KQED: Newsom’s Proposed Budget Keeps Most Housing, Homeless Funding Intact. Advocates Want MoreKQED:

NPH’s 2023-2024 Budget Proposal Analysis

January 12, 2023

Silicon Valley: Is the Bay Area on the Verge of a Housing Construction Slowdown?

January 18, 2023

Amid a looming $22.5 billion deficit, California housing advocates expressed relief that Gov. Gavin Newsom is largely keeping funding for housing and homelessness programs intact in his 2023–24 budget plan. But, they said, it’s insufficient to meaningfully reduce homelessness across California.

The proposed budget maintains current affordable housing production levels, or about 20,000 new affordable homes per year. Abram Diaz, policy director for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, said that’s an improvement over the past but a long way from enough.

“It should buy us another year of production,” Diaz said. “We had hoped we could go above and beyond that.”

Diaz said he’ll be working to secure more money for the cause as lawmakers hash out the budget over the coming months, before the start of the next fiscal year, on July 1.

“Because if we can’t, and we face another recession and another budget gap in the next fiscal year, then we really might start feeling more of a crunch,” he said.