This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update: 

• Two CHC-sponsored bills were moved to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s suspense file this week: AB 2011 (Wicks), which would open underused commercial sites to affordable housing, and AB 2006 (Berman), which seeks to streamline the state’s compliance monitoring system. Another CHC-sponsored bill, AB 2334 (Wicks), which would increase the number of sites qualifying for expanded Density Bonuses, is expected to be sent to the Senate floor next week. Appropriations committees will vote on bills on the suspense file next week.

• Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon joined a rally in support of the CHC-sponsored Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act—AB 2011 (Wicks)—ahead of Appropriations Committee hearings this week, with the Speaker highlighting the importance of accelerating affordable housing development and promoting strong new labor standards in communities across California. “I’m proud to stand with the Carpenters, SEIU, my fellow members…housing advocates and more in support of #AB2011,” Rendon said in a Twitter post. “We need more affordable housing, and we need the workers who build that housing to have good pay and fair working conditions.”

ICYMI – Top news stories:
Can commercial corridors solve California’s housing crisis?
UrbanFootprint, HDR/Calthorpe, Mapcraft Labs, and Economic & Planning Systems
A newly released report from UrbanFootprint and a group of partner organizations highlights the far-reaching impacts of Asm. Buffy Wicks’s AB 2011, with researchers concluding the bill’s provisions to open underutilized commercial sites to affordable housing could increase “market-feasible” housing development across California by 1.6 million to 2.4 million new homes. That is in addition to the 100% affordable projects that would have access to these sites. “If realized,” the report concludes, “such housing production would deliver accessible affordable housing options, contribute substantial property value to tax rolls, and provide significant environmental and natural resource benefits in areas that are currently underutilized.” Read the full report here.

‘We just keep punishing.’ Californians with criminal records still face housing barriers.
Los Angeles Times
As Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed criminal justice reform—vowing to close prisons, signing laws to shorten some sentences and calling for the abolishment of death row—housing for those with criminal records often remains out of reach, compounding the state’s homelessness crisis. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans this year to reduce barriers to housing for people with criminal records, and similar efforts are underway in California. A 2020 law banned landlords from discriminating against tenants who use a housing voucher to pay their rent, often one of the only options available for people who’ve left incarceration. But advocates across the state say not nearly enough is being done to stem the flow of formerly incarcerated Californians onto the streets.

Petition to block Livermore affordable housing project rejected by citySan Jose Mercury News
The City of Livermore has rejected a petition to block a proposed downtown Livermore affordable housing complex, a move that could lead to more legal wrangling and delays for the project, which already has been held up more than a year because of previous legal challenges. Following the City Council agreeing in May to sell a plot of downtown land to nonprofit Eden Housing for the project, a residents group calling itself “Move Eden Housing” filed a petition with the city to challenge the decision. The petition sought to let voters decide in the November election whether the land sale should go through. But the city has blocked the group’s efforts, with city clerk Marie Weber telling the group in a letter last week that the council’s resolution to sell the land to Eden Housing was an “administrative” action and not a “legislative” one, and therefore cannot be challenged by a referendum.


Homelessness crisis driven by housing costs, shortage of affordable housing
Santa Cruz Sentinel – Oped by Michelle Doty Cabrera, County Behavioral Health Directors Association
To solve the central challenge of homelessness, the public and policymakers must understand that this crisis is primarily driven by housing costs and California’s extreme shortage of affordable housing. Important research has recently debunked common misconceptions that factors such as mental illness or substance use are primary drivers of homelessness. As the author of one recent report cautioned: “I firmly believe that we can’t treat our way out of this problem.” That’s why county behavioral health officials who work in the community each and every day serving individuals experiencing homelessness are concerned by reporting and columns suggesting that CARE Courts are a solution to the homelessness crisis primarily driven by housing costs.