May is Affordable Housing Month and SHA is celebrating by redoubling our efforts to ensure that everyone in our region has a safe, accessible and affordable place to call home. As we finally begin to see light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, we are reminded how the challenges of the prior year clearly demonstrate the importance of HOME in the lives of our families and community. A safe and affordable home provides shelter to keep us safe from COVID. A stable and affordable home helps us keep working, either from home or to ensure our essential workers have a secure place to return after a hard day’s work. A stable home, especially those in regulated affordable rental communities, helps make sure children have a safe space and reliable internet to support their remote learning.
But for too many in our communities, the dream of a safe and affordable home is still out of reach. And while there is light at the end of the tunnel, the impacts of the pandemic will be felt for a long time and further underscore the continuing racial inequities that plague our region and country. In 2021 and beyond, SHA is committed to ensuring all of our work effectively addresses the continuing pandemic impacts on affordable housing and advances racial equity. Addressing the systemic and historic harm from government funding programs and land use policies, will be embedded in all of our work.
Won’t you please join SHA as we celebrate the value and meaning of home and fight to ensure that the benefits of a safe, accessible and affordable place to call home are a right everyone in our community can enjoy! Access to opportunity and shelter, must not be limited to those with privilege and wealth, homes for all must be a fundamental goal of a fair and just society. I am confident if we all join together in this fight, a new day will be revealed where HOME is a reality for all. Join us and help us see this new day together. As we are reminded by Amanda Gorman in her beautiful poem, The Hill We Climb, “A new dawn blooms as we free it, For there is always light, If only we’re brave enough to see it, If only were brave enough to be it.” Be brave enough and join us and we continue this important work,
In community,
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Cathy Creswell
Board President
Sacramento Housing Alliance
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Our Mission
Sacramento Housing Alliance advocates for safe, stable, accessible, and affordable homes in the Sacramento region. SHA builds healthy communities through education, leadership, and policy change.
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Our Vision
Everyone in the Sacramento region has a home in a healthy and inclusive neighborhood.
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Facebook Live! Launch of the 2021 Affordable Housing Needs Report |
Every May during affordable housing month, SHA in partnership with the California Housing Partnership releases the annual needs report for Sacramento County, and other local jurisdictions. We are going live on May 12th at 12pm to discuss the report and what this means for thousands of individuals and families in need of an affordable home in our region.
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Housing Element Work & Updates |
The Housing Element is the blueprint to accommodate for a city or county's anticipated housing needs. Jurisdictions throughout the region will begin to seek state certification and adopt their 2021-2029 Housing Elements this month |
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SHA will be hosting several virtual town explaining the housing element process and highlighting key programs contained in the soon to be adopted housing elements. |
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1. What is the largest barrier to building more affordable housing in your neighborhood?
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State and Local Laws and Regulations
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Insufficient Financial Resources
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2. In Sacramento, what discrimination in housing did Black, Indigenous & People of Color face?
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Government lending programs would not lend to people of color
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Land use and zoning policies designed to keep an area for white households
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Real estate practices that steered people of color away from certain places
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People of color were regularly told an available home was sold or rented
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3. What percentage of people believe that affordable housing is a “top national priority”?
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50% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats
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65% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats
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73% of Republicans and 95% of Democrats
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*Answers to 2 & 3 are at the bottom of the page |
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On May 10, 2021 Governor Gavin Newsom previewed his $100 billion California Comeback Plan. Under the plan, the state would offer the largest renter assistance package of any state in America, with billions of dollars to help Californians pay back 100 percent of their back-rent, their rent for the months to come, and overdue water and utility bills.
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On May 5, 2021 a Federal District Judge ruled that the CDC eviction moratorium exceeded the authority of the federal agency. Within hours of the decision, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a notice of appeal of the decision and announced its intent to seek an emergency stay of the order. The judge in the case granted a temporary administrative stay and gave plaintiffs until May 12 to file a response to DOJ’s request for a full stay pending appeal of the ruling. For now, eligible tenants struggling to catch up on rent in the wake of the pandemic are still protected under the CDC moratorium.
If the CDC moratorium is overturned, millions of renters will be at immediate risk of losing their homes and could face eviction before they are able to access federal assistance.

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Last week, the Treasury & White House issued new guidance on Emergency Rental Assistance with the critical requirement that programs are required to give money directly to the tenant if landlords choose not to participate. Join No Renter Left Behind & Housing Now as they host an information session on May 12, at 3 pm. Register here.
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SHRA Rental Assistance Applications open May 11th |
Help is available for renters who have not been able to pay rent and utilities because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Online applications will be accepted for the Sacramento Emergency Rental Assistance (SERA2) program beginning Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 12:01 a.m. Applicants can go to the Agency's website
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California Covid-19 Relief |
CA COVID-19 Rent Relief will help income-eligible households pay rent and utilities, both for past due and future payments. The federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 provides funding to support the program and tenant (renter) protection laws signed by Governor Newsom.
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Racial and Social Justice |
As the country continues to confront a history of racial injustice, deeply rooted in the legacy of enslavement and systemic racism, May 7, 2021- Governor Gavin Newsom appointed five individuals to serve on the newly formed Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. The formation of this task force was made possible by the Governor’s signing of AB 3121, authored by then-Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), which established a nine-member task force to inform Californians about the institution of slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations.
The conversation of reparations will not be complete without mention of the discrimination in housing people of African descent have experienced in California and throughout our nation.
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Along with a thorough study of the institution of slavery on people of African descent, Section G of AB 3121 addresses other forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed African slaves and their descendants who were deemed United States citizens from 1868 to the present, including redlining, educational funding discrepancies, and predatory financial practices.
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Hate against the AAPI community, is hate against all of us. Stop the Hate. The following report released on May 6, 2021 details the rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community.
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Sacramento Steps Forward, the Continuum of Care (CoC) in Sacramento is a 25 member Board responsible for managing community planning, coordination and evaluation to ensure that the system of homeless assistance resources are used effectively and efficiently to rapidly and permanently end people’s homelessness. In 2021 The CoC launched the Racial Equity Committee, tasked with developing an action plan to guide the decision-making process of the CoC Board over the next three to five years.
This plan will be fully informed by BIPOC with lived experience of homelessness, as well as input and recommendations from stakeholders, studies, pilots, local systems evaluations, and the learnings of other communities.
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The ultimate vision is to create an equitable, accountable, and transparent homelessness system that catalyzes structural change both inside and outside of our current sphere of influence.
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Become a Member Today
The Sacramento Housing Alliance is a member-based organization that works to increase the supply of affordable housing and support the efforts of affordable housing developers. We need strong and engaged membership that reflects a broad base of community support for progressive affordable housing and regional equity policies.
Membership in the Sacramento Housing Alliance links you to a community of compassionate advocates and thought
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makers and gives you access to member-only events and early access to issue papers.
Members receive
· Discounted rates to our annual
Affordable Housing Summit
· Educational seminars and
discussions
· Lively networking receptions and
other SHA-hosted events
Members are eligible to nominate individuals to serve on the board and nominate award recipients.
Organizational members may extend event discounts to their employees, and may request promotion of their outstanding projects and programs by SHA.
Most importantly, membership in SHA will strengthen our work advocating for a safe and affordable home for all in an inclusive and healthy

To Learn more about becoming a member and the benefits Click Here
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Facebook Live- Release of 2021 Needs Report |
Join us along with California Housing Partnership on May 12th at 12pm on Facebook Live as we review the Sacramento County 2021 Needs Report, and how that will guide policy decisions throughout our region.
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Join Mercy Housing as we fight to Bridge the Divide Wednesday May 19, 2021 from 5 to 6 PM. Here we will partner with residents as we confront disparities in income equality, access to technology, resources for education, career advancement, and maintaining good health and wellness.
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Habitat's Home Repair Loan Program |
Habitat for Humanity's Home Repair Loan Program is open! If you know of anyone that needs roof or weatherization repairs (such as upgrading heating and air systems, window replacement, water heater repair, appliance upgrades, and siding or door replacement), please let them know about our program. Qualified and selected homeowners will only be responsible for 20% of the repair project cost as a 0% interest loan. |
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The application and more information about the program can be downloaded by clicking here.
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Take the Following Poll by May 19th |
Along with the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, Housing Now! is excited to launch a new survey to urgently capture the experience of organizations helping tenants connect to and/or assist in applying for COVID Emergency Rental Assistance Programs.
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Answers to the Poll
2- All of the Above
3- 73% of Republicans and 95% of Democrats
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