2022 Impact Report

Growing Power

& Securing Justice

with You!

Regional Policy

We believe that our regional challenges deserve a regional approach, which is why we’re working to secure a strong, comprehensive approach to address the Bay Area’s housing shortage with bold plans and programs that hold local cities and counties accountable. In 2022, we laid critical groundwork for transformational electoral strategy in the years ahead, gearing up for regional ballot measures and more.

Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA)

Alongside our partners, NPH engaged in state budget advocacy efforts that led to the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) becoming fully staffed and positioned to launch 5 pilot programs, building momentum for 2024 state and regional campaigns. BAHFA is a regional body created from NPH co-sponsored legislation in 2019 and designed to raise revenue in the region for affordable housing and homelessness solutions through ballot measures.

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Working Groups

In 2022, NPH launched two new PSH workgroups designed to evaluate PSH efficacy and efficiency and develop an advocacy agenda toward PSH solutions in the Bay Area. PSH is a promising solution for people who experience chronic homelessness and other related challenges. In alignment with NPH’s commitment to homelessness solutions that are holistic and long-term, NPH’s PSH Working Groups convene to strategize toward the development of PSH in the Bay Area, working to: understand the full costs of providing PSH; generate consensus on best practices; and develop a collective advocacy agenda to improve the PSH ecosystem for consumers and developers/owners.

State Policy

Overall, our focus was to deliver reforms and investments, at scale, that prioritize people first. The results? We’ve secured critical wins and have built the momentum needed to keep advancing our agenda into 2023.

State Budget

NPH worked in close collaboration with our affordable housing and homelessness colleagues to advocate for a strategic set of budget priorities. While the final state budget for 2022-23 included a total of $2 billion for affordable housing and homelessness solutions, this investment falls short when compared with the state’s historic surplus and what is needed to match our communities’ housing needs. NPH continued to lay critical groundwork for renewed budget advocacy efforts ahead for the 2023-24 state budget.

Legislation

NPH supported AB 2011 author Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and bill co-sponsors California Housing Consortium and California Carpenters in passing this transformative legislation that has been in the works for several years. AB 2011 pairs new opportunities to build affordable housing on underutilized commercial sites with unprecedented labor standards that ensure all construction workers earn prevailing wages and receive health benefits. Additionally, we’ve laid necessary groundwork for continued work on critical affordable housing bills that remain in progress as well as strategy to implement others that passed into law. We know firsthand that the transformation of our housing infrastructure will take time and we’re here for the long haul of our collective work.

Regulatory Policy

NPH’s regulatory program helps ensure that critical affordable housing policies and solutions are implemented effectively and fairly in order to create significant impact for our Bay Area communities.

New Rules for Major Affordable Housing Source

NPH spearheaded advocacy efforts alongside our members and legislators that led to California’s Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) implementing new rules guiding the awards for 4% tax-exempt bonds, a major source of funding for affordable housing production. These new rules reward the multifaceted public benefits created by mission-driven developers – instead of simply judging them by the number of units generated.

Federal Policy

From coordinating local elected officials to spearheading sign-on letters, NPH seizes the opportunity to advocate on the federal level for affordable housing throughout the nation.

Advocating for Housing in Year-End Tax Bill

NPH coordinated efforts with members, partner organizations, and local and state elected officials to urge Democratic leadership to support a lowered bond test in any year-end tax bill, which would eliminate bottlenecks to affordable housing production and unlock approximately $3 billion dollars in additional funding for affordable housing in California alone. NPH will continue to aggressively pursue the rule changes needed at the federal level to ensure more affordable housing funding and development.

Community Advocacy & Voter Engagement (CAVE) Certification Program

CAVE is a professional development training series providing comprehensive voter engagement and advocacy training support to resident services staff and others who provide direct service in the affordable housing industry. In 2022, CAVE launched its fourth and fifth cohorts, where NPH supported and trained participants to advance resident empowerment and civic participation at their organizations.

Data for Housing Justice!

NPH worked with the Regional Suburban Organizing Project (RSOP), which engages organizations to support the growth of organizing capacity for housing justice in the suburbs, to create a voter data analysis tool. This tool will enable us to launch strategic and targeted communications and outreach all toward the goal of advancing housing justice at the ballot box in 2024 and beyond.

Success at the Ballot Box

Our biggest affordable housing win this past election cycle was the passage of Oakland’s Measure U, a transformative measure that will bring in $350M, without raising taxes, to create housing for working families, essential workers, and Oaklanders experiencing homelessness. Measure U does this equitably—by prioritizing the neighborhoods in Oakland with the most need.

Bay Area Housing Internship Program (BAHIP)

NPH is committed to doing our part in diversifying the affordable housing industry and BAHIP is one such effort. BAHIP is a one-year, paid internship program designed to recruit and train low-income students of color at Bay Area colleges and universities to become housing development professionals. The goal of BAHIP is to advance leaders of color in our industry, remove common barriers to opportunity, and support a robust pipeline of professional and diverse leaders to strengthen our industry. In 2022, BAHIP:

• graduated our fourth cohort, comprised of 7 interns;
• kicked off the first half of its fifth cohort, comprised of 9 interns;
• conducted 25 technical and soft skills trainings for interns; and
• hosted a retreat, mixer, and meet & greet lunch.

Anti-Racist Champions of Change (ARCC)

Launched in 2022 but a result of many years of listening, discussing, and developing, ARCC offers a one-year immersive experience for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) managers and their executive-level leaders working in nonprofit affordable housing development. ARCC is for industry leaders who are ready to see their organization at the forefront of change and are committed to dismantling oppressive power dynamics in the affordable housing field. Our first-year cohort included 11 BIPOC managers and 3 executive partners representing two core NPH member organizations: MidPen Housing and Mercy Housing.

Racial Equity & Inclusion Statement

After many years of work within NPH and throughout our member organizations to cultivate and deepen our approach to racial equity and inclusion, we put pen to paper to consider why and how we're approaching this work. The result of this process was our Racial Equity Statement. Our Racial Equity Statement affirms our staunch commitment to diversity and inclusion in our organization, our policy advocacy and campaign work, our membership base, throughout the affordable housing industry, and society at large.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Working Group

With representation across 40 member organizations, this group meets monthly as part of three subcommittees to share best practices, develop industry standards, and build a movement to advance racial equity & inclusion in three key areas: contracting practices, hiring & retention, and lending.

The Largest Affordable Housing Conference in the Bay Area

In 2022, NPH hosted our highly anticipated 43rd Annual Affordable Housing Conference in person for the first time since 2019, bringing together over 1,000 affordable housing practitioners for networking, learning, and knowledge sharing. The conference featured 21 timely workshops spanning hot topics in affordable housing development, racial equity, and advocacy all toward the goals of addressing and overcoming industry challenges and strengthening the affordable housing movement in the Bay Area.

Celebrating Our Movement with Leadership Awards

Every year NPH recognizes inspiring leaders in our field who have worked to strengthen our affordable housing movement and advanced our work forward with innovation, collaboration, and inclusiveness. In 2022, we held our 26th Annual NPH Affordable Housing Leadership Awards virtually, recognizing Jan Lindenthal (MidPen Housing) with the Inspirational Non-Profit Leader Award; Sonya Freeman and Bernadine Martin (Eden Housing) with the Regional Advocacy Leader Award; and Scott Barshay (Gubb & Barshay LLP) with the Catherine A. Bauer Lifetime Achievement Award.

View awardee videos to get inspired!

Growing Capacity, Deepening Connections

NPH events and programs aim to cover the many needs and latest developments of our industry. Other key programming includes:

Brown Bag Training Series

Each year, our Brown Bag slate offers exciting opportunities for dialogue around some of affordable housing’s most timely topics, including a state budget overview, lessons learned from the housing elements process, and more.

Emerging Leaders Peer Network (ELPN)

One of NPH’s most engaged programs among member organization staff, ELPN offers a full slate of events and trainings each year designed to develop up-and-coming housers’ expertise and knowledge across all sectors of the affordable housing field. In 2022, opportunities included a return to in-person happy hours; trainings on insurance 101, loan docs, and affordable homeownership; and the second year of our Breakfast with the Boss series, a breakout success of one-on-one conversations with affordable housing leaders.

Resident Services Professional Development Training Series

NPH is committed to providing deep support to those who work directly with affordable housing residents (see above “Community Advocacy & Voter Engagement (CAVE) Certification Program”). These sessions cover areas most relevant to these staff, such as self-care practices and trauma-informed care, and provide space for peer learning and sharing.

Advancing Narrative Strategy Together: NPH Staff & Members

Working closely with the NPH-led Shift the Bay initiative, NPH programs and members gained pro-housing messaging strategies designed to amplify shared values, tell stories of impact, and build the public will needed to advance housing and racial justice in the Bay Area:

How to Talk about Affordable Housing

NPH’s Shift the Bay provided narrative guidance to our 2022-23 Bay Area Housing Internship Program (BAHIP), equipping them with strategies for community meetings, funding proposals, making public comment, and more. The initiative also worked with the multi-sector Great Communities Collaborative's Public Lands Working Group and our policy team to determine core narrative opportunities in advocating for publicly-owned land for affordable housing.

Winning Messages for the Election Cycle

In partnership with Bay Rising, NPH’s Strategic Communications Council, and Shift the Bay, we presented Electoral Communications (C3 Approved!), sharing how c3 nonprofits can legally engage in advocacy within their unique capacities and roles to activate our base as well as new housing champions, by positioning housing as urgent, actionable, and a pathway to liberation and justice.

Affordable Housing Month: Experimental Narrative Campaign

Through an Affordable Housing Month ad campaign in partnership with United Way Bay Area, we developed an experimental narrative campaign to show the connection between housing and other priority issues, such as health, education, and the environment. We reached more than 200,000 Bay Area residents multiple times to educate, motivate, and mobilize, and activated individuals to contact their local representative to champion housing in the State Budget May Revise. Supporters who took action were sent an affordable housing sticker to create a base of visual support for Affordable Housing Month and build resonance for housing justice.

Working in Coalition: Narrative Implementation and Impact

Led by NPH, the Shift the Bay initiative hosts an 18-organization table that works in partnership with us toward messaging and narrative implementation, impact, and transformation. Throughout the year, we convene and research together on a variety of narrative-related topics, strengthening our coalition through education and coaching opportunities. Some of our work together in 2022 includes:

Seeding New Narratives

Shift the Bay supports our table organizations with targeted implementation of our timely messaging and narrative research, resourcing their individual narrative projects that put our regional research into action.

Research, Test, Evaluate

Through case studies, focus groups, field/media analysis, and more, we worked with our table to learn, refine, and repeat, continuing to adapt our work to what’s changing and needed in transformative narrative shift work.

The Payoff: Public Information Campaign 2023-24

We’ve strengthened and grown partnerships in order to support the final strategic prong of our narrative strategy: a coordinated, regional public information campaign to grow resonance and strengthen support for housing and racial justice in the Bay Area. In 2022, we laid the groundwork for a 2023-24 campaign strategy designed to scale our findings with the goal to align values across our regional narrative ecosystem, fire up our base, and activate passive supporters/bystanders toward affordable housing solutions.