 | “With the State enjoying a nearly $100 billion surplus, limiting new investments in housing to $2.5 billion is a missed opportunity.”
– Housing CA Policy Director Chris Martin |
| Dear friends, partners, and allies, As the Legislature negotiates its final package of budget priorities and Governor Newsom announces the May Revise, we ponder last month’s Annual Conference theme, A Roadmap to a Better California where we brought together some of the state's top policy experts, elected officials, housing and homelessness advocates, Residents United Network leaders, funders, service providers, developers and multi-sector leaders to discuss the steps we must take to create a California with homes, health and wealth for all. We focused on collaborating with community and state leaders to forge a path towards a future where everyone has a stable place to call home. Through April and into May, we continued to relentlessly advocate for evidence-based, equity-centered solutions found in our broader policy agenda. Now what? |
| Over the next few weeks, as the state legislature finalizes a state budget, we must urge our elected officials to allocate sufficient funds to meet the scale of need so all Californians have a stable place to call home. Below we provide a quick summary of our priority bills. Take a moment to voice your support by calling your representative today. Make sure they hear from you ahead of the final budget to be announced in the coming weeks. |
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| | You can help by following and supporting us via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Retweet, share, and join the chorus of passionate advocates pushing for housing and social justice. In solidarity, strength, and gratitude,
The Housing California Team |
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| | | | | In this Edition:
Shaping the Narrative
Building Power
Changing Policy
Our Growing Team |
| | In the News: "California must untangle snarled process for applying for affordable housing," CalMatters op-ed on Housing California's RUN championed bill AB 1961. "They waited years for affordable housing. Now, a new type of database could ease that problem," San Francisco Chronicle article on AB 1961 "Here’s one way California can begin to dismantle its prison-to-homelessness pipeline," Sacramento Bee op-ed on Housing California's RUN championed bill AB 1861. |
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| Bill updates Last week, Housing California, Residents United Network and our coalition partners relentlessly advocated for priority policies that help to combat homelessness and produce more affordable housing. ICYMI, we distributed a concise overview of what passed and how you can help to bring bold solutions to Governor Newsom’s desk. The below bills are headed for a floor vote this week. Take action today to contact your representative and tell them why it’s important that they support these bills. Bills headed for a floor vote - AB 1685 (Bryan) Parking Ticket Relief Programs
- AB 1816 (Bryan) Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program
- AB 1961 (Gabriel) Statewide Affordable Housing Database
- AB 2817 (Reyes) House California Challenge Program
- AB 2094 (R. Rivas) General plan: Annual report: Extremely low income Housing
- AB 2334 (Wicks) Density Bonus - Low Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Areas
- SB 490 (Caballero) Technical Assistance Program
- SB 948 (Becker) Transition Reserves Pool
AB 2325 (Rivas) was unfortunately held in committee and will not be moving forward. AB 2710 (Kalra) would have created a statewide TOPA/COPA, but it is no longer moving forward this year. Tenant/Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA/COPA) gives qualified non-profit organizations the right of first offer, and/or the right of first refusal to purchase certain properties offered for sale in the City. The bill did not have the necessary votes to pass out of the Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee on April 27, so in consultation with the author and co-sponsor, we decided to pull the bill rather than having it fail in Committee. We are committed to reintroducing a statewide TOPA/COPA bill next year, and are very appreciative of all the work that the author and our partners have done to move AB 2710 this year. Learn more about AB 2710 in our Shaping the Narrative section below. |
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| | Help Grow the Housing Justice Movement Join our community of visionary affordable housing, homelessness, and multi-sector organizations and leaders dedicated to supporting Housing CA’s bold vision of a California with homes, health, and wealth for all by making a donation or joining as a member today. |
| | | | | | | | | Roadmap Home 2030: What's Next A package of Roadmap Home 2030 aligned bills and budget priorities for 2022 was released at the Housing CA Conference. You can find the package here. |
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| Learn more about the key policies that we are rallying behind in 2022 to bring us that much closer to our goal of building more affordable homes, protecting low-income renters, ending homelessness, and advancing racial equity and economic inclusion. This webpage is an excellent tool to help you follow along as we continue to advocate for bold policy reforms and funding to permanently end homelessness across our state. Tell your state senators and assembly members to endorse the Roadmap Home 2030. Make sure to follow Roadmap Home 2030 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Stay tuned and help spread the word. |
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| | | “The biggest problem in California right now is the displacement and destabilization of existing working class communities and communities of color.” - Peter Cohen, former Executive Director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO). Much of the displacement is driven by wealth inequity since income for many has stagnated or declined over several decades. This year Assembly Bill 2710, which would have stemmed the tide by providing tenants and mission-driven nonprofit organizations with a right-of-first-offer and a right-of-first-refusal when rental properties come up for sale, gained more momentum than ever but still struggled to earn broad support. We aim to bring this game-changing proposal back next year. Take a moment to learn more about it in preparation for future efforts to realize more equity-centered housing solutions. Peter speaks about the campaign and implementation of the first-ever TOPA/COPA ordinance in California and the fight to take this policy statewide through AB 2710, to expand the supply of affordable housing and keep renters in their homes. READ MORE |
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| | | After weeks of preparation and a multitude of training sessions, Housing CA and the Residents United Network (RUN) held its second virtual Lobby Day on April 27 where 13 teams of more than 80 people visited 51 legislators to advocate for Housing CA’s sponsored and RUN’s priority bills, AB 1816 and AB 1961. |
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| AB 1961 is the first bill to come directly from RUN’s “There Ought To Be A Law” brainstorming process, and we built momentum through a Wall of Support, an op-ed in CalMatters from RUN member Jo Barrett alongside legislative advocate Amber-Lee Leslie, and a reported story in the San Francisco Chronicle featuring RUN members Judy Jackson and Willie Stevens. All that work got both our bills through the Assembly Housing and Appropriations committees, and they’ll head to a floor vote next. RUN hosted a workshop May 19 alongside our partners at the ACLU to build a speakers bureau in support of the campaign to make housing a protected status in California. We trained people with lived experience of homelessness who have been harassed by police to speak to the public about the need to end discrimination against people who are unhoused. |
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| | Legislature We are participating in a broad coalition opposing the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court proposal, currently being advanced through SB 1338 (Umberg). Housing CA is deeply concerned that CARE Court would lead to coerced care, threaten racial equity, and undermine our state’s commitment to advancing housing and supportive services as the solution to homelessness. With partners, we’re hoping to advance a proposal for a combination of housing vouchers, robust services, and fully-funded behavioral health systems as a better use of state resources to support people experiencing homelessness and mental health disabilities. Housing CA shared its perspective as well as insights about the CARE Courts proposal which you can find in CNN, KFRZ (NPR), and CapRadio. |
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| | | Housing CA is working with the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) to press for the federal funding and solutions needed to ensure everyone has a stable place to call home, and we have signed onto, and amplified via email and social media, two separate advocacy letters from NLIHC. |
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| The first letter that we amplified addresses a major federal priority, by requesting that Congress make the maximum budgetary allocations to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the fiscal year 2023 Appropriations bill. The second letter urges Congress to pass the bipartisan Eviction Crisis Act, which would make permanent the emergency rental assistance programs that kept thousands of low-income and vulnerable people housed during the pandemic. Additionally, In March, Housing CA signed onto a letter from UnidosUS, which requested that the US Treasury Department prohibit the use of facial recognition software for applicants to the Homeowner Assistance Fund. We continue to call upon our greater community to lift up opportunities to ensure federal investments in affordable housing. We also support the bi-partisan Eviction Crisis Act which would create a national eviction database, and a $3 billion grant program for states, local, and tribal governments to create emergency eviction rental assistance programs for extremely low-income households. |
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| Growing our Team Unai Montes-Irueste has joined Housing California as our organization’s first Narrative and Strategic Communications Director. Montes-Irueste is responsible for guiding and implementing a narrative change vision and strategy to advance housing and racial justice statewide, as well as leading and growing the organization’s communications program. Montes-Irueste was previously the Communications Director for Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo’s office, Director of Communications for United Ways of California, Communications Director for the Committee of Interns and Residents, (CIR) and Senior Communication Specialist for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721 and Local 2015. Montes-Irueste joins Iris Murillo, who continues in her role as Housing California's Communications Manager. |
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| | | Housing California
1107 9th Street, Suite 560 | Sacramento, California 95814
916-447-0503 | staff@housingca.org |
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