This week in affordable housing news…:

State update: 

• Affordable housing could play a central role in a new Democrat-on-Democrat race for a San Joaquin Valley state senate seat—a campaign that will pit one of the valley’s sitting representatives, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Fresno), against Senator Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), whose Monterey-area district shifted as a result of redistricting. Caballero, who now lives in Merced, put housing at the top of her agenda in announcing her run: “People are desperate to be able to have a good job to be able to live and work in the community. We have put out billions of dollars for affordable housing and housing for the homeless, and that’ll continue to be a priority of mine.” In a sign of the contentious campaign ahead, Senator Hurtado responded: “Unlike my opponent, the former mayor of Salinas, I am the only candidate from our Valley who grew up here and continues to live in Fresno County,” she said. “In the Senate I have a proven record of winning for the Valley.”

• With California’s shortage of construction workers continuing to pose a challenge for affordable housing development, CalMatters reports this week on another emerging labor shortage—among homeless service workers—that could be an obstacle for the state’s expanding homelessness initiatives. Due to a combination of COVID and provider burnout, groups like LA-based People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) are struggling to find workers to fill hundreds of open positions. With huge influxes of homeless funding coming in the next two years—including $12 billion in last year’s state budget—communities will need to quickly find thousands of new workers to staff an expanding homeless response system. “We have all this money,” said Farrah McDaid Ting, a senior legislative representative with the California State Association of Counties. “Can we really do this if we don’t have the people? I think there could be a real limitation.”

• The Sacramento Bee took a final look this week at one of this legislative’s session most outside-the-box housing ideas: A proposal by Asm. Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) to give cities money to turn publicly owned golf courses into affordable housing developments. AB 672 sought to appropriate $50 million in state funds to serve as incentives to cities interested in converting municipal courses to housing and open space. California has approximately 1,100 golf courses, roughly 250 of which are owned by local governments. Golfers hated the idea—calling it the “Public Golf Endangerment Act”—and mobilized against it. The bill died late last week in Assembly Appropriations. “Very disappointed my bill #AB672 was held in Asm Appropriations Committee,” Garcia said on Twitter. “It’s not over yet though! I will try again.” Garcia recently announced that she will be running for Congress against Long Beach mayor Robert Garcia.

ICYMI – Top news stories:

Mayor Breed’s push to streamline housing production killed by supervisors
San Francisco Chronicle
Mayor London Breed’s third attempt to ask voters to streamline housing production through a charter amendment failed Wednesday after a Board of Supervisors committee killed the proposal. Breed hoped the charter amendment would be considered by voters on the June 7 ballot. Her proposal sought to streamline new housing construction by letting some qualified projects circumvent the city’s discretionary review process, cutting a year or two from a timeline that can take two years or more for developers to complete. “San Francisco had a chance to make the most significant change in decades to how we build housing in this City,” Breed said on Twitter after the vote. “But it was rejected by the Board of Supervisors. Addressing the high cost of housing requires real solutions, not more obstructionism.”

Amid housing crunch, officials want Orange County to stay the way it is
Los Angeles Times
As Peggy Huang drove through the hills of Yorba Linda, she passed ranch-style homes with backyard stables. White picket fences lined equestrian trails snaking through the Orange County city, whose motto is the “Land of Gracious Living.” Farther uphill, newer houses were closer together but still featured the open space most suburban residents desire, with trails, parks and churches nearby. Huang, a city councilwoman, wants Yorba Linda to stay this way. “I’m not a NIMBY,” Huang said, using an acronym for “not in my backyard.” “I just think it’s important for people to understand that one size fits all doesn’t work, and that’s the very policy Sacramento is pushing on us.”

Don’t let real estate investors destroy all our rent-controlled housing stock
Los Angeles Times – Editorial 
The solution to the housing crisis is to build more housing for all income levels, and California has done a dismal job at that for decades. But that’s only part of the solution. Protecting and preserving the existing affordable housing stock — particularly rent-controlled apartments and homes — is essential to keeping people housed. Yet tenant advocates warn that California is losing thousands of rent-controlled units to real estate speculators and developers who buy up older buildings, evict the tenants and redevelop the properties, often into expensive new condo or rental units. Now the Legislature is considering Assembly Bill 854 by Assembly member Alex Lee (D-San Jose) that would put some brakes on how quickly a new owner of a rent-controlled property can turn it into a market rate property. The Assembly should vote to approve this bill and send it on to the state Senate for further refinement.