Inside California’s Budget: Interim Solutions for Unhoused Residents, Homeownership, Adaptive Reuse, and Seismic Retrofits
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On Monday, just in time for the start of the budget year on July 1st, the Assembly and Senate voted to approve the FY 20-23 State budget and related trailer bills.
The Governor formally approved the budget Thursday night, just in time for the beginning of the July 1st fiscal year. The budget package was a compromise between the Governor and the two branches of the Legislature, each of which had their own priorities.
This $300 billion budget represents the largest budget in the history of the State as well as the largest budget for any state in the nation. To put it in context, in 1963 the historic budget at the time was $3 billion. The budget surplus was also a record, at $97.5 billion, fueled by increases in capital gains as the State pulled out of the pandemic. Given the current state of the economy and stock market, it is unlikely that next year’s surplus will come close to this amount. For that reason, over 90% of all surplus fund expenditures are one-time.
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Homeownership in Southern California
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Join SCAG and SANDAG on Tuesday, August 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a virtual webinar with policymakers and thought leaders to gain insight on trends in homeownership and to explore opportunities and innovations that will create a more equitable and sustainable housing ecosystem across Southern California. Forum participants will also have the opportunity to:
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Discuss strategies, policies, and funding resources that promote access to homeownership.
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Describe the historic role of homeownership in housing stability and the changing homeownership landscape.
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Explore state, regional, and local approaches to promoting homeownership and accessing capital to accelerate housing production.
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Implementation of Senate Bill 9 |
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The Terner Center for Housing Innovation released a report—State Law, Local Interpretation: How Cities Are Implementing Senate Bill 9— which analyzes how SB 9 is being implemented in ten selected jurisdictions across the State. In addition to highlighting specific examples, the report lays out potential recommendations and resources that would, if adopted, help ensure that the bill has the intended impact
SB 9, known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency (HOME) Act and authored by Senate pro Tempore Toni Atkins, drastically altered single-family zoning in California by allowing owners of single-family properties to increase the density of their land to include up to four homes. The law went into effect in January 2022.
While it is now codified in State law, some jurisdictions have taken steps to lessen the bill’s effectiveness, taking advantage of provisions that allow them to develop unique yet objective design standards and limitations, and to impose additional restrictions beyond the baseline restrictions laid out in the bill. As a result, ordinances from jurisdiction to jurisdiction vary greatly.
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State of the Nation’s Housing |
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The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its report The State of the Nation’s Housing 2022 on June 22nd, highlighting the challenges jurisdictions throughout the nation continue to face in meeting the housing needs of their residents.
The report dives into the challenges, with updated statistics and information about the nation’s housing picture as the country recovers from the last two years of uncertainty. For investors and people who already have stable homes, the housing market performed well during the pandemic, with significant increases in home prices/equity and large increases in rents—the largest increase in more than two decades of data. However, lower-income households and, increasingly, middle-income households, particularly families of color, are being impacted by higher rents and home prices, and are experiencing the housing market very differently.
The report forecasts that future of the market will be impacted by rising interest rates, the sunset of the eviction and mortgage foreclosure moratoriums, continued supply chain issues, tremendous pent-up demand for the limited number of homes and apartments that are available, and current regulations and opposition to housing that makes it harder to build new homes and more expensive.
Check out the report here.
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The Impact of Affordable Housing on Housing & Crime in Orange County |
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The siting of affordable housing does not impact the land values or housing prices of nearby homes in Orange County. In fact, the report found that housing prices increased and that the largest impact could be found in areas with higher levels of poverty.
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Crime rates, including violent crime, fell in neighborhoods where affordable housing was sited.
The authors note that their research was consistent with other studies they had found that looked at the impact on housing prices and crime on adjacent neighborhoods when affordable housing was built nearby.
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Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in California: A Bumpy Rollout or a Flawed Approach? |
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Paavo Monkkonen and Michael Lens from UCLA and Moira O’Neill from UC Berkeley authored this blog post about the implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) requirement in California, which they conclude has been a challenge. According to the authors, out of nearly 200 jurisdictions in Southern California, only a dozen had submitted plans by October 2021. Notably, the City of Los Angeles recently had its housing plan rejected by the State because its AFFH programs were considered insufficient.
The authors lay the bulk of the blame on the State’s implementation, though they acknowledge that some localities are intentionally doing the minimum in order to comply with the law. The authors call for more clarity from the State, with minimum expectations for jurisdictions in order to meet the original intent of the AFFH.
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Homeownership Trends in California |
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This blog from the Public Policy Institute of California looks at California’s homeownership rate and compares it to other parts of the nation, including data on a county level. The post notes that California ranks 48th in the nation in housing units pr capita and that it continues to add more jobs than homes. According to the report, the state has “added 3.2 times more people than housing units over the past decade.”
The Short-Term Benefits of Emergency Rental Assistance, a report released by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, digs into emergency rental assistance and benefits that recipients receive from stable housing—primarily improved financial well-being and mental health. Check out the report here.
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Cancel Zoning—The Atlantic—June 21, 2022—
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