This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

• All three of CHC’s sponsored bills are moving to the Assembly Floor next week after passing out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee this week. AB 2011 (Wicks) 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) increases the number of sites qualifying for expanded Density Bonuses available to 100% affordable projects; and AB 2006 (Berman) aims to streamline the state’s compliance monitoring system. CHC’s other top priority bill, ACA 14 (Wicks), which would establish a 10-year funding commitment to address the state’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis, was approved by the Assembly housing committee last week, but has not yet moved to a floor vote.

• CHC’s highest profile legislation, AB 2011, has begun to attract a large and growing coalition of affordable housing advocates, labor groups, big city mayors, and other pro-housing organizations. SEIU and the California School Employees Association signaled their support for the bill this week, saying they want to “uphold strong labor standards AND build housing families can afford.” Labor icon Dolores Huerta followed up with her own letter of support, writing that AB 2011 “is good public policy.” The Sacramento Bee shared a similar sentiment in an editorial this week, saying “the need for this kind of housing legislation is self-evident at this point.”

• In case you missed it: CHC’s Ray Pearl and Daniel Curtin of the California Conference of Carpenters also authored an oped in the San Jose Mercury News recently on the unique partnership behind AB 2011, which is co-sponsored by the two groups. “Dozens of bills have been introduced over the last two sessions that sought to address one part of [California’s] housing puzzle or the other, but none has been able to earn the support of both affordable housing advocates and labor organizations,” they wrote—but that finally changed with Asm. Wicks’ introduction of this important legislation: “California desperately needs affordable homes and jobs. Wicks has found a way for every community to produce more of both. Our groups and our members are ready to work together to do the job.”

ICYMI – Top news stories:

White House releases plan to boost housing supply
The Hill
The White House on Monday outlined a plan to boost housing availability and lower costs for renters and homeowners, portraying it as part of a broader effort to combat inflation for Americans. The administration released a “Housing Supply Action Plan” that officials said would produce more housing supply, including affordable units, in the next five years. Among the measures in the plan are using new financing mechanisms to build and preserve more housing where there are currently financing gaps and expanding federal financing by making certain loans more widely available for multifamily developments. The plan notes that several key provisions, like the expansion of LIHTC, have already received bipartisan support.

How California’s top cop enforces housing law
Los Angeles Times & CalMatters – Gimme Shelter Podcast
In February, hours after California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sent the small Silicon Valley enclave of Woodside a letter saying that its plan to declare itself a mountain lion habitat to evade state housing law was unconstitutional, the town backed down. Bonta’s letter was a small but representative example of a more aggressive approach the attorney general’s office has taken on housing matters since Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Bonta to the role in spring 2021. Last fall, Bonta created a special division to investigate housing issues from local approval of development projects to landlord and tenant disputes. On this episode of “Gimme Shelter,” we speak with Bonta about his stances on housing and how his office continues to pursue housing cases. 

They waited years for affordable housing. Now, a new type of database could ease that problem.
San Francisco Chronicle
Three months into her search for a new apartment closer to family in the South Bay, Judy Jackson is feeling a familiar sense of dread. At age 76, it’s not just the packing that’s daunting for the Berkeley resident and two-time cancer survivor. It’s that the last time she was looking for an affordable place with a county housing voucher, she ended up in a shelter while she waited for her name to be called for a new home. “I was homeless for five months,” she recalled. Jackson’s last housing search was years ago, around 2001, but multiple tech booms since haven’t changed the old-school process of applying for affordable homes in California, which still require prospective residents to sign up in person or by mail. So now, she’s part of a group of tenants backing a state bill, AB 1961, to create a new online application system and first-of-its-kind state database of affordable apartment listings.