This week in affordable housing news…:

State update:

• CHC is sponsoring two bills that are beginning to move through the Legislature, and we encourage your organization to send in a support letter through the new Advocates Portal. Our current sponsored bills include: AB 2334 (Wicks), which seeks to increase the number of sites qualifying for expanded Density Bonuses available to 100% affordable projects, and AB 2006 (Berman), which aims to streamline the state’s compliance monitoring system. You can find sample support letters for both bills here.

• HCD notified the City of Los Angeles this week that its new housing element—including plans to produce five times more housing than the last RHNA cycle—is not compliant with state law, citing shortcomings in the city’s plans for affirmatively further fair housing. The city has until October to update its plan and rezone for 255,000 additional homes, a process that would normally take three years. During that time, the Los Angeles Times reports, the city will no longer eligible for funding from many state affordable housing programs (though city officials say they should be able to make some changes to avoid losing out on any funding in the short term). “It’s showtime,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez, pushing back on critics concerned that the state’s rejection of good-faith housing efforts by LA and other major cities could backfire. “We just want to make sure that people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing and taking this crisis that we’re facing really seriously.”

• Also in LA, a city audit released this week found that a $1.2-billion housing bond measure approved by voters six years ago is not keeping pace with LA’s homelessness crisis. The audit noted that costs for Proposition HHH-funded project continue to climb (with the most expensive costing as much as $837,000 per unit) and only half are scheduled to be ready for occupancy by 2023. “Although Los Angeles has made some progress with Proposition HHH, it hasn’t been enough,” Ron Galperin, the city controller, said in a statement. “The costs are too high and the pace is far too slow to address the tragedy on our streets.” Ann Sewill, general manager of the city’s Housing Department, told the Los Angeles Times that Proposition HHH is on track to meet its goals but that it is only a “a part of the solution,” saying the best course is to “complete the program and deliver more units … to fulfill the commitment that the city made as part of the HHH promise.”

• Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation this week that would exempt the state’s public universities from conducting CEQA reviews on new faculty or staff housing projects, a response to a state court ruling that sought to freeze enrollment at UC Berkeley due to neighborhood opposition to new housing. UC Berkeley sent thousands of potential students an email last week announcing that enrollment would be capped this year due to a housing shortage—the result of stalling tactics by neighbors who have brought CEQA lawsuits to halt new housing development. Wiener’s bill, SB 886, would require prevailing wage and strict “skilled and trained” worker requirements on all qualifying housing projects. “What’s happening at Berkeley is the most extreme example of something that’s been happening at UC for a long time,” Wiener, D-San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The rate of homelessness among college students is off the charts. It’s a moral failure.”

ICYMI – Top news stories:

Sen. Padilla bill would increase federal funding for housing — in one case by more than 6,500%
San Francisco Chronicle
Sen. Alex Padilla is unveiling a housing and homelessness bill on Friday, legislation that would massively increase federal investments in both traditional and experimental approaches to one of California’s most intractable problems. While the bill faces long odds of becoming law, the California Democrat’s proposal sets a marker for what a progressive federal housing policy could look like. All told, Padilla’s bill would put more than $530 billion over 10 years toward combating homelessness and increasing and improving housing, according to his office, a sum that alone rivals the $500 billion in new funding over five years in President Biden’s massive infrastructure bill for roads, bridges, transit and more.

How to spur housing production in California
CalMatters – Oped by Carolyn Coleman, League of Cities
Another barrage of housing bills this legislative session will not solve California’s housing crisis. What we need from the state is an ongoing funding commitment to support housing production, subsidize affordable housing and invest in supportive infrastructure. A decade ago, the state eliminated local redevelopment agencies and wiped out the only source of existing and ongoing funding available to cities to support affordable housing production. Since then, the state has allocated only short-term funding to cities to support housing supply and affordability. When cities are required to plan for eight years of housing, it’s reasonable to ask the state to commit to at least eight years of funding to support the implementation of those plans.

Freeze UC Berkeley enrollment until there’s enough housing
San Jose Mercury News – Editorial
We have witnessed a sudden outcry from Gov. Gavin Newsom, state legislators, UC regents and campus officials as they face a court order to limit enrollment at Cal to 2020 levels. The regents and the governor are now asking the state Supreme Court to intervene, warning that without a stay the university will have to reduce by 3,050 the number of new students it plans to admit later this year. University officials claim the lower-court judge overstepped by applying California’s environmental review law to student enrollment levels. But that legal fight misses the bigger picture: UC Berkeley has for decades failed to provide sufficient housing for its students. If it takes a judge’s order to wake up state officials to Cal’s student housing crisis, then so be it.