This week in affordable housing news…:

Top News Stories:

Your guide to the California Senate candidates’ views of housing and homelessness
Los Angeles Times
No issues excite, interest or anger California voters more than the housing crisis and homelessness. Because seeing tents on street corners is how most Californians process the crisis, it’s often viewed the domain of local politicians. The reality is that much of the funding to address homelessness or housing insecurity flows from the federal government. Because of the Washington’s influence, electing a senator with an expertise on the issue and proposals to alleviate the crises will be pivotal to California’s future. This is your guide to the housing plans of Democratic Reps. Katie Porter of Irvine, Adam Schiff of Burbank and Barbara Lee of Oakland along with Republican Steve Garvey.

Elk Grove affordable housing project officially relocated after outcry, lawsuits.
Sacramento Bee
Elk Grove has officially reached an agreement to relocate the planned Oak Rose affordable housing development, following months of controversy including a lawsuit from California’s attorney general. During a news conference for a groundbreaking of a separate affordable housing site in Elk Grove, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen announced that the city and Oak Rose Apts LP would agree to move to a new site. “We are also proud that today we are settling with one of our major litigations,” Singh-Allen said. “I believe it’s a win-win. It’s a bigger and better site, more units and they’ll be larger…it’s an ideal location and we’re just very excited to move forward.”

How PG&E’s failures are making California’s housing crisis even worse
San Francisco Chronicle – Oped by Corey Smith, SF Housing Action Coalition; Laura Foote, YIMBY Action
It’s no secret that the Bay Area and California are facing a housing shortage and an affordability crisis. The ways that solutions to this crisis have been stifled by political inaction, community pushback and antiquated zoning laws are myriad and well-documented. Unfortunately, there is an additional roadblock that many Californians may be unaware of: PG&E. The utility giant has received bad press in recent years for its role in wildfires and high utility rates. But its treatment of new housing deserves a closer look, too—especially at a time when its sluggish processes for connecting new homes to the power grid has led to hundreds of units of housing in the Bay Area sitting vacant in just the past year.

It’s now significantly more deadly to be homeless. Why are so many people dying?
CalMatters
For many people, living on the streets of California is a death sentence. That’s according to a recent study that took the first deep look into mortality rates in homeless communities throughout the country. It found the death rate more than tripled between 2011 and 2020. The findings make it clear that at the same time the number of homeless Californians is soaring, it’s also becoming more dangerous to be homeless. And it means the stakes are sky-high when it comes to state and local efforts to combat the crisis: People’s lives are on the line. The study’s co-author, Matthew Fowle of the University of Pennsylvania, said the 238% increase was “astonishing:” “It’s unlike any other mortality trend that we really see in demography. It’s comparable to something like a natural disaster or war.”

Habitat for Humanity puts California families in affordable homes. Insurance crisis puts that at risk
San Francisco Chronicle – Oped by Debbie Arakel, Habitat for Humanity
As the executive director of Habitat for Humanity California, I’ve watched my colleagues learn through experience how to manage the many challenges of building affordable housing in California—from fighting red tape to securing permits to accessing limited government and charitable funds. Using the expertise, our 33 Habitat affiliates across the state build and repair about 800 homes each year. But we have recently found ourselves confronted with aa new obstacle in our quest to provide housing for lower-income families—one that is preventing us from putting families in the homes we have built: The growing difficulty of obtaining an insurance policy for a new home.