May 2022 Newsletter

May is Affordable Housing Month! While affordable housing is an issue we care deeply about year round at Gen H, this month is a great opportunity to inspire action on the frontlines of housing policy.

You don’t need to be a lawyer or an elected official to influence housing policy in your city. In fact, the most crucial local housing policy requires YOU. Yes, you! The policy is called the Housing Element, and it’s essentially a plan to provide housing to everyone in your city. California cities are required to have public input when this plan is updated every eight years, and the cycle to update it is this year. 

The Housing Element will map out how many homes are needed in your city and gets into the specifics of what kind of homes, for which income levels, and where the homes would be built. Also included are strategies and policies to support housing goals

To make a big difference in affordable housing supply, call your local city government today and find out when is the next opportunity for public input on the Housing Element (which is part of a city’s General Plan). Then, show up to those sessions, and make your voice heard. Share your perspective on housing needs. What kind of housing do you and your friends and family need? Where do you think is a reasonable place to build new housing in town? What are your values and concerns about housing? What price point is affordable for you? 

Overall, we know that 57 percent of Sonoma County renters are housing cost burdened. And rent burden disproportionately impacts Black and Latino renters, of which 65 and 56 percent of Black and Latino renters are cost burdened, respectively. 

We need affordable, safe and stable housing for everyone, at all income levels, for a more just and equitable community. At Generation Housing, we allocate the majority of our resources and staff time to addressing the affordable housing shortage. For example, in order for a housing development to earn our endorsement, additional points are awarded in our scoring system for projects with a minimum of 25 percent deed-restricted affordable units. We advocate for policies that specifically prioritize our communities of color, such as multi-family development in high-resource areas and Down Payment Assistance programs. We also work with the state to ensure Sonoma County receives adequate funding from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

To brush up on our region’s housing challenges, check out the “State of Housing in Sonoma County.” It’s a 66-page report we released earlier this year that provides an overview of housing stock, density, homebuilding and stories from local residents impacted by this data. Optimistically, the State of Housing report notes that we once achieved higher homebuilding rates — averaging 4,000 new homes annually in the 1990s — which we can do again, but more sustainably. It starts with a plan, so please be sure to participate in your city’s Housing Element process today!

In partnership,

Jen Klose

Earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom released his May Revise to the 2022-2023 state budget proposal. While we welcome his ongoing commitment to equitably build more affordable and climate-smart housing, a much deeper investment is required to meaningfully address our burgeoning crisis with the bold solutions that WE KNOW will effectively help us realize our vision for a more sustainable future. Yet, even amidst the state enjoying a record budget surplus of nearly $100 billion, the commitment of $2.5 billion to affordable housing is modest relative to our communities’ immediate and long-term needs. 

We’re thankful for the steadfast advocacy of our partner’s at Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH). In a recent blog analyzing the May Revise, they outlined the shared priorities between the California State Senate and our own regional advocacy. These Senate priorities include:

• $500 million for Multifamily Housing Program
• $500 million for Housing Accelerator Program
• $100 million for the Joe Serna Farmworker Housing Program
• $350 million for CalHOME Program
• $200 million for the Downpayment Assistance Program
• $50 million for ADU Financing Assistance, to help spur increase in housing supply through ADUs

With thousands of shovel-ready affordable projects approved and ready to go, we call upon the Governor and our state elected officials to infuse more financial resources into these key programs that will trigger the next wave of affordable housing development across the state.

We look forward to further supporting our regional partners and allies, and thank them for their support in advancing our collective vision. 

For more information on the Housing and Homelessness May Revise Budget Summary, click here.

Generation Housing is proud to announce our endorsements for the 2022 Legislative Session. We look forward to working with our regional partners and allies to advance these bold and solution-oriented proposals.

June House Party| June 16th 5:30 - 6:30PM, Location TBD

Youth & Housing Town Hall | July 21st 5:30 - 6:15PM, Virtual

Why Double Digit Rent Hikes are Here to Stay | Time

Similarly jarring double-digit rent spikes are happening all over the country. In Henderson, Nevada, rents rose 26% between 2021 and 2022, according to rental platform Zumper, and in New York City renters they leapt 30%. Folks in Miami will likely see rents rise by 39%. Nationwide, rent for a one-bedroom apartment between March 2021 and March 2022 rose an average of 12%; it was the eleventh time in the last year that one-bedroom rent averages hit an all-time high.

Anti-worker or pro-worker? Why labor unions are fighting over a housing bill| CalMatters

A new bill aimed at increasing affordable housing construction has an important backer: California’s carpenters’ unions. The state’s formidable Construction and Building Trades Council, which represents most other construction unions, is opposed. The battle comes down to how stringent labor requirements under the new bill would be.

America's Rental Housing 2022| Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University

America’s Rental Housing 2022 posited that renters are uniquely vulnerable to climate change and related disasters because renters receive less assistance after disasters than homeowners. The study cited a 2019 HUD analysis of CDBGDR-funded recovery examples, which showed that only an eighth of housing activities funding went to affordable rental construction or rental assistance. They also found that renter households often lack the “financial resources to evacuate".

Record high Sonoma County home prices, rents put new squeeze on residents | Press Democrat

Throughout the pandemic, soaring local rents and home prices — which both hit record highs in April — have forced renters and buyers to make similar choices and compromises. And despite signs the local home real estate market could be approaching its peak, experts say Sonoma County residents shouldn’t expect housing costs to come back to earth any time soon.

The People Who Hate People | The Atlantic

Of all the objections NIMBYs raise to new housing and infrastructure, perhaps the most risible is that their community is already too crowded.

California Lawmakers Advance Bill To Allow Affordable Housing in Commercial Districts | CoStar

The California Assembly advanced a measure that would create a streamlined process for developers to convert underused or vacant commercial properties into affordable units to help address the state’s housing shortage.

America Needs More Luxury Housing, Not Less| The Atlantic

Nevertheless, carping about “luxury development”—or more accurately, any market-rate development—has emerged as the preferred angle for opposing housing construction. In the recent past, the typical NIMBY complaint was that new housing was too affordable, and thus a threat to “community character,” a term loaded with racial baggage. Today’s NIMBYism, savvy to a changing political landscape, makes hay opposing new housing on the basis that it isn’t affordable enough.

National Zoning Atlas launched to make America's patchwork of codes accessible and comprehensible| Cornell Chronicle

Zoning laws, adopted by thousands of local governments across the country, dictate much of what can be built in the United States. Zoning codes have major ramifications for businesses, housing, and quality of life but can be very difficult for non-experts to understand.