The United Voice for Affordable Housing 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• New Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) took the gavel from Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) on June 30. Asm. Rendon has served in the post since 2016, giving him the second-longest run as speaker in state history behind Willie Brown. Rendon has opened a campaign committee to run for State Treasurer and says he intends to serve in the Assembly until he is termed out in 2024. Speaker Rivas has already made some initial changes to his leadership team and committee chairpersons, and we expect more changes will be made after session ends.

• In another notable transition, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California Andrew Meredith announced earlier this month that he was stepping down from his position. This comes on the heels of several major building trades unions withdrawing their opposition to SB 423 (Wiener), CHC’s sponsored legislation extending SB 35. Meredith will be replaced by Chris Hannan, who heads the union group’s Orange County and Los Angeles branch.

• The final budget deal includes $500 million for the LIHTC program, $325 million for MHP (including a $100 million boost proposed by legislators), $225 for the IIG Program, $250 million for Adaptive Reuse, and $100 million for the Portfolio Reinvestment Program. The budget also invests $1.1 billion in homelessness programs and more than $300 million in homebuyer assistance. To read more on the budget click here.

LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP

Over the past six weeks, policy committees have been meeting and Friday marked the deadline for bills to pass out. The Legislature adjourned for summer recess and will return on August 14 where they will have a month to pass all remaining bills out of the appropriations committees and off the Assembly and Senate floors.

SB 423 (Wiener) will extend and strengthen SB 35’s streamlining provisions and remove the sunset on SB 35 (Wiener). The bill passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee 7-0.

SB 439 (Skinner) will strengthen existing protections for affordable housing projects by providing additional remedies to curtail non-meritorious litigation that can delay or kill projects even after they secure local approval. The bill passed out of the Assembly Judiciary 11-0.

SB 440 (Skinner) will empower local governments to join forces to create regional housing finance agencies to address the unique affordable housing needs in their communities. The bill passed out of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee 6-2.

AB 1307 (Wicks) will reverse a troubling, recent court decision relating to unamplified human noise under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The bill passed out of the Senate Natural Resources Committee 11-0.

AB 1449 (Alvarez) will facilitate the development of affordable housing by exempting from CEQA certain 100% affordable housing projects throughout California. The bill passed out of the Senate Housing Committee 9-0.



Please take action today by placing your letterhead on each of CHC's sample support letters and uploading them onto the Legislative Position Letter Portal, and sending copies to our Policy Associate, Jennifer Armenta, at jarmenta@calhsng.org.

CHC is supporting other priority housing bills, view our bill tracker to see real time updates.

SAVE THE DATE!

AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEWS OF THE MONTH

EDITORIAL: Turning office buildings into apartments is how California eases the housing crisis (Los Angeles Times)

Dueling California agendas: Building affordable housing vs. protecting the coast (CalMatters)

California homelessness: Largest study in decades reveals ‘fundamental problem’ behind issue (San Francisco Chronicle)

Gavin Newsom wants $5B to overhaul California mental health care. Here’s how he’ll get it. (Sacramento Bee)

‘Godzilla next door’: How California developers gained new leverage to build more homes (CalMatters)

AB 2011 TAKES EFFECT

Before AB 2011

Potential After AB 2011

AB 2011 (Wicks) took effect on July 1. The bill allows residential development on underused commercial sites by right, if the project meets certain environmental, affordability, and labor requirements. Are you working on an AB 2011 site? If you are and you have any questions, please contact Marina Wiant for more information: mwiant@calhsng.org. CHC is eager to assist members who would like to take advantage of its provisions.

FEDERAL UPDATE FROM DAVID GASSON

Happy July. I hope everyone had a safe, relaxing and fun-filled July 4^th holiday. I was fortunate to spend some over the holiday with a few of our LIHTC supporters and felt energized by their optimism that housing will have its day this year. I hope you were able to touch base with some of your Representatives while they were home.

Now that Congress has returned to Washington after their two-week July 4^th work period, there are a few issues if importance they need to work on. The most significant of these is the FY 2024 budget which I addressed in last months update. None of the dynamics have changed since then and a stalemate is still foreseeable, but we will see how discussions proceed this month. We are counseling folks to plan on a government shutdown of some length in October.

We are pleased with the strong bipartisan, bicameral support for the AHCIA.  As of July 10th the House bill (HR.3238) has 124 cosponsors evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats and the Senate bill (S.1557) has 22 cosponsors also evenly divided between the parties. This is significant progress as we work toward a bipartisan majority (218) of the House which will help us position provisions of the AHCIA for inclusion in a tax vehicle sometime this year. 

We need your help to continue the strong momentum and garner as much support as possible. Counting the Democrats in the queue waiting to be added to the cosponsor list, there are 29 members of the CA delegation supporting the AHCIA. This is a little more than half of the 52-member delegation, so much work remains to increase the numbers. Of the 12 Republican members, Reps. LaMalfa, Kim, Valadao, Kiley, & Calvert have signed on. There is a queue of Democrats in the House waiting to get on the bill, but we need companion Republican’s to join them so please assist us by advocating with the remaining nine Republican representatives to sign onto the AHCIA.

CHC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

CHC Member: Jamboree Housing

Project Name: Paseo Adelanto

Location: San Juan Capistrano, California

Units: 49 units (40 units at 30% AMI and 9 units at 50% AMI)



Opening Date: September 2024

State & Federal Financing Sources:

• California Energy Commission grant funding through Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program
• Orange County Mental Health Services Act funding (30 project based-vouchers, 10 VASH vouchers)
• Bank of America - 9% tax credit equity
• City of San Juan Capistrano Low and Moderate Housing Fund and housing in-lieu fees
• Permanent financing from the Orange County Housing Finance Trust

Paseo Adelanto is a groundbreaking new construction development that seamlessly unites 49 new units of services-enriched housing with the new City Hall for the City of San Juan Capistrano. Paseo Adelanto will create a sense of home for residents with first-floor amenities that include a community room and kitchen, resident lounge, computer lab, conference and counseling rooms, and offices for onsite services. Outdoor amenities in the courtyard behind city hall will include BBQ areas, outdoor seating, and community garden. 

"Everyone needs housing. We can’t address mental health, drug addiction, or physical ailments for people if we don’t have a place where they can be stabilized and feel secure and safe."

said Orange County Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley.