The Latest News

February| 2023

Federal News

HUD Releases Homeless Count Numbers


Yelba Carrillo, Principal


The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) presented the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress late last year, which found that nationwide there were an estimated 582,500 people who experienced homelessness on a single night. Of the total, 60% were sheltered. Read more for report details.

Proposed Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule Released

 

Natalie Donlin-Zappella, Principal


On January 19th, HUD announced the release of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), seeking comments from the public on proposed revisions to the 2015 rule that was issued by the Obama Administration to rectify decades of racist housing policies. Read more. . .

Renters Bill of Rights Released


Jacqueline Woo, Senior Associate


Late last month, the Biden Administration released the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, highlighting 24 specific measures the federal government will take in strengthening and protecting renters and calling upon Congress, local and State governments, and the private sector to take further actions. The Blueprint, which includes input from tenants, tenant organizations, housing providers, and others, builds upon other recent efforts, including the recently proposed Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, the President’s plan to prevent and end homelessness, and the housing supply action plan that was released last year. Read more...

State News

Corporation for Supportive Housing Calls For $8 Billion in Annual Funding for Homelessness


Jacqueline Woo, Senior Associate


The Corporation for Supportive Housing released its California Homeless Needs Assessment report in December, calling for an investment of more than $8 billion annually over the next twelve years to house the State’s homeless residents and those at risk of falling into homelessness. The plan calls for the construction of 112,527 new affordable homes along with supportive services and other programs. It assumes $1.2 billion in current State and federal funding, requiring an additional $6.9 billion from other sources. Read more...

New Laws in Effect Relating to Annual State Housing Element Reporting


Chul Gugich, Principal


On January 1, several new laws went into effect that make changes to Annual Housing Element reporting. Read more... 

Reports and Data

Jacqueline Woo, Senior Associate


Bring California Home Coalition Offers Educational Tools and Messaging


The Bring California Home Coalition introduced a new website with a comprehensive “Homelessness is a Policy Choice” toolkit that provides facts and data about homelessness in the State. Included in the toolkit are presentations, infographics, one-pagers, social media posts, and videos. The campaign is sharing these materials to help advocates and policy makers the information needed to guide policy and message solutions and they encourage people to share the information, post it to social media, and incorporate it into presentations and meetings.

Report Looks at Household Growth and Future Housing Demand


The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University released a report—“The Surge in Household Growth and What it Suggests About the Future of Housing Demand”—which shows significant levels of household growth between 2019 and 2021 even though population growth has slowed. The report finds that the growth in households is attributed to older millennials who, due to new economic factors, are just now beginning to form households. It is anticipated that lower population growth moving forward will eventually result in a reduction in the formation of new households, and that future household growth will be dependent on factors that are less predictable, including immigration. This would impact the demand for new homes in future years.

Terner Center Highlights SB 9 Activity


The Terner Center for Housing Innovation released a report in January that looks at how Senate Bill 9, the landmark legislation that redefined single-family housing in California, has fared during its first year. Coined the California HOME Act, SB 9 allows owners of single-family lots to build as many as four homes on their properties. The battle to enact SB 9 was fierce, with opponents concerned about rampant building that would impact neighborhood character and proponents arguing that more land and tools are needed to ensure that people can afford to live in increasingly expensive areas. Read more...

Articles

The White House is Considering Broad Actions to Expand Tenant Protections—Bloomberg—January 18, 2023

 

How Environmental Law is Misused to Stop Housing—CalMatters—January 8, 2023

 

Rising Sea Levels Are Threatening Affordable Housing. What Can Local Governments Do?—Housing Matters/Urban Institute—January 18, 2023

Meet our New Staff

Amanda Wagner

As the Senior Associate for LeSar Support Services, Amanda Wagner serves as a client resource for grant writing, program design and management, and capacity building. Amanda developed policy and managed programs with the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health for 11 years and has worked in food systems, planning, and community development for regional governments and national and community-based non-profits. If you are interested in launching, building, monitoring, or fine tuning a new or complicated grant or program, please contact amanda@lesarsupport.co.  

Anji Taylor

With responsibility for brand strategy, marketing programs, and support for each of our client-facing portfolio firms in their integrated communications efforts, Anjanette Taylor joins LeSar Holdings as the Marketing and Communications Manager. Most recently, Anji spent 6 years leading strategic branding, marketing, and communications efforts for the San Diego Youth Symphony, one of the region’s leading non-profit providers of youth arts education programs.

Heather Reilly

With a diverse background in operations and project management, Heather Reilly brings distinctive experience to the role of Special Projects Manager at LeSar Holdings, primarily supporting the CEO and COO in the development of key organizational objectives. Heather previously served as the Director of Production for a tech startup, developed student programming at the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management, and was a project manager for the world’s largest autism care provider.

Rich Valdez

Rich Valdez is LDC’s new Chief Operations Officer, managing and overseeing the LeSar portfolio’s governance, contracting and procurement, marketing and communications, policies and procedures, legal work and risk management. Rich was a civil litigation attorney handling a wide variety of complex business and commercial disputes, representing the largest of companies to small businesses, for over 30 years. He has over 25 years of experience teaching at the University of San Diego’s School of Law and Paralegal Program. Rich was a member of the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission and has served on many public and non-profit boards for almost three decades. Mr. Valdez received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and his B.A. in political science from UCSD.

Join our Growing Team

Come join our team! LeSar Development Consultants and its family of companies is growing, and we are looking for talented and motivated team members to join our diverse team. Please help us reach a wide group of candidates by sharing with your networks and social media channels. Find more information about these positions on our Careers Page.


Chief Strategy Officer, LeSar Holdings

LeSar Holdings is recruiting an experienced and dynamic Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) to work in partnership with the CEO, other C-suite executives and business line executives, and teams to lead our strategic planning and strategic execution efforts, to identify and develop our top growth opportunities, and to create, and nurture a culture of continuous strategy assessment.


We are looking for a person that can balance strategy formulation and execution, align staff around change management strategies, lead on issues and questions of strategic direction, be a good listener able to pull forward emergent ideas from the business teams, and create the needed feedback loops to ensure strategic connectivity between the business line teams, the marketplace, and the CEO. That position is linked here: Chief Strategy Officer, LeSar Holdings


Real Estate Associate, Housing Team, LeSar Development Consultants

The Associate in the Finance and Development Unit within the Housing Team will help strategize, create, and execute client-focused scopes of work primarily focused on affordable housing development, finance, and feasibility. The position is posted here: Real Estate Associate, Housing Team, LeSar Development Consultants


Real Estate Analyst, Housing Team, LeSar Development Consultants

The Real Estate Analyst in the Finance and Development Unit within the Housing Team will support with strategizing, creating, and executing client-focused scopes of work primarily focused on affordable housing development, finance, and feasibility. The position is posted here: Real Estate Analyst, Housing Team, LeSar Development Consultants


Library and Information Science Intern, Global Policy Leadership Academy

This position will provide an intern pursuing a library science degree with an opportunity to support the development of a searchable online resource library used by staff and GPLA program participants and alumni to further their knowledge. The role requires strong research, writing, and organizational skills, and the ability to work both independently and as part of one or more teams. Library and Information Science Intern, Global Policy Leadership Academy

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