Achieving California’s Goal of a Million More Affordable Homes
The need for more affordable homes has been top of mind for most Californians for many years now. Public opinion research shows, in poll after poll, that affordable housing and homelessness are voters’ top concern.
The state has a tool, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), that requires local governments to plan for the production of approximately a million new affordable homes. RHNA reports show why public concern continues to increase: most jurisdictions in CA are failing to meet the RHNA targets for despite the progress made by state leaders in doubling the new construction of homes during the pandemic, progress that has unfortunately been undermined by the exhaustion of federal pandemic funding and the failure to place an affordable housing bond on the November 2024 ballot.
In this context, the California Housing Partnership research team took a look at what it would take for communities to actually meet their RHNA targets. We did this by looking into a key question:
What is the difference between statewide affordable housing goals and actual production capacity i.e., what we can and must build to meet our needs?
Key findings from this new research include:
● The statewide gap between what we should build according to RHNA and what we can build given adequate federal and state resources is approximately 531,000 affordable homes.
● 71 percent of the statewide gap – approximately 376,000 affordable homes – is in the Southern California Council of Governments (SCAG) region.
● If State leaders do not substantially increase current levels of funding, this capacity will not translate into actual production of affordable homes, leaving regions even further behind in meeting their production goals.
To read more about the Partnership’s research findings and learn about how trends vary by region, click here.
These new research findings are clearly not good news but it doesn’t have to stay this way. A network of housing experts, practitioners, and advocates developed a comprehensive, evidence-based plan to show the state exactly what is required to produce more than a million homes, end homelessness, keep vulnerable people in their homes and increase equity: California’s Roadmap Home 2030. Having this state Roadmap demonstrates that our challenge is not what to do — it is having the political will to do it.
One critical opportunity will come to CA voters this November when one of the Roadmap’s key recommendations appears on the ballot, namely California Proposition 5. Prop 5 empowers local voters to approve bonds to fund new affordable housing, critical public and emergency response infrastructure in our communities with a 55% vote and requires those bonds to have strict accountability and oversight. Prop 5 gives communities more tools to make housing more affordable for the millions of Californians struggling with high housing costs — and an opportunity for the state to deliver on its RHNA goals.
Learn more about Prop 5 at yesonprop5.org and join the California Housing Partnership in endorsing this measure, which is a critical next step if we hope to end homelessness and the affordable housing crisis in our local communities.
| 
