Planning for more housing is a crucial first step on the path to meeting our affordable housing needs. It’s one that cities in Sonoma County are taking right now through their Housing Element process – a plan required every 8 years by the state to show how and where they will add homes within their boundaries. Planning, however, is a distinct process from building: and building requires financial support. In recent years, local jurisdictions have taken on a greater share of the cost for funding housing development. But the increase in the supply of housing will require new and ever larger sources of funding often beyond the reach of individual city budgets. In response to this need, the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development has added a new tool to prioritize funding for jurisdictions most committed to building housing.
The Prohousing Designation is a status awarded to cities that accelerate the approval and construction of housing. Cities that win the designation from the state will be first in line for critical state housing funds from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program and Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, to name just a few. Policies that qualify a city for the designation include those that significantly:
- Lower impact fees
- Streamline the approval processes for new development, and
- Increase allowable density
This means the state is willing to support housing where it is most likely to get built: in cities and towns that have created the policies that help ensure it does.
Generation Housing is committed to helping those cities and towns create those policy changes required to spur more, mode diverse, and more affordable housing. Just as critical as planning, these state funds can eliminate the financial obstacles to building affordable rental housing, especially in previously exclusionary, high-opportunity neighborhoods. As of November 2022, we have begun working to understand the steps for achieving the Prohousing Designation. Evaluating the state’s sole winning application from Sacramento, we have initiated an in-depth review of the policies and jurisdictional codes that qualify a city for the designation. Beginning in December we will provide technical assistance to cities with a commitment to going above and beyond the state-mandated Housing Element requirements. Generation Housing, in collaboration with housing consultants and community advocates, will assist jurisdictions in crafting robust plans in support of the Prohousing application.