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POLICY

Successes

 
 
 
 

Recent Supported bills

SDHF has worked to support bills and measures that would improve the lives of San Diegans. Below are a few examples of we have supported in 2020.

2020-2021

 
 
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6th Round Housing Elements

 

AB 2345

Enhances California’s Density Bonus Law based on the success of San Diego’s Affordable Housing Density Bonus. Read SDHF’s letter of support here.

AB 434

Creates a single application and award process for MHP and six special purpose rental housing programs at HCD. 

Policy Priorities

  • Resources for the creation and preservation of affordable homes

    • Advance efforts for a local affordable housing revenue measure on November 2020 and facilitate the passage of such a measure

      • Measure A was on the November 2020 ballot and received 57% in support

    • Participate in the implementation and rule-making for and ensure the San Diego region receives its fair share of state funding programs, including Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond of 2018, the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program; the No Place Like Home (NPLH) program; the Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) regulations; new funds available from the passage of SB 2; and other statewide housing programs.

      • SDHF led an effort for language to be included in the draft AHSC guidelines for a geographic set-aside for the San Diego region. The language has been included in draft guidelines for the consideration of adoption.

      • SDHF advocacy at the County of San Diego resulted in a five-year plan for their Permanent Local Housing Allocation (SB 2) funds that dedicate more than half of the $11.9 million to the production of affordable housing. Following advocacy urging the County to pursue Local Housing Trust Fund dollars from the state, the County committed $5 million in unrestricted General Funds to apply for a match of an additional $5 million from the state.

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

      • SDHF joined in a coalition of partners from throughout California to call on Congress to pass a COVID-19 relief package that included $100 billion in rental assistance, $10 billion for break-even assistance to impacted affordable housing developments, and $11.5 billion in Emergency Solutions Grants, among other requests. Congressional gridlock has held up the majority of these requests, despite strong support from several members of the House and Senate.

    • Protect local housing funds (Housing Trust Fund, Inclusionary Trust Fund, HOME) 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 covenant-protected affordable homes

      • SDHF’s advocacy on at-risk affordable housing preservation led to the production of a report by the San Diego Housing Commission, Preserving Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego, released this year that included several policy recommendations. Among the recommendations, was a proposal to dedicate the City’s redevelopment “boomerang” funds to preservation activities. The proposal was passed by the City Council on October 27.

  • Land use that promotes affordable housing

    • 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.

      • SDHF supported a bill, AB 2345, to take the City of San Diego’s successful Affordable Housing Bonus Program statewide. The bill, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, passed and was signed by the Governor.

    • 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

      • Following the passage last year of AB 1486, a bill co-sponsored by SDHF, which strengthened and clarified the state’s Surplus Land Act, many jurisdictions have begun to implement this law at the local level. Implementation of AB 1486 has provided developers with the opportunity to bid first of publicly-owned properties and has reduced the cost to purchase these properties.

    • 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

      • SDHF has submitted comment letters on the draft Housing Elements for the cities of San Diego, Encinitas, Del Mar, and Solana Beach.

  • 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.

      • SDHF’s recommendation to waive and reduce development impact fees (DIF) for affordable housing was included in the City of San Diego’s Complete Communities Housing Solutions program adopted by Council in November.

    • 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.

      • See note about AB 1486 implementation above.

  • Resident Protections

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

      • SDHF advocated for and supported local eviction moratorium policies to keep people stably housed during the COVID-19 crisis. As a part of this advocacy, SDHF called for local governments to use federal relief dollars to establish rental assistance programs to help households falling behind on rent payments.

  • Reducing and Preventing Homelessness

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

      • See note about Measure A above

    • Advocate for accurate data collection to better understand the homelessness crisis

      • SDHF continued to work with a group of academic researchers from local universities and homelessness services providers to strategize on identifying gaps in data on the topic and how to coordinate on a research approach to better understand homelessness in the San Diego region. The group, informally known as “Closing the Gaps,” presented on the effort at the SDHF conference in October.

 

Past Successes

+ Proposition 1 & 2

The San Diego Housing Federation was an early endorser for Propositions 1 and 2 on the November 2018 ballot, which together raise $6 billion for affordable housing, veterans home loans, and homeless prevention housing. To learn more about these measures, visit the pages for the Veterans and Affordable Housing Act and No Place Like Home.

+ AB 2162

AB 2162 expedites the process for approving construction of permanent supportive housing. In March, the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board weighed in on this legislation with a headline that read, “California can’t afford neighborhood opposition to homeless housing.” We couldn’t agree more and are pleased to see this bill make it through the legislature and be signed into law.

+ AB 2372

AB 2372, a bill authored by hometown Assemblymember Todd Gloria, allows for local governments to adopt an optional floor area ratio bonus program. The California’s Sustainable and Affordable Housing (CASA) Act, passed the Assembly by a unanimous vote, showing that commonsense policies that increase the supply of housing while ensuring that production includes homes for low and moderate income families is something we can all get behind.

+ SB 828

SB 828 originally required cities to zone for 200 percent of project local housing need. While that element of the legislation is no longer included, some of the bill’s provisions, including allowing the state to take into account existing as well as projected future need when determining zoning allocations and setting a minimum “healthy” target vacancy rate of 5 percent, will help to strengthen and improve housing element law.

+ Homes and Jobs Act (SB2)

(Atkins) – Building Homes and Jobs Act. Creates an ongoing source of funding for affordable home development and job creation through a fee on real estate-related document recordings.

+ AHSC PROGRAM

Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program Cap-and-Trade Investments in Affordable Housing The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program was created in 2014 to invest revenues generated by California’s Cap and Trade auction proceeds to the creation of affordable homes in proximity to jobs and transit as a part of the state’s greenhouse gas reduction strategy.

Cap and Trade is a program administered by California’s Strategic Growth Council to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about California’s Cap-and-Trade affordable housing program.

SDHF's Round 6 AHSC Draft Guidelines comments, February 2021.

You can also learn more about the program by checking out: SGC Presentation from June 20, 2017 SDHF Roundtable CA Climate Investments Website. Information on AB 1550 and Benefits to Disadvantaged Communities AB 1550 map.

Why Cap-and-Trade Auction Proceeds Should Fund Affordable Homes near Transit – White paper published by California Housing Partnership Corporation, TRANSFORM and Housing California

SDHF's letter for Round 6 Strategic Growth Council call for comments, August 2020.

+ VHHP PROGRAM

Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program

Proposition 41 provides resources to help provide homes for California’s most vulnerable veterans.

Following passage of Proposition 41 in June 2014, the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention (VHHP) program was created to invest $600 million of existing bond funds for the creation and preservation of affordable homes with supportive services for veterans who are experiencing homeless or on the brink of becoming homeless. The program is administered jointly by HCD, CalHFA, and CalVet to create housing opportunities for veterans and their families.

Proposition 41 provides resources to help provide homes California’s most vulnerable veterans. Learn more about the program and sign up to receive updates by visiting the program’s website.

Also, as part of our policy and advocacy program, SDHF is taking a local leadership role in providing feedback to the lead state agencies on the program and monitoring its design and implementation.

During the public comment period, SDHF consulted with members and partners across the region and crafted a comment letter to share with HCD, CalHFA, and CalVet reaction and feedback from San Diego on the proposed guidelines for the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention program.

You can also learn more reviewing the presentations and materials from SDHF’s panels and workshops.

+ Workforce Housing Offset

On Tuesday, October 21, 2014 after a lengthy and often contentious process, City of San Diego City Council gave final approval to a compromise on the Workforce Housing Offset.

The compromise passed will see the fee restored to original levels (in 1996 the fee was cut in half as a temporary measure but never brought back) and phased in over three years. It also includes certain exemptions.

San Diego Housing Federation played a critical role in addressing the main problem with the initial version of the proposal – namely, that the fee increase would sunset after three years – and supported the agreement despite concerns with some provisions.

The agreement was reached thanks to the leadership of Councilmember Myrtle Cole, who worked with both sides to reach an agreeable compromise, Councilmembers Sherri Lightner and Ed Harris who championed removal of the sunset provision, and Council President Todd Gloria who docketed the item to move quickly.

Parties were in agreement with the proposed doubling of the Offset, which represents a fee on current development projects that is used to create affordable homes for the lower-wage workers who will be employed at the projects built. These fees have not been increased in almost twenty years, and were, in fact, cut in half in 1996. But the initial proposal put forward to the City Council would have only maintained the increased fee for three years, while providing permanent exemptions for certain types of developments that house mostly higher-wage employees.

The combination of permanent exemptions with time-limited increases would have resulted, over time, in less revenue for affordable housing when compared to the current program. With the sunset provision removed, however, the City’s Housing Trust Fund will see an annual average increase from the current $2.2 million a year to around $3.8 million annually. Over 20 years, this means an additional $32 million for affordable housing in the City!

The proposal passed by the Council is very much a compromise, and includes provisions that SDHF did not favor, including: removing requirements for an annual fee increase based on construction cost (though this requirement has not been applied in two decades); including exemptions for manufacturing, warehouse and nonprofit hospitals, which reduces revenues by 15-18%; and phases in the fee increase over three years rather than all at once.

Despite concerns with these provisions, SDHF believes the removal of the sunset provision goes much further to reflect a true compromise than previous versions of the agreement, which is what garnered our support. San Diego Housing Federation is very appreciative of the San Diego City Council for recognizing the affordable housing community’s concerns and working with the parties involved to strike an agreement that would address top concerns while allowing the issue to move to resolution.

We are also appreciative of the support of our members and partners who worked to ensure a strong voice on this issue, as well as the San Diego Housing Commission and members of the ‘Jobs Coalition’ for working on this compromise.

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