Message From ED | September 2021
There is lots of housing news to celebrate right now. Although, more accurately, there is lots of potential to celebrate. We’ll have to get to work to turn that potential into more, more kinds, and more affordable homes.
News from D.C.:
The House Ways & Means committee, on which Congressman Mike Thompson sits, passed a bill that includes more Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), the primarily funding stream for affordable housing development, and the House Committee on Financial Services passed a bill with significant investments in affordable housing development, housing trust funds, down payment and rental assistance funds, and in modular housing facilities’ innovation and capacity building. The modular housing facility investment provision was added as a result of local collaborative effort led by Generation Housing and Congressman Mike Thompson and his staff. (Read more about modular housing, and send a letter to Senators Feinstein and Padilla to urge them to stand strong on the bills in their current form, below.)
News from California:
The Governor’s office announced a new funding stream for stalled projects, adding to its already unprecedented investment in housing production and homelessness solutions. And the Governor signed bipartisan bills endorsed by Generation Housing, SB10, an opportunity for cities to create an easier, cheaper, and faster path to multi-family, transit oriented development; and SB9, which increases property owners’ options to build on their single family home parcels, increasing the number of small, multi-family units allowed in more of our neighborhoods. SB9 starts to chip away at the exclusionary zoning codes that have slowed development and in turn increased housing costs, and both created and maintained neighborhoods segregated by race, ethnicity, and income.
We thank Senator Mike McGuire for co-sponsoring and championing both of these bills.
But we’ve got work to do!
- Each of our local jurisdictions must opt-in to SB10, and we will be urging our cities and towns to promptly pass resolutions adopting its provisions.
- SB9 only helps expand our housing stock if homeowners take advantage of it. This is an important opportunity for property owners to add housing options for rent or ownership that will make our neighborhoods more diverse and vibrant, to build for more comfortable multi-generational living, and to create new income streams for local homeowners.
Generation Housing will be holding information sessions to educate homeowners on their rights to subdivide their lots, build granny units, and duplexes, and provide an overview of those processes. Watch our alerts and newsletters for announcements of those events.
- The State has also just announced a new “Pro-Housing Designation.” The designation gives cities and towns increased access to substantial state grant funding for housing and transportation. The designation is earned by local jurisdictions that enact pro-housing policies and reduce barriers to housing development, as determined by a specific point system. Generation Housing is in the process of determining the paths our cities and towns can take to earn this powerful Designation.
- Very little of the new state and federal money will be automatically allocated. As usual, affordable housing developers will of course need to apply and qualify for tax credits, and much of the rest of the federal funds will be awarded through competitive grants. It will be important for our local jurisdictions, developers, and housing advocates like us to identify funding streams for which we are eligible and submit compelling applications. It’s our hope that our local leadership will work collaboratively to effectively capture local funding.
There is lots to be optimistic about, but we’ll have to work together to leverage these opportunities. Be sure to sign up for our action alerts here so that you can join our call for SB10 adoption, add your voice to our call for bold policies that advance our housing goals and move us toward the Pro-housing Designation, stay informed on local efforts to maximize state and local funding, and to sign up for SB9 info sessions and other educational events.
We thank you for the engagement and membership that powers our work.