This week in affordable housing news…:

State update:

• A RAND study released this week finds strict hiring requirements on Proposition HHH projects in Los Angeles has led to thousands fewer affordable homes being built. Five years after LA voters approved a $1.2 billion bond earmarked for 10,000 units of affordable and permanent supportive housing, RAND finds that only 7,300 units have been built—largely due to labor agreements that raised project costs by roughly $43,000 per unit. The study is a cautionary tale for state leaders debating whether to attach similar workforce requirements to a broader swath of affordable housing projects. “Affordable housing projects already face considerable uncertainty related to community opposition, assembling the necessary funding, and uncertain timelines for regulatory approvals,” the report concludes—with author Jason M. Ward noting that “moving forward, considering the effects of these sort of labor requirements on the primary goals of public housing policy…[would] help ensure that realistic goals are set for such programs.”
  
• With the state still facing a shortfall of at least 1.2 million affordable homes, a number of media outlets are covering ongoing efforts in many cities to expand their affordable housing plans. The El Cajon City Council approved an updated housing element this week that includes more than 3,000 new homes over the next eight years, including nearly 480 units for lower-income households, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. In Pasadena, the City Council voted to submit its updated housing element, with plans for 4,400 new units of affordable housing, to the state housing department—though Councilman John Kennedy noted that actually building those units “will take courage unseen as of yet.” The Stockton Record, meanwhile, published a story this week on city leaders gathering to celebrate the groundbreaking of a 48-unit permanent supportive housing development for homeless veterans: “In this community,” said State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, “we cannot stay divided.”
  
• In San Diego, several CHC members participated in a housing and homelessness roundtable this week hosted by the San Diego Housing Commission with Lourdes Castro Ramírez, Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. The discussion, which featured San Diego’s Community Action Plan on Homelessness as a successful model for future state action, included San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, the San Diego Housing Commission’s Rick Gentry, and Affirmed Housing President & CEO Jim Silverwood, along with a number of other local housing leaders and elected officials.

ICYMI – Top news stories:

Eviction moratoriums extended in U.S. Californians were already protected. What you need to know.
Los Angeles Times
The federal eviction moratorium received a two-month extension from the Biden administration Tuesday after an earlier moratorium expired Sunday. Statewide and locally, moratoriums on evictions issued by the state and separately by Los Angeles County are still active but are set to expire soon unless extended again. Here’s what you need to know.

RAND: LA’s homeless housing bond measure fell short of 10,000 units, because of labor requirement
Los Angeles Daily News
A requirement to employ a union workforce on larger Proposition HHH projects to house people experiencing homelessness may have led to fewer units than had initially been anticipated, according to a RAND report released Monday, Aug. 2. The report looked at why, despite initial projections that the $1.2 billion Proposition HHH, the 7,300 units that are anticipated to be built fell short of the 10,000 figure that had been touted during the campaign to pass the measure.

Editorial: Another commission to study homelessness? Get serious, supervisors
Los Angeles Times
While there is a shortage of housing for homeless people, there is no shortage of studies on Los Angeles’ efforts to deal with homeless people. Since February alone there have been four reports released on how effectively and smoothly the city and County of Los Angeles provide outreach, rental assistance, housing and other services to the local homeless population. Nonetheless, prepare for another one. Last week a divided Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to create a Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness. The commission will focus mainly on the structure of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the agency responsible for carrying out the city and county’s homelessness service plans.