President Biden signed into law the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 spending bill on March 11, 2022, after nearly five months of negotiations in Congress. This bill moderately increased funding for affordable housing and community development programs – the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was allocated $53.7B, a $4B increase over FY 2021 enacted levels. This funding level was less than what was proposed by the President’s FY 2022 budget request, the House’s budget request, and the Senate’s budget request. Read More. .

President Biden just released his budget plan for FY 2023, with an increase in funding for programs administered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of $6.2 billion over the FY 22 level. In total, the budget proposes $71.9 billion in discretionary spending, in addition to $50 billion in other federal affordable housing investments. Congress will begin the process of drafting its spending bills, with appropriations committees expected to start work on the bill this summer.

Significantly, the President is proposing a historic expansion of housing vouchers, renewing all existing vouchers and expanding the program to serve an additional 200,000 families. Programs that respond to homelessness would also see increased funding, including an 11% increase in Homeless Assistance Grants. The HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) would see a 30% increase. Most other HUD programs would see limited increases or stay level, and a few would see reductions, including the Section 202 and 811 programs.

Check out this chart from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) to see how much each program would receive under the President’s proposal compared to FY 22.

On March 23^rd, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan to respond to racial bias and discrimination in home valuations. The plan was the product of the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) task force, which was created by executive order on June 1, 2021, the 100^th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riots. The PAVE task force was co-chaired by HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge and Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice and engaged a team from 13 federal agencies. Read more. . .

President Biden established the Justice40 initiative within the first few weeks of his term, indicating his priority in tackling the climate crisis while creating economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities and progressing environmental justice.

The Justice40 initiative is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that Federal agencies work with states and local communities to make good on President Biden’s promise to deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from Federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. Read more. . .

Last week, AB 2179—the COVID Tenant Relief Act was amended to add an urgency clause to extend the State’s COVID-19 pandemic protections for an additional three months beyond the original sunset date of March 31. The bill passed the Senate with a 36-1 vote and was signed into law before the current moratorium was set to expire at midnight. The bill will enable more tenants and landlords to access the funds and moves the date for landlords to initiate eviction proceedings from April 1^st to July 1^st as long as an application was submitted on or before March 31^st. 

The legislature took this action to respond to the significant backlog of applications for assistance. Many tenants and landlords who had submitted applications have been waiting for months to get checks in hand. The hope is that the State will be able to work through the backlog of applications and make the necessary payments to tenants and landlords before the new July 1^st sunset date. According to the COVID 19 Rent Relief Program Dashboard, as of March 22^nd 489,879 applications had been submitted and 214,247 households served with more than $2.4 billion in aid. The State has requested an additional $1.9 billion from the federal government.

Unfortunately, this new law only applies to those who had an application on file as of April 1^st. Tenant groups are concerned that we will soon see a wave of evictions and displacement for those who are behind on their rent and did not make the required deadline. The new law supersedes local eviction moratoria, including hard-fought protections in Los Angeles County and San Francisco that were slated to go into effect on April 1. The same requirements now apply in all areas of the State, and local jurisdictions cannot enact new tenant protections until July 1.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, chair of the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development, introduced a bill on Friday, March 25^th to create a new ten-year funding stream for housing and homelessness. ACA 14, a constitutional amendment, will require a 2/3rds vote of the Legislature and 2/3rds support from the State’s voters. The Assemblymember has indicated a desire that this measure be placed on the November 2022 ballot.

The proposal would target 5% of the State’s General Fund for housing and is expected to generate around $10 billion annually. Recently, State funding for housing and homelessness has increased, but the funds allocated have largely been one time. This ongoing source would be tied to a ten-year investment strategy prepared by the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency.

While the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has refrained from providing detailed guidance on the implementation of 2021’s Senate Bill 9, it recently released a Fact Sheet to provide localities and other interested parties with a high-level overview of the law and answer question that have been raised about the bill’s requirements since it was signed into law last September. SB 9 enables the development of two- to four-unit developments on single-family property throughout the State.

HCD does not have the authority to enforce the provisions of SB 9, but it is possible that HCD’s Housing Accountability Unit can take action if it finds violations of other parts of the law as the bill is implemented at the local level. HCD is coordinating with the State Attorney General strike team that is ensuring compliance with a variety of different housing statutes. According to the State, HCD is currently investigating 29 complaints about SB 9 implementation.

Last week, HCD released a $650 million Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), which will distribute funding from several different HCD-administered multi-family rental housing fund sources. Dubbed the “Super NOFA,” this consolidated offering was required by AB 434 (2020), and includes funding from the following programs:

This is the first year that HCD has issued a Super NOFA, streamlining the process for applicants to submit funding requests. The application deadline for the Super NOFA is June 28, 2022, with awards expected to be announced in November. Eligible applicants included developers, public agencies, and tribal governments. Access the grant guidelines here.

Legislative Committees Begin Consideration of Key Housing Bills

Legislative committees began work in earnest in March to review the many housing bills that were introduced earlier this year. In last month’s newsletter, we highlighted bills that made changes to State housing programs, streamlined development, made it easier to develop housing in commercial zones, and propose the creation of new regional housing entities. Read More. .

HCD, in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the Strategic Growth Council (SGC), and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), has released draft guidelines for the Regional Early Action Planning Grants of 2021 (REAP 2.0) program. Comments on the guidelines are being accepted until April 15, 2022. Read More. .

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation, along with cityLAB at UCLA and the Center for Cities + Schools has released a research report and companion Workforce Housing Handbook to define the need for public education workforce housing solutions, describe current efforts to respond to the needs, and recommend new solutions for housing using land owned by local educational agencies (LEA). LEAs include California’s public K-12 institutions and County Offices of Education.

The report, Education Workforce Housing in California—Developing the 21^st Century Campus, found that:

The Eviction Lab, housed in Princeton University, recently updated its Eviction Tracking System (ETS), currently the most comprehensive eviction tracking database nationwide, with data from the second calendar year after the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

The ETS tracks 6 states and 31 cities and contains a historical database of eviction filings, which was used to develop a Preliminary Analysis of Eviction Filing Patterns in 2021. While none of the data comes from California, the Eviction Lab used current and historical data to illustrate national trends. Read more. . .

Several important reports have been released in recent days that are worth noting:

ADU Best Practices—After a year of conversations with local governments, development professionals, nonprofit organizations and small housing experts, the Casita Coalition produced the ADU Best Practices Guidebook, which provides best practices for jurisdictions for increasing the development of Accessory Dwelling Units. The Casita Coalition, formed in 2019, is a statewide, multi-sector organization working to remove policy barriers to development of small homes, including ADUs, duplexes, and cottage clusters.

New Report on Housing Solutions—The Little Hoover Commission just released a new report entitled California Housing: Building. More Affordable Future, which includes seven targeted recommendations to address the State’s housing crisis.

The Little Hoover Commission is an independent bi-partisan State oversight agency that includes five members of the public selected by the Governor, four public members appointed by the legislature, two senators, and two assemblymembers. Its recommendations are submitted to the Governor and legislature for consideration and often are introduced as legislation.

The State Auditor Focuses on Housing—The State Auditor released two new reports in the last two weeks—one that reviewed the State’s performance in offering surplus land for affordable housing and one that focused on the Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) process.

The Surplus Lands report recommended that the Department of General Services take steps to accelerate the disposition of surplus State property, finding that to date only 19 of 92 identified properties had been offered for affordable housing development. The RHNA report recommended that HCD improve its data collection and its oversight of the RHNA process and that the Department of Finance improve its process for developing projections of future population growth, which is used to determine the allocation of RHNA goals.

Coordination of Public Transit Services and Investments with Affordable Housing —The National Academies Press released a new synthesis of transit practice that provides a snapshot of past and present approaches to aligning transit and affordable housing. The report includes results from a national survey of 51 transit agencies conducted during spring of 2021 and case studies of the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Boise, Chicago, and Kansas City, and describes the ways that transit agencies and affordable housing policy makers and service providers are innovating and partnering, and outlines the significant gaps, missed opportunities and needs that remain unmet.

As Senior Principal and Co-Team Leader of the Homelessness Solutions Team, Pam works with partners to utilize best practices in solving the complex issues that contribute to homelessness. Most recently she served as Chief Deputy with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development where she focused on eviction prevention, homelessness, and creating affordable housing for vulnerable populations specifically through collaborative efforts across the housing and healthcare sectors. If you are interested in learning more about effective solutions to addressing homelessness, please reach out to Pam at [email protected].

A former Housing Policy Leadership Academy (HPLA) alum and housing advocate, Aria Pounaki turned his passion for housing into a career with time spent working in project management in the affordable housing sector. Aria joins LeSar as a Senior Associate on the Innovations team where he will continue to use his passion to contribute to the HPLA program with curriculum development and instruction as well as through developing a Community of Practice for HPLA alums. If you are interested in learning more about HPLA or want to learn about opportunities to get more involved locally in San Diego, please contact Aria at [email protected].

As Principal on the Policy, Legislative Research and Applications team, Chul will help track and provide critical insight into housing policy, legislation, and regulation to assist clients in their efforts to expand the production and preservation of affordable housing. From 2018 to 2022, Chul was the Senior Acquisitions Manager at Abode Communities where he worked on land acquisitions, strategic planning, policy, and financial modeling for LIHTC and other development projects throughout the State. Prior to that, Chul was a Project Manager at A Community of Friends, specializing in supportive housing developments across Southern California. Chul currently serves on the Board of TRUST South LA, a neighborhood-based community development organization in South Los Angeles. If you are interested in affordable housing development and related policy, alternative homeownership models, please contact Chul at [email protected].

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