Policy News :: Weekly Update for September 1, 2023

This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

  • Today was the deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal committees. The following bills passed out of Appropriations and will need to pass by September 15 to take effect on January 1: SB 4 (Wiener), SB 423 (Wiener), ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry), AB 346 (Quirk-Silva), and AB 1386 (Gabriel). Both SB 440 (Skinner) and AB 1657 (Wicks) became two year bills. AB 515 (Ward) and AB 578 (Berman) were held in Suspense. Click here for more details on these and other housing bills.
  • The Newsom Administration announced $750 million in new funding this week through the state’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, highlighting a range of awards going to CHC member projects across the state. This latest round of AHSC investments are expected to create more than 2,500 affordable homes in climate-friendly developments, along with transit-oriented projects that will reduce emissions by the equivalent of taking 178,000 gas-powered cars off the road. “California is reimagining communities around the state to address the ways our cities are changing—adapting to climate change and addressing housing scarcity,” Gov. Newsom said in a release. “These investments will help cut carbon pollution and build more affordable housing as we look forward to a clean energy future.” Read more about the CHC member projects selected for AHSC funding here.
  • The State Auditor released a report this week highlighting glaring weaknesses in the state’s processes for managing rising utility rates, which have increased by 75% for California’s largest utilities since 2016. While noting rising costs associated with wildfires and, more recently, the war in Ukraine, the audit still critiques the state’s inability to ensure utility costs are not “overstated.” The auditor notes San Diego Gas & Electric, for example, has earned more than its CPUC-authorized rate of return for nine of the last 10 years. “We determined that the CPUC and Cal Advocates need to strengthen their monitoring of utilities’ costs, and the CPUC needs to provide greater transparency when authorizing rate changes,” says the final report from State Auditor Grant Parks. ““(B)oth agencies can better protect customers by implementing certain improvements to their oversight.” Read the full audit here.
  • The Sacramento Housing Alliance is partnering with Health Net, on a free webinar on September 13th to discuss Medi-Cal redeterminations. Following its suspension during the pandemic, the Medi-Cal redetermination process has resumed with county health agencies reviewing and verifying the eligibility of approximately 10 million current Medi-Cal members over the next 14 months. According to California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) estimates, up to three million Californians may face changes in their coverage through this process. To register for the webinar, click here.

ICYMI – Top news stories:

San Jose risks penalties after plan to add more than 60,000 new homes fails to meet state requirements
San Jose Mercury News
California regulators say San Jose’s proposal to add more than 60,000 new homes over the next decade isn’t up to snuff, leaving the city as still the last of the Bay Area’s three largest metropolises without a finalized state-mandated housing plan. Until San Jose can persuade state officials to sign off on the plan, it risks missing out on valuable affordable housing and transportation funds as well as losing control over the approval process for many new housing projects. In June, when the City Council, in a split vote, agreed to send the plan to the state for approval, many housing advocates were skeptical it would be. Bay Area cities were supposed to have their housing plans finalized by Jan. 31. But San Jose, along with nearly every other city in the region, blew the deadline. And while San Francisco and Oakland quickly won approval not long after that, only about a third of the Bay Area’s 109 cities and counties have gotten the OK from regulators.

As challenges loom, L.A. City Council approves $150 million in ‘mansion tax’ spending
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles City Council passed a $150-million spending plan for funds raised by Measure ULA on Tuesday, marking the first time funds will be specifically allocated since Angelenos passed the tax in November. The expenditure plan will be directed to six programs: short-term emergency rental assistance, eviction defense, tenant outreach and education, direct cash assistance for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, tenant protections, and affordable housing production. “This is the largest source of revenue, that’s going to be consistent, that this city has access to for these uses ever,” said Councilmember Nithya Raman. “It’s really transformative for Los Angeles.” Of the $150 million, $23 million will go toward eviction defense, $23 million will go toward income support for rent-burden seniors, and $18.4 million will go toward rent debt assistance.

Californians move inland for safety, cheaper housing—but find extreme heat that’s getting worse
Los Angeles Times
The most efficient places to grow are California’s coastal cities, both in terms of lessening the environmental footprint of residents and limiting their exposure to heat. However, these cities are the least affordable places to build and live in the state. Some coastal communities have proved aggressively resistant to increasing density, boosting affordable housing and allowing more development. That has left inland exurbs as drivers of new housing, even though they are significantly hotter and require long commutes to job centers. “We likely need more policy to better integrate the state’s housing affordability policies in concert with our climate strategies,” said Zack Subin, an associate research director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley and may require input from risk management teams, but the completion is estimated to take less than an hour. The deadline for completion is September 15, 2023. Please use this link to complete the survey.  

Clips of the Week | Policy