This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

• CHC’s two sponsored bills, AB 2006 (Berman) and AB 2011 (Wicks) will be heard this Tuesday in Senate Housing Committee. AB 2006 aims to streamline the state’s compliance monitoring system. AB 2011 will open underused commercial sites to affordable housing, while creating strong labor protections that support all of the workers on these projects. AB 2334 (Wicks), CHC’s other sponsored bill, passed out of the Senate Housing Committee 8-1 and will next be heard in Senate Governance and Finance Committee on June 29. AB 2334 increases the number of sites qualifying for expanded Density Bonuses available to 100% affordable projects.

• A timely new study from Economic & Planning Systems concluded in June that redeveloping aging retail spaces into higher density housing can be a “win-win” for local governments—boosting city tax revenues and increasing access to affordable housing. The EPS report was released ahead of Senate Housing Committee next week, making it a valuable reference point for AB 2011 (Wicks), which would accelerate affordable development on underused commercial sites. EPS has spent the last several years studying how communities from Fresno to Redwood City have fared after converting struggling retail properties into housing—finding that with work and shopping patterns changing during the pandemic, cities can boost their local tax base by promoting affordable and mixed-use development on these properties. Read the full EPS study here: Retail versus Housing? Rethinking the Fiscal Paradigm.

• The Legislature passed a $300 billion-plus budget bill this week ahead of the state-mandated June 15 deadline—including $1.55 billion for affordable housing and nearly $1 billion for homelessness programs—but the Governor says he will not sign it until more changes are made. “Governor Newsom would like to see more immediate, direct relief to help millions more families with rising gas, groceries, and rent prices,” said Anthony York, a spokesperson for the Administration. Affordable housing provisions are not among the major issues still to be resolved. Instead, ongoing negotiations are centered around billions of dollars in tax rebates to help Californians struggling with rising inflation, as well as the budget’s $21 billion climate package, which the Governor says needs to include a new multi-billion dollar reserve to ensure the power grid can keep the lights on this summer. Talks are ongoing, and parts of the budget may still be approved by the end of June.

ICYMI – Top news stories: 
California legislators want to help you buy a house with down payment, ‘shared equity’
CalMattersFirst-time buyers often rely on family gifts to afford the down payments on their homes. Now California Legislators want the government to fill the role of generous relative. Lawmakers are proposing creating a billion-dollar fund in this year’s state budget that would provide California’s first-time buyers either all of the money they need for a down payment, or very close to it, in exchange for partial ownership stakes in those residences. The proposal, put forward by state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, comes as skyrocketing property prices broaden the divide between those who own their homes and those who rent in California.

Mayor Breed-backed S.F. affordable housing measure expected to qualify for the ballot, sparking fight with progressives
San Francisco Chronicle
Supporters of a proposed San Francisco initiative that would speed up some housing development say they expect to qualify for the November ballot. Called Affordable Homes Now, the measure seeks to cut several years off the approval timeline for qualifying housing projects that are 100% affordable, are for teachers, or are mostly market-rate but have 15% more below-market rate units than the city would otherwise require under affordability mandates. The measure is backed by Mayor London Breed and a coalition of YIMBYs, environmental groups, and the Nor Cal Carpenters.

His crusade to house L.A.’s poor praised by Oprah Winfrey, Garcetti. But others have doubts.
Los Angeles Times
The day that Star Owens welcomed a swarm of dignitaries and TV cameras into her new home in South Los Angeles last fall marked the debut of a bold challenge to the city’s way of building homeless housing. The 28-unit Avalon apartments—constructed without taxpayer money in less than half the time and at less than half the cost of a typical subsidized project—would house nearly 60 formerly homeless adults and children. Its developer, SoLa Impact, is the brainchild of Martin Muoto, an entrepreneur who has spent nearly a decade investing in one of the most neglected parts of the city. Muoto has won admirers such as Oprah Winfrey and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, housing more Section 8 tenants than any other landlord in Los Angeles. But his for-profit, investor-backed model also racked up criticism.