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Coming down the pipeline in this month’s edition:
- Major Changes Needed to the State’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program
- The Legislative Session Proceeds with Mixed Results
- 2021-22 State Budget: Affordable Housing Investments
- On the Federal Level: Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act
Major Changes Needed to the State’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program
The state reports that only $20 million of the $2.6 billion in the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) has been distributed to eligible landlords and tenants. That’s less than 1% of the money available. Because of this, NPH is working with All Home and PICO California to advocate for urgent updates to SB 91, the debt relief and eviction protection bill, so that rental assistance is fully deployed, back rents are forgiven, and the eviction moratorium is extended.We are urging supporters to send in this letter to key decision makers at the state level.
The Legislative Session Proceeds with Mixed Results
Last week two critical NPH sponsored bills, AB 528 and AB 71, were heard in Assembly Appropriations with the following results:
- AB 71 (L. Rivas): This bill would create a $2.4 billion annual allocation for homelessness and housing by taxing overseas profits of corporations that do business in California. I am pleased to share that AB 71 has advanced out of Assembly Appropriations and now moves on to be heard in the full Assembly!
- AB 528 (Wicks): This bill would remove blighted properties from neighborhoods, give affordable housing developers an opportunity to build in more places, and remove tax delinquent properties from the County ledger while keeping existing tenants housed. Unfortunately, AB 528 did not advance out of Assembly Appropriations, which means that it is no longer an active bill in the State Legislature.
NPH will continue to advocate for policy solutions that can address our affordable housing challenges in meaningful ways, especially through the upcoming state budget, regulatory advocacy, and other housing bills moving through the State Legislature.
2021-22 State Budget: Affordable Housing Investments
On Friday, May 14, Governor Gavin Newsom released his May Revise to the 2021-22 state budget (see “Housing and Homelessness” section), which includes $12 billion in critical funding to address homelessness and increase affordable housing. NPH discussed details of the plan in a blog post and a follow up email.
The May Revise contains the following housing investments:
- $7 billion over two years for Project Homekey
- $500 million to Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for implementation grants
- $1.75 billion for stalled HCD projects
- $500 million to continue our state’s investments in the low income housing tax credits
- $4 billion for affordable student housing
Read full details in our blog post and follow-up email
NPH is pleased to see housing investments in the Governor’s May Revision and will continue to track what’s contained in the Budget, working to ensure that our budget priorities are fully funded, as illustrated in our budget letter.
We are also working with our regional partners to push for improvements in the State’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a key priority for NPH (more above in the first section).
The final budget is set to be adopted by June 15th, and we will have updates on what it means for affordable housing.
On the Federal Level: Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act
Meetings continue apace with the Bay Area’s Congressional delegation to build support for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA). These meetings are being co-organized by NPH and the Bay Area Council.
If passed, the AHCIA will double California’s affordable housing production in 2021 and 2022 as well as increase California’s affordable housing production by 329,500 units over the next 10 years. The AHCIA will accomplish this by creating more opportunities for affordable housing developments with local funding to access low income housing tax credits (LIHTC). NPH will continue to meet with the Bay Area’s Congressional delegation to build support for this critical bill.
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