July Policy Update: Surplus Lands & CA State Budget

Surplus Land Act/ Sports Arena Redevelopment
After receiving a letter from HCD notifying the City of San Diego that it may have failed to comply with the Surplus Land Act on the proposed transaction for housing development on the city-owned Sports Arena site, the city has announced that it will reopen bidding for the 48-acre site. The City’s previous administration had planned to lease the land to private developers but failed to announce the opportunity with other public agencies and affordable housing developers.

The San Diego Housing Federation has long advocated for improvements to clarify and strengthen the state’s Surplus Land Act and co-sponsored AB 1486 in 2019 that resulted in release of official state guidelines on the law. SDHF Chief of Policy and Education, Laura Nunn voiced need for affordable housing at the cityowned Sports Arena site in an op-ed published by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Laura was also interviewed by Andrew Bowen at KPBS regarding the announcement that the city would restart the bidding process for redevelopment of the site. “In an environment where the city lacks an abundance of financial resources to develop affordable housing, this is a resource and an asset that the city has.” The interview is available here. The Housing Federation is in favor of the city re-starting its effort to redevelop the Sports Arena area to be incompliance with the Surplus Land’s Act and including affordable housing developers in the new plans.

California State Budget
California’s 2021-2022 state budget will be historic in the scale of investments in homelessness and housing. State lawmakers have finalized and approved a state budget for the new fiscal year that began on July 1st with a spending plan for $262.6 billion, including $76 billion in state surplus and $27 billion in federal aid. The budget is set to make an investment of $12 billion towards ending homelessness and increasing affordable housing production that includes a commitment to ongoing resources to local jurisdictions to address homelessness by investing $2 billion over the next two years. The budget has also included a particular emphasis on ending family homelessness investing in Department of Social Services programs. The budget is set to provide $1.75 billion for backlogged affordable housing developments, as well as $500 million for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, and $500 million for foreclosure intervention. A full analysis of the FY 2021-22 state budget for housing and homelessness is available from Housing CA here.