ARTICLE
Over the last couple of years, we have written about housing legislation ideas to stimulate the development of building more homes and more affordable homes. While the California Legislature and the Governor have passed and signed into law a bevy of bills that hopefully will begin to make an impact on our housing shortage that has taken decades to create. Last September, the Governor signed 13 bills into law to help confront the homelessness crisis and others to fuel new housing development. 2020 is another year where housing will be a primary focus of our State Legislature. Local Government leaders should take notice that doing nothing is not a solution to our problem. We know the problem: California's housing crisis is due in large part to a lack of supply, particularly when it comes to affordable housing, and it is hitting low-income individuals the hardest. Now can we agree on a solution? But 2019 concluded without Newsom signing a game-changing law that would spur construction of new homes, which is largely seen by advocates and lawmakers as the key to solving California’s housing crisis. California local governments as of November were on pace to approve building permits for 111,000 new housing units in 2019, down from 117,000 in 2018. Newsom, while running for governor, set a goal of building 3.5 million new homes by 2025, which amounts to 500,000 new housing units per year. State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has once again re-crafted Senate Bill 50 (SB 50) with minor legislative tweaks to hopefully quell the roar from the opposition — led by the League of Cities, and suburban neighborhoods in Southern California that hold on to their love of 1950s— 1970s single family housing developments that dominated the growth of California in the last century. You can read up on the new efforts about SB 50 here: https://calmatters.org/housing/2020/01/housing-california-sb50-wiener-cities-wiener-legislature/ Senate Bill 50 has twice been beaten back, in different forms, by an assortment of constituencies focused on California’s housing crisis — on Monday he announced revised legislation aimed at satisfying concerns over local control, among other issues, that blocked the bill last year. Wiener has argued that the best way for California to address its crushing housing shortage is to permit the construction of more apartments near public transit. Increasing the housing supply and density, he contends, will lower rents, reduce traffic and cut emissions from greenhouse gas. The Chamber supported the 2019 version of SB 50 and will again review the updated legislation as we convene our legislative advocacy strategy this year. At a press conference in Oakland on Tuesday, protesters drowned out the message from Senator Wiener and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf as they attempted to describe the changes in the legislation. Wiener revealed two major changes to the bill designed to make it more palatable to opponents. Under the new SB 50, cities have an option to write their own plans to add more housing in accordance with their local needs, and low-income residents living near new developments will have priority for the affordable homes in those buildings. It is certain that other legislative options will be re-introduced in 2020. Last year, the City of Santa Cruz wanted to release old redevelopment funds held in dormant accounts since the removal of redevelopment agencies by former Governor Jerry Brown several years ago. You can read about it here in a previous eNews article; https://web.santacruzchamber.org/news/newsarticledisplay.aspx?ArticleID=1812 In mid-2019, state Assembly member Mark Stone introduced Assembly bill (AB 411), which aims to increase and improve affordable housing in the City of Santa Cruz. AB 411 was designed as one solution to help the City of Santa Cruz unlock a funding source for affordable housing. The bill passed the state Assembly and Senate with overwhelming support, but Governor Newsom vetoed the legislation. His veto message was succinct: “The bill will result in a General Fund cost of millions of dollars. While I appreciate the intent of the Legislature to increase the production of affordable housing, I do not support the proposed exemptions to redevelopment agency dissolution requirements, which will reduce funding available for education.” AB 411 would have allowed the City of Santa Cruz access to over $16 million in funds that were previously inaccessible, for the purpose of increasing our ability to provide affordable housing in Santa Cruz. Assembly member Stone’s bill will unlock a local funding source critical to produce an affordable housing project that requires multiple funding options to actually make a project possible. Specifically, this bill authorizes the City of Santa Cruz to use bond proceeds that are required to be used to (release) bonds issued by the former redevelopment agency (RDA), to increase, improve and preserve affordable housing and facilities for homeless persons, so long as those proceeds are used in a manner consistent with any original bond covenant. It appears that there are internal conversations between Assemblymember Stone, the City and the Governor’s office on alternative language that would be acceptable. Let’s see what’s to come about those housing funds sitting idle. Lawmakers also want to find more money to spur redevelopment construction. Newsom rejected legislation last year to authorize an eventual $2 billion in funding for affordable housing, saying in his veto message of Senate Bill 5 that such costly proposals should “be part of budget deliberations.” Sen. Jim Beall, the San Jose Democrat who wrote SB 5, said fixing the housing crisis “can’t be done overnight with one-time funding” and his office confirmed he would reintroduce SB 5 on Monday. Advocates have instead urged Newsom in a November letter to commit $5 billion in his January budget for affordable housing initiatives. The coalition of 11 groups that penned the letter asked for a permanent expansion of the low-income housing tax credit and funding for extremely low-income housing options, saying the scale of the crisis “calls for bigger, transformative solutions.” A priority for the California Housing Consortium, which signed on to the letter, is to streamline the Housing and Community Development Department’s affordable housing application process, a “highly technical” idea for a bill, said the group’s lobbyist Marina Wiant. “But I think it will be meaningful and make it easier for both the state and the development community to underwrite and develop critical and affordable housing units,” Wiant continued. Yesterday, Governor Newsom announced in an executive order in advance of releasing his proposed 2020-2021 budget to address our growing homeless crisis as well as increase funds for housing. You can read the Governor’s press release here: Governor Newsom's Executive Order 1-8-2020 Two more bills that stalled in 2019 could return. One proposal would make it easier for voters to approve bonds to build affordable housing by lowering the threshold for passage. Another would reform how cities calculate and impose fees on new development. Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article238910033.html#storylink=cpy So the legislative stage is set for an active year on housing. The question of the day is, how will local governments respond to the legislation surge in Sacramento and will there be the political will to take on entrenched advocacy groups who oppose housing? Stay tuned…it will be an interesting year.
Over the last couple of years, we have written about housing legislation ideas to stimulate the development of building more homes and more affordable homes. While the California Legislature and the Governor have passed and signed into law a bevy of bills that hopefully will begin to make an impact on our housing shortage that has taken decades to create. Last September, the Governor signed 13 bills into law to help confront the homelessness crisis and others to fuel new housing development. 2020 is another year where housing will be a primary focus of our State Legislature.
Local Government leaders should take notice that doing nothing is not a solution to our problem.
We know the problem: California's housing crisis is due in large part to a lack of supply, particularly when it comes to affordable housing, and it is hitting low-income individuals the hardest. Now can we agree on a solution?
But 2019 concluded without Newsom signing a game-changing law that would spur construction of new homes, which is largely seen by advocates and lawmakers as the key to solving California’s housing crisis. California local governments as of November were on pace to approve building permits for 111,000 new housing units in 2019, down from 117,000 in 2018. Newsom, while running for governor, set a goal of building 3.5 million new homes by 2025, which amounts to 500,000 new housing units per year.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has once again re-crafted Senate Bill 50 (SB 50) with minor legislative tweaks to hopefully quell the roar from the opposition — led by the League of Cities, and suburban neighborhoods in Southern California that hold on to their love of 1950s— 1970s single family housing developments that dominated the growth of California in the last century.
You can read up on the new efforts about SB 50 here:
https://calmatters.org/housing/2020/01/housing-california-sb50-wiener-cities-wiener-legislature/
Senate Bill 50 has twice been beaten back, in different forms, by an assortment of constituencies focused on California’s housing crisis — on Monday he announced revised legislation aimed at satisfying concerns over local control, among other issues, that blocked the bill last year. Wiener has argued that the best way for California to address its crushing housing shortage is to permit the construction of more apartments near public transit. Increasing the housing supply and density, he contends, will lower rents, reduce traffic and cut emissions from greenhouse gas.
The Chamber supported the 2019 version of SB 50 and will again review the updated legislation as we convene our legislative advocacy strategy this year.
At a press conference in Oakland on Tuesday, protesters drowned out the message from Senator Wiener and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf as they attempted to describe the changes in the legislation.
Wiener revealed two major changes to the bill designed to make it more palatable to opponents. Under the new SB 50, cities have an option to write their own plans to add more housing in accordance with their local needs, and low-income residents living near new developments will have priority for the affordable homes in those buildings.
It is certain that other legislative options will be re-introduced in 2020.
Last year, the City of Santa Cruz wanted to release old redevelopment funds held in dormant accounts since the removal of redevelopment agencies by former Governor Jerry Brown several years ago. You can read about it here in a previous eNews article; https://web.santacruzchamber.org/news/newsarticledisplay.aspx?ArticleID=1812
In mid-2019, state Assembly member Mark Stone introduced Assembly bill (AB 411), which aims to increase and improve affordable housing in the City of Santa Cruz. AB 411 was designed as one solution to help the City of Santa Cruz unlock a funding source for affordable housing. The bill passed the state Assembly and Senate with overwhelming support, but Governor Newsom vetoed the legislation. His veto message was succinct:
“The bill will result in a General Fund cost of millions of dollars. While I appreciate the intent of the Legislature to increase the production of affordable housing, I do not support the proposed exemptions to redevelopment agency dissolution requirements, which will reduce funding available for education.”
AB 411 would have allowed the City of Santa Cruz access to over $16 million in funds that were previously inaccessible, for the purpose of increasing our ability to provide affordable housing in Santa Cruz. Assembly member Stone’s bill will unlock a local funding source critical to produce an affordable housing project that requires multiple funding options to actually make a project possible. Specifically, this bill authorizes the City of Santa Cruz to use bond proceeds that are required to be used to (release) bonds issued by the former redevelopment agency (RDA), to increase, improve and preserve affordable housing and facilities for homeless persons, so long as those proceeds are used in a manner consistent with any original bond covenant.
It appears that there are internal conversations between Assemblymember Stone, the City and the Governor’s office on alternative language that would be acceptable. Let’s see what’s to come about those housing funds sitting idle.
Lawmakers also want to find more money to spur redevelopment construction. Newsom rejected legislation last year to authorize an eventual $2 billion in funding for affordable housing, saying in his veto message of Senate Bill 5 that such costly proposals should “be part of budget deliberations.”
Sen. Jim Beall, the San Jose Democrat who wrote SB 5, said fixing the housing crisis “can’t be done overnight with one-time funding” and his office confirmed he would reintroduce SB 5 on Monday.
Advocates have instead urged Newsom in a November letter to commit $5 billion in his January budget for affordable housing initiatives. The coalition of 11 groups that penned the letter asked for a permanent expansion of the low-income housing tax credit and funding for extremely low-income housing options, saying the scale of the crisis “calls for bigger, transformative solutions.”
A priority for the California Housing Consortium, which signed on to the letter, is to streamline the Housing and Community Development Department’s affordable housing application process, a “highly technical” idea for a bill, said the group’s lobbyist Marina Wiant. “But I think it will be meaningful and make it easier for both the state and the development community to underwrite and develop critical and affordable housing units,” Wiant continued.
Yesterday, Governor Newsom announced in an executive order in advance of releasing his proposed 2020-2021 budget to address our growing homeless crisis as well as increase funds for housing. You can read the Governor’s press release here:
Governor Newsom's Executive Order 1-8-2020
Two more bills that stalled in 2019 could return. One proposal would make it easier for voters to approve bonds to build affordable housing by lowering the threshold for passage. Another would reform how cities calculate and impose fees on new development.
Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article238910033.html#storylink=cpy
So the legislative stage is set for an active year on housing. The question of the day is, how will local governments respond to the legislation surge in Sacramento and will there be the political will to take on entrenched advocacy groups who oppose housing? Stay tuned…it will be an interesting year.