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A Note from our Executive Director
While we wait for Governor Brown's signature on the housing package, it is not too early to reflect on the past year and the legislative votes that took place on September 14th and 15th. We have ended many years lamenting a near miss or celebrating small victories or being frustrated by a gubernatorial veto. This year, however, is a much different story. In often tense (the SB 2 vote stayed open for an hour, 3 votes short) and dramatic (Assemblyman Maienschein's aye vote on SB 2, giving us the 54 votes we needed) fashion, the Legislature passed our key housing bills and took significant steps that will help begin to turn the tide on California's housing catastrophe. It took an amazing team effort, collaboration with important partners, and the work of key elected leaders to make all this happen. Every legislator is now on record, one way or another, on affordable housing. We thank those who have emerged as true champions and we will continue to educate those who let us down. Regardless, the work that you all do to provide affordable housing to those who need it was finally recognized as critical to California's future.
Many of you have reached out to me and shared how gratifying it is to see the decades of advocacy work of the affordable housing industry, and CHC's specific efforts as well, pay off in such a momentous way. Emphasizing advocacy, education and collaboration with our important partners, we
not only achieved passage of our key funding bills,
SB 2 (Atkins)
and
SB 3 (Beall)
, but we also secured
AB 72 (Santiago and Chiu)
,
AB 1397 (Low)
and
AB 1505 (Bloom, Chiu and Gloria)
, measures that achieve enforcement of local planning obligations and provide tools for local governments to build inclusive communities.
I want to congratulate and thank each one of you. It is because of your commitment to
CHC's mission and your collaboration toward solutions to put affordable homes in reach for low- and moderate-income Californians that the housing package includes our key bills. Every call and email, visit to a legislator, story that you shared about a family whose life was improved - it all added up and made a difference in pushing our elected leaders to act on the housing crisis.
We started this legislative year knowing we faced steep hurdles in making housing a priority, for many reasons. But
together, we leveraged our expertise and relationships and created a rallying cry that could not be ignored - relentlessly pushing, as CHC's mission states, for every Californian to have a safe, affordable place to call home.
Legislators are home in their districts on recess until January so please take time to sincerely thank our elected leaders who worked with us help struggling Californians have affordable homes. Give them a call, say thank you on Twitter, visit their offices and invite them to your next project groundbreaking or a program at one of your sites.
Congratulations again to all of you for a job well done in 2017.
Breaking News: We have just received word this morning that the Governor will be signing the housing package at 11:00 am tomorrow morning in San Francisco!
Sincerely,
Ray Pearl
CHC Executive Director
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In Case You Missed It...
- The affordable housing conference season is almost upon us! Join our partners for their annual conferences by following the links below:
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Federal Update from David Gasson, Boston Capital
On September 27th, the White House and top GOP leaders released their tax reform outline entitled "Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code". We are very pleased that the framework includes the Low Income Housing Tax Credit as one of two credit's (R&D) maintained in the tax code. This is a testament to all the work the industry has put into getting Members of Congress out to see LIHTC properties and making them advocates for the program.
The framework proposes both individual and corporate tax rate cuts and collapses the number of individual tax brackets from seven to three. The standard deduction would almost double to $12,000 for a single filer and $24,000 for married couples. The proposed corporate rate is 20% and the proposed rate for pass-through entities and S corps would be 25%. The framework states that "committees will adopted measures to prevent the re characterization of personal income into business income to prevent wealthy individuals from avoiding the top personal tax rate." Needless to say the framework leaves a lot of work for the committees and we want to stress that these provisions are aspirational. These rates and provisions will likely evolve as this is just the beginning of the process.
There are a number of provisions that affect affordable housing including the expensing provision, the deductibility of business interest and the status of private activity bonds which are not referenced in the framework.
This is the first volley towards an aggressive push to pass a reform plan with a very short legislative calendar for 2017. There is still some debate as to whether the outline released yesterday agrees with President Trump, who continues to call for a 15% corporate rate vs. the 20% proposed in the plan. There will be continued debate over the plan once the House and Senate tax writing committees review the revenue effects of the plan. Revenue neutrality remains a goal of Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, who's focus is clearly on the international reforms contained in the outline.
The next step is for the House and Senate to agree on a unified budget resolution with instructions for tax reform. With the ACA repeal now seemingly off the table the focus on Capitol Hill will be on tax reform and passing a budget. The House may vote on its version of the budget next week. It is unclear when the Senate will complete its work on the budget but when it does the two chambers will have to reconcile both proposals so the Senate may including reconciliation instructions for tax reform.
As the budget process moves forward, the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees will begin their work on the tax reform framework, a process that promises to be animated, passionate and adversarial. Our industry will be engaged in this process as we ensure that the LIHTC is amended and expanded to meet the frameworks endorsement as a tax incentive that has proven to be effective in promoting policy goals important in the American economy.
Thank you,
David Gasson
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Thank You to Our Bank Supporters
Thank you to the following banks and their foundations for their continued commitment to CHC's mission of the production and preservation of housing affordable to low-to-moderate income Californians.
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Affordable Housing in the News
The housing package was passed by the Legislature two weeks ago but the analysis of the sweeping action continues among reporters and experts.
On Capital Public Radio's Insight, Sen. Toni Atkins this week shared the long history and previous attempts to secure permanent funding for affordable housing, why housing policy is complicated and gives credit to the affordable housing community for success in passing Senate Bill 2. The Sacramento Bee (with comments from CHC Executive Director Ray Pearl) continues the coverage on how the historic housing legislation won't be able to bring down costs any time soon.
There's a new podcast out focused on housing policy and politics that CHC recommends - Gimme Shelter, produced by Capitol reporters Liam Dillon with the Los Angeles Times and Matt Levin of CALmatters. On their latest episode, hear from their guest Asm. Brian Maienschein on why voting for Senate Bill 2 was the "right thing," especially given what he saw during his years as San Diego's commissioner on homelessness and the current Hepatitis A epidemic hitting people who are homeless in his district.
A recent study of the 100 most populous U.S. cities featured on CityLab - a project of The Atlantic - found if renters paid just what they could afford in rent, the average household would have $6,200 more a year for other necessities. And finally, closer to home, with the recent passage of Assembly Bill 1505, the Mercury News has a story on how San Jose is looking at ramping up affordable housing laws for new rental projects.
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CHC Spotlight: Get to Know Silicon Valley at Home
With crazy headlines like "Hear About the Tract House that Went For $800,000 Over Asking?," Silicon Valley is facing an unbelievable housing crisis. In response, local housing advocates and community leaders took action to fill a void by creating a new nonprofit policy and advocacy organization known as Silicon Valley at Home (
SV@Home).
Now two-years old, this membership organization is working 24-7 to advocate for policies, programs, land use, and funding that lead to an increased supply of affordable housing in Santa Clara County.
Led by Ron Gonzales, former Mayor of the Cities of San Jose and Sunnyvale and the current President and CEO of the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, SV@Home's
Board of Directors
includes a broad membership of nonprofit and for-profit developers, labor, business, and community leaders. Executive Director Leslye Corsiglia, brings years of government experience with the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the City of San Jose, and has assembled a talented
staff
from a variety of backgrounds.
To find out more about SV@Home, check it out at (SiliconValleyAtHome.org). SV@Home staff are really proud of the RESOURCE HUB, which links to SV@Home's Policy Roadmap and has detailed background pages devoted to many Housing Topics and Policy Solutions.
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CHC would like to thank the sponsors of our 20th Anniversary:
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Is your CHC membership current? If you would like to
join CHC or have questions on your membership, please contact
Nancy Martin.
STAY CONNECTED:
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CHC is a non-partisan advocate for the production and preservation of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income Californians. We represent the development, building, financial, and public sectors united in their goal that every Californian has a safe, affordable place to call home.
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