Vice Chair of the International Union of Operating Engineers, wrote in the group’s support letter. “SB 423 is a thoughtful proposal that strikes the appropriate balance to ensure that developers can move to expeditiously provide more housing while not leaving the workers participating in these important projects left behind.”

• Another CHC-sponsored bill, AB 1449 (Alvarez), advanced out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee this week on a bipartisan 8-1 vote. The legislation would extend CEQA exemptions to 100% affordable housing projects for a number of actions related to local approvals—from the issuance of entitlements to rezoning—so long as the project includes the labor standards established by AB 2011 (Wicks). The bill now moves to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

• Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) added the first details to her proposed $10 billion affordable housing bond, AB 1657, which could go before voters on the March 2024 ballot. The legislation includes $7 billion for the Multifamily Housing Program ($5.25 billion for affordable housing and $1.75 billion for homeless supportive housing), $1.5 billion in rehabilitation funds, $1 billion for the CalHOME homebuyer assistance program, and $500 million for farmworker housing. The bill will be heard next week in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

• Finally, one additional CHC-sponsored bill, SB 440 (Skinner), advanced out of the Senate Housing Committee this week on a 8-2 vote. The legislation would empower local governments to join forces to create regional housing finance agencies to address the unique affordable housing needs in their communities. The bill now moves to the Senate Governance and Finance Committee and is set for hearing on April 26.

• It’s not too late to submit a support letter on these bills! Please take action today by placing your letterhead on each of CHC’s sample support letters and uploading them onto the Legislative Position Letter Portal. Send copies to our Policy Associate, Jennifer Armenta: jarmenta@calhsng.org. You can find fact sheets and sample support letters for these bills on CHC’s Legislative Priorities page.

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ICYMI – Top news stories:

If California cities want homeless funding, they better stop blocking housing
Editorial – Los Angeles Times
Last week, city and county officials from across the state rallied in Sacramento to demand $3 billion in annual state funding to ease homelessness and build affordable housing. At the same time, the League of California Cities, a lobbying association that represents cities, and some local governments are trying to block bills that would make it easier to build more housing, including affordable housing. That’s some nerve. Pouring money into homelessness efforts without also making it much faster and cheaper to build housing, especially affordable homes, is a fool’s errand. The homelessness crisis in California is a direct result of the high cost of housing, and that’s a result of cities and counties failing for decades to permit enough homes to keep up with demand.

Plan would slash S.F. affordable-housing requirements. Will it spur building?
San Francisco Chronicle
The percentage of affordable housing that developers would be required to build in San Francisco would be lowered under a new proposal for reviving the city’s comatose housing development industry. On Wednesday, the city’s Inclusionary Technical Advisory Committee—an eight-member group of affordable and market-rate developers and advocates known as the TAC—recommended that the Board of Supervisors slash the percentage of below-market-rate units that for-profit builders are required to include in their projects.

This exclusive island town might be California’s biggest violator of affordable housing law
Los Angeles Times
Some live in Mexico, waking up at 3 a.m. to cross the border in time for an 8:30 a.m. shift. Others board multiple buses for hours-long commutes. Those with cars idle bumper to bumper along a two-mile, softly sloping bridge. Not one of the nearly 200 housekeepers at the Hotel del Coronado, a sprawling beach resort with a storied history, lives in Coronado, according to the union representing them.

The city is arguably the most flagrant resister of a state affordable housing law designed to give housekeepers and others, from teachers to nurses, a chance at an apartment in places that would otherwise be out of their reach. Among other wealthy communities that have adopted various delay tactics, Coronado stands out for its long track record of openly flouting the law.