This week in affordable housing news…:

State update:

• The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank this month continues to have repercussions for affordable housing, with CHC and our members pressing state and federal leaders for clarity on the status of outstanding construction loans made by SVB to projects across the state. Over the last two decades, SVB invested more than $2 billion in affordable housing in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. While the Biden Administration has announced that all SVB depositors will be protected, CHC is actively monitoring the impact to our members and advocating with key leaders to ensure affordable developments can continue to move forward without financing delays or impacts to other funding.

• PG&E is under increased scrutiny this week for ongoing delays in connecting affordable housing projects to the grid, with a KQED story finding it takes PG&E an average of 64 days to turn the lights on after construction is completed—nearly six times as long as other utilities. These delays are preventing residents from moving in to safe, affordable homes, while adding costs to projects. “PG&E is not just falling short of perfection. It’s causing huge problems with getting projects open and connected to the grid.,” said Sen. Scott Wiener (D-SF), who introduced a bill this month, SB 83, requiring PG&E to accelerate its interconnection process. “There has to be a more structured system. There has to be an actual timeline and consequences for failing to meet that timeline.”

Top news stories:

Silicon Valley Bank collapse incites construction loan chaos in California
Bloomberg
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse has shaken not only the tech startups that power the region’s economy, but also Bay Area nonprofits struggling to build affordable housing in one of the most expensive markets in the US. While the federal government promises to protect depositors, affordable housing developers that relied on the bank for construction loans are in a more uncertain position. “If it takes two months to replace your construction lender, that will cost millions of dollars in interest, but you will also potentially blow by federal deadlines,” says Matt Schwartz, president and chief executive officer of the California Housing Partnership. “We need clarity from the federal government agencies that are restructuring Silicon Valley Bank that affordable housing commitments will be fulfilled immediately.”

Huntington Beach mayor, a fierce critic of state housing mandates, lives in affordable housing
Orange County Register
Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, who is leading the charge against a lawsuit accusing the city of ignoring California’s affordable housing mandates, lives in an affordable housing development himself on the city’s west side, but insists that doesn’t make him a hypocrite. Strickland, a former state senator and assemblyman who owns a political and business consulting firm, has since 2018 resided in an 1,800-square-foot condominium on Breezy Lane in the upscale Cape Ann community, which was built for those who qualify to purchase units based on family income limits. In an interview, the mayor said that even though his wife owns the condo, he included the property on his state-required Form 700 in the interest of transparency. “If I didn’t do that, I would be attacked on that, too,” he said.

Advocates push for state amendment to make housing a ‘human right’
San Jose Mercury News
Should the state guarantee a right to housing for all Californians? A coalition of anti-poverty advocates led by Matt Haney, a Democratic state assemblymember from San Francisco, is proposing an amendment to the state constitution that seeks to do just that. The amendment does not define a right to housing, and backers have offered few specifics about what it would mean in practice. But they say it could make it easier for state officials to sue local governments that resist adding significantly more affordable homes. To pass, it needs a two-thirds majority in the state Legislature and then approval by voters.