Policy

Priorities and Agenda

Guiding our Work

The Framework

Each year, the San Diego Housing Federation’s Policy Committee works to identify and outline policy priorities as a framework for an advocacy agenda. These priorities are presented to the San Diego Housing Federation’s Board of Directors for discussion and adoption, and thereafter guide the organization’s work.

+ RESOURCES FOR THE CREATION AND PRESERVATION OF AFFORDABLE HOMES

• Support efforts for an ongoing state revenue source for affordable and supportive housing as well as services and operations

• Support funding and resources for programs that provide homeownership opportunities to low and moderate income households

• Participate in the implementation and development of program guidelines for state funding programs and ensure the San Diego region receives its fair share

• Provide comments and feedback for program regulations that help to ensure program efficiency, advance public policy goals, and reduce costs

• Support efforts at the federal level to protect and enhance critical affordable housing programs, including the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Tenant and Project-Based Vouchers, the HOME Program, and CDBG funding

• Protect local housing funds (Housing Trust Fund, Inclusionary Trust Fund, HOME, redevelopment successor funds) to be used for the intended purposes of construction and preservation of affordable homes throughout the region

• Track and monitor the status of at-risk affordable housing and advocate for the preservation of those units as deed-restricted affordable homes

• Advocate for alternative sources of funding for the creation of affordable housing, for example private and philanthropic funding

• Advocate for workforce development to cultivate a pipeline of talent and skill in the affordable housing sector

+ LAND USE THAT PROMOTES AFFORDABLE HOUSING

• Advocate for land use that promotes affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH), addresses gentrification and displacement, and promotes economic development

• Continue to work on and support changes to improve local density bonus programs and programs that include and incentivize affordable homes as a part of new development

• Advocate for enforceable inclusionary housing policies that produce affordable homes as a part of new residential development

• Advocate for affordable housing as a key component of transit-oriented development (TOD) policies, local Climate Action Plans and transit agency policies, to include affordable housing requirements and make the San Diego region competitive for cap-and-trade funds

• Advocate for policies that dedicate publicly-owned land for purposes of affordable housing

• Ensure new state laws to strengthen and enforce Housing Element Law are included in 6th Cycle Housing Element updates and advocate for Housing Element policies that increase the supply of affordable homes

• Monitor the utilization and results of housing incentive programs (e.g. Complete Communities, density bonus, etc.)

+ REDUCING THE COST TO BUILD AFFORDABLE HOUSING

• Identify opportunities that could help to lower the cost to develop affordable homes through reforms that shorten entitlement processing times, reduce or defer fees, reduce parking requirements, create more certainty, and reduce unnecessary or duplicative regulatory barriers.

• Seek opportunities to reduce the cost of land associated with developing affordable housing. This could include programs to promote land donations, utilization of land banking, public land set-asides, land trusts and programs for lease or below market sale of public lands.

+ RESIDENT PROTECTIONS

• Advocate for pandemic relief in the form of rental assistance, rental debt relief, and eviction protections to keep people stable housed

• Support efforts to prevent displacement and advance fair housing, including protecting against source of income discrimination and displacement by eviction.

+ Reducing and Preventing Homelessness

• Support proven strategies to reduce and prevent homelessness, including prioritizing construction of permanent supportive housing and related services

• Advocate for an ongoing source of funding for supportive housing and related services

• Advocate for quality data and research to better understand the homelessness crisis

Federal Impact

The San Diego Housing Federation supports federal legislation that advances our mission and policy priorities. For 2023 , we are supporting the following:

S. 1136 and H.R. 2573, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, bipartisan legislation to strengthen and expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Bill fact sheet here.

Statewide Impact

The San Diego Housing Federation supports and sponsors statewide legislation that advances our mission and policy priorities. For the 2023 legislative session in Sacramento, our organization is supporting and sponsoring the following bills.

AB 312 (Reyes): This bill would create an affordable housing listings and applications platform, offering technical assistance to participating large jurisdictions.
AB 346 (Quirk Silva): This bill aims to maximize the production of affordable homes by permitting the redirection of additional state credits to the 9% tax credit program during years when tax-exempt bonds are oversubscribed.
AB 480 (Ting): This is a priority sponsored bill that aims to strengthen and modernize the Surplus Lands Act to facilitate the construction of more homes on public lands.
AB 578 (Berman): This bill seeks to cap the monitoring fees that the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) charges.
AB 799 (L. Rivas): Known as the Homelessness Accountability and Results Act, this legislation aims to refine goal setting and accountability measures within the HHAP program.
AB 835 (Lee): This bill mandates the State Fire Marshal to study and develop recommendations for single-stair, multi-family housing above three stories, which would reduce the cost to construct multi-family housing and spur development.
AB 837 (Alvarez): Due to our successful negotiations, the Surplus Lands Act exemption for the City of Chula Vista now requires more affordable housing production as part of the City's upcoming university-innovation district.
AB 1053 (Gabriel): This bill is aimed at reducing the cost of developing affordable housing by funding state loans during construction.
AB 850 (Ward): This legislation is set to improve the implementation of the welfare property tax exemption for affordable housing.

And here are the bills sorted in alphabetical order by their senate bill (SB) numbers from lowest to highest:

SB 225 (Caballero): This introduces the Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program (CAPP) to prevent displacement and homelessness by financing the acquisition of currently unsubsidized rental housing and preserving it as affordable.
SB 341 (Becker): This bill is designed to more appropriately target incentives for prohousing cities and counties.
SB 469 (Allen): This legislation aims at statutorily exempting developments with awards from the Department of Housing and Community Development or the Tax Credit Allocation Committee from Article XXXIV of the State Constitution.
SB 482 (Blakespear): This bill seeks to require the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to offer capitalized operating subsidy reserves (COSRs) in its Multifamily Housing Program (MHP).
SB 532 (Wiener): We are supporting this bill to improve ballot label requirements for local bonds and multiple rate tax measures, alongside a coalition that includes housing organizations, labor, counties, schools, special districts, and hospitals.
SB 713 (Padilla): Our priority sponsored bill that strengthens the state density bonus law to ensure that affordable housing developers can utilize the full extent of the law to build more units.
SB 4 (Wiener): Known as the Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act, this bill aims to facilitate the building of affordable housing on land owned by faith-based institutions and nonprofit colleges.
ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry) - Would create an additional exception to the 1% limit for ad valorem taxes to allow for service bonded indebtedness to fund the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of public infrastructure or affordable housing, or permanent supportive housing, or the acquisition or lease of real property for those purposes. Would lower voter approval for such bonds from 2/3 to 55%.