CHC's Industry Insight
A Note from our Executive Director

We're in the final weeks of the legislative session, and perhaps within days of critical solutions to the state's housing crisis coming together and being voted on by the Legislature.
 
The details that come out of a final housing package will matter, a lot, of course. Much will be written in the days and weeks ahead on what is or is not in the final deal, and what it means for local communities.
 
But we also can't lose sight of the big picture. What matters at the end of the day is whether we - housing advocates, legislative leaders and community partners - took any steps forward to ease the plight of the thousands of Californians struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Will we have put forward solutions that start to turn the tide on this housing catastrophe?
 
I believe we will.
 
As of publishing of this newsletter a housing deal will reportedly include a general obligation bond, permanent funding source for affordable housing and regulatory reforms. These are the steps we have long said needed to be taken to help the one in three Californians who can't afford their rents; to ease the burden for the 1.7 million households spend more than 50 percent of their incomes on housing costs; to start to make up for the more than $6 billion in disinvestment in affordable housing funding at the hands of the Legislature over the last decade.
 
We've always known a crisis of this magnitude couldn't be resolved in one legislative session. We had to start somewhere, and this is finally the year.
 
An announcement on a housing deal, votes in the Legislatures and signing of the package may come this week and grab headlines for a news cycle. We know it's just the beginning to ensure we create affordable housing opportunities that will benefit families, seniors and veterans for years to come.

  Sincerely,
  





  Ray Pearl 
  CHC Executive Director 
In Case You Missed It...
  • TCAC Opportunity Maps: comments related to general methodology or to the first five regional Opportunity Maps are due September 1. Comments related specifically to the final four regional maps are due September 15. Review the documents describing the methodology, the first Opportunity Maps, and summary data sets on TCAC's new Opportunity Maps page.  
  • On Thursday, August 24, CHC along with other affordable housing advocates were at the Capitol with California State Treasurer's John Chiang, urging the CA Legislature to go 'Big and Bold' to fight the state's housing crisis. See what Linda Mandolini from Eden Housing had to say in the video below:   
  • Upcoming legislative deadlines:
    • September 1 - Last day for fiscal committees to meet and report bills to the Floor.
    • September 8 - Last day to amend bills on the floor. 
    • September 15 - Last day of session.
  • The affordable housing conference season is almost upon us! Join our partners for their annual conferences by following the links below:
  • HumanGood - is the coming together of two organizations with rich histories of serving older adults and their families. American Baptist Homes of the West began in 1949 with the establishment of Pilgrim Haven Retirement Community. Their original purpose was to provide quality housing and health care for retired American Baptist ministers and missionaries, but grew to include older people regardless of occupation or religious affiliation. be.group began life as Southern California Presbyterian Homes in 1955 when the leaders of three Southern California presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church recognized the need for communities that would support older adults in their aging journeys. ABHOW and be.group successfully affiliated in May 2016 as HumanGood and now serve nearly 10,000 residents in 84 communities across California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Idaho.
Federal Update from David Gasson, Boston Capital

So it is the Congressional recess which means nothing is
supposed to be going on, right?  Well this is the time of Trump and despite Members of Congress best hopes, the political world continues to rock and roll, not always for the better.
 
The plan was for congressional leadership, tax chairmen and staff and the administration's tax staff to work on a reform proposal over the recess and then roll it out when Congress returned in September.  An awe would roll over Washington as we all marveled at the collective tax wisdom and solidarity that resulted from these discussions.  Tax reform, unlike healthcare reform, would be attainable, only lacking a bow to be put on it for the President to sign during the holidays. Fa la la la la......
 
Then Charlottesville happen, and then a press conference, another press conference, another press conference and a political rally in Arizona.  Sprinkle in a little (well a lot) of venom spewed in the direction of Senate Majority Leader McConnell with a little left over for Speaker Ryan and we now have the makings for a train wreck of yet to be determined proportion in the month of September.  No big deal except that the country's credit status is attached to the clock from Mission Impossible and is set to go off in Secretary Mnuchin's figurative hand at the end of the month and, oh my lord, we run out of money on September 30th.  These two issues of some significance were on shaky ground before the recess but now, you have a President threatening to close down the government if they do not fund his 2000 mile perch for solar panels on the southwest border while also questioning the significance of defaulting on the debt.  And I will not even go into the demands of the Freedom Caucus of both the budget and debt ceiling negotiators.  
 
So to loosely quote that great Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora, "tax reform, you want to talk about tax reform?"  
 
September in DC would be fun to watch if there was not so much at stake and no one knows what will happen.  Members and staff we have spoken with at length are nervous and as one senator related to me, "we have had crisis before but never one like this of our own making with no clear and successful result in sight."  Stay tuned and prepare for a crazy ride. For timely updates on these issues please follow me on Twitter @dsgasson.  
   
Thank you,
David Gasson
Let Your Voice Be Heard a s the CA Legislature Completes a Housing Package

Your elected officials will vote in the coming days/week(s) on legislation that can help build affordable housing in your community. This is the last chance they have to hear from you before they vote on a housing package. Let your voice be heard! 

BringCAHome.org was launched earlier this year to educate Californians on the roots of the affordability crisis and to empower Californians to make their voices heard on the solutions needed to fix these broken and backward state housing policies. The website allows you to send a message directly to the office of your CA Legislators to urge them to support funding and building affordable housing. Please visit our site, enter in your information (info will only be used to match you with your elected representative), then share your story of why having an affordable housing is important to you and how will it help families, seniors, students, veterans, and more. 


Affordable Housing in the News

The Sacramento Bee reports that California legislative leaders have reached a deal on a pair of key housing bills expected to generate billions of dollars for the construction affordable housing units. Together, Senate Bill 2 and Senate Bill 3 would generate $4.1 billion over the next five years, according to lawmakers' estimates. That money would allow local developers to leverage an additional $15.6 billion in federal and local funding for low-income construction and generate 70,000 new housing units, Beall said.

California's housing crisis doesn't just affect people struggling to live and work here right now. There's growing evidence that it could impact everyone who lives here, and elsewhere, in the future. The  San Francisco Chronicle stated findings from a Beacon Economics study that  found transportation-related emissions have begun to rise, following years of progress on California's ambitious climate policies. The culprit of the rise in emissions is a healthy economy coupled with a lack of affordable housing.  Dan Walters explains in the Fresno Bee , that  California's housing crisis has spawned several other socioeconomic dilemmas, the most important being a transportation crunch.  And finally, CALmatters  published a wide ranging article, picked up by many regional and national media outlets, that goes into full detail to attempt to explain the reasons and causes for our current housing catastrophe in California.
CHC Spotlight on New Development


Located on a former BART parking lot adjacent to the San Leandro BART Station, Marea Alta includes 115 rental apartments affordable to households earning 30-55% of AMI. Building amenities include a community room with full kitchen, laundry facilities, bike storage, a landscaped courtyard with gathering space and a  child care center that will be operated by Davis Street Family Resource Center. 

Marea Alta was constructed with an innovative design-build process to decrease project inefficiencies. While Marea Alta was BRIDGE's first modular project, the technique will be used again for the second phase of the master-planned site: San Leandro Senior Apartments, 85 affordable unit for seniors. 

Central Commons, a high-density, affordable housing development with 2- to 4-bedroom condos, will transform a vacant lot into a beautiful, thriving neighborhood in the heart of Fremont. The community is being built by Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley and will offer 30 families earning up to 80% Area Median Income (AMI) the opportunity to create stability through homeownership. True to its name, it is centrally located with access to BART, I-880, and I-680, connecting residents to work and play. The development will feature attractive landscaping, well-lit pedestrian walkways, open community spaces, children's play features, bike racks, auto courts, and private decks or patios. In order to enhance energy efficiently and save homeowners money, Habitat employed their "whole systems" approach to green building, which includes landscaping, construction materials and methods, water conservation, and maximization of natural light.

Interestingly, Central Commons was made possible in part through $1 million in cap-and-trade funding from the California Dept. of HCD and is the first - and so far the only -- home-ownership development to receive such funding through the cap and trade Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program.

*If you would like a development listed in CHC's Spotlight on New Development, please contact Andy Russell
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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.