A Home for Every Californian

2022 Statewide Housing Plan

California Department of Housing and Community Development - March 2022

Photo showing two women hugging in front of a row of houses

Overview

The Statewide Housing Plan lays out a vision to ensure every Californian has a safe, stable, and affordable home. The state is working towards three objectives to achieve this vision:

A graphic showing the three objectives, which are: 1. Keep Californians in their homes 2. Produce more affordable and climate-smart housing 3. Continue to act with urgency to address homelessness and housing need

The plan describes why we need to act now to address the state’s housing affordability crisis, what we know about California’s housing crisis, including how we got here and growing challenges, what the housing needs in California are, what our state and local governments are currently doing to address the problem, where we are going in the future, and how we will track our progress.  

The Statewide Housing Plan should be used to guide housing policy, but it will not solve the housing crisis overnight—no one solution or plan can. Through the implementation of a variety of innovative strategies to boost housing production and address homelessness, the state is taking bold and urgent action to tackle this critical issue. Many of these strategies will show immediate results, while others may take longer, but will have an even greater impact.

For an overview of the Statewide Housing Plan and an interactive Data Dashboard, visit the  Landing Page . Continue below for the comprehensive Statewide Housing Plan.

Land Acknowledgment

HCD acknowledges that California occupies the unceded ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of Native American Tribes. We acknowledge the Tribal communities, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. HCD also acknowledges that the land was founded upon exclusions and erasures of many Tribal peoples, and those who were forcibly removed from their homelands. This acknowledgment demonstrates a commitment to continued collaboration with Indian Country in the development and implementation of our housing policies, providing greater access to opportunities and services, increasing and encouraging Tribal presence in our communities, and respects the inherent sovereignty of Native American Tribes.

Image courtesy of  Native Land Digital . Visit their website to explore an interactive version of the map.

A photo of a map of the United States showing Native Lands

“The California Dream — the idea that every person can achieve a better life, regardless of where they start out — is central to who we are as Californians.  Even in a time of economic growth and record employment, too many Californians are experiencing the squeeze of stagnant wages and the rising price of building-block necessities such as housing, health care, education, and child care. We can and must reanimate the California Dream, building a California for All.”

-Governor Gavin Newsom

A photo showing a woman and a small girl overlooking their apartment balcony

Why We Need to Act Now

High housing costs threaten the California dream.

Yet, Californians are resilient when we work together to tackle threats ranging from pandemics to natural disasters. We must continue to work together, but with even greater urgency, to improve housing affordability for all Californians and the economic health of our great state.

California’s housing crisis is a half century in the making. After decades of underproduction, supply is far behind need and housing and rental costs are soaring. As a result, millions of Californians must make hard decisions about paying for housing at the expense of food, health care, child care, and transportation, directly impacting quality of life in the state. One in three households in the state doesn’t earn enough money to meet their basic needs. [ 1 ] 

If we do not plan for the housing needs of all Californians, the people who make our state what it is, we will weaken our collective strength and jeopardize the economic and social health of our state. This is the moment for the state to advance policies that are truly transformative for our communities—for current and future generations of Californians.

From October 1, 2020, to September 20, 2021, the average  Fair Market Rent (FMR)  for a two-bedroom apartment in the state was $2,030. To afford rent and utilities without being  cost-burdened , a household must earn $6,766 per month or $81,191 per year. This translates into an hourly wage of $39.03 for a full-time worker. [ 2 ] 

Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2021 Out of Reach Report. Explore the report which shows how difficult it is for renters to find  affordable housing .

The top five most common occupations in California pay less than the wage needed to afford a home. A home health aide, often caring for people who cannot care for themselves, makes half the wage needed to afford a one-bedroom rental unit in the state.

Hourly Wage Needed to Afford Average Rental Versus Average Wage in California

Source: Data for Wage Needed to Afford Average Unit is provided by the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2021 Out of Reach Report. Data for median income by occupation provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’  May 2020 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. 

The catastrophic impacts of COVID-19 have only exacerbated this housing supply and affordability crisis, and highlighted the historical disadvantages for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). [ 3 ]  For example, nearly two-thirds of Black households are  cost-burdened , compared to under half of white households, [ 4 ]  and households of color were more likely to miss a rent payment during the pandemic. [ 5 ] 

Sheltering in a safe and stable place is critical to improving public health and reducing and preventing overcrowding and homelessness—a policy California promotes through programs like  Project Roomkey ,  Homekey , and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). Innovative, data-informed solutions are necessary to meet the housing needs of all Californians.

Who Must Act to Address the Housing Crisis?

The mission of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is to promote safe, affordable homes and vibrant, inclusive, sustainable communities for all Californians. HCD continues to deploy billions of dollars to plan for, develop, and preserve housing at all affordability levels, but the lack of housing supply is not a challenge the state can fix alone—everyone has a role to play. Local governments must make equitable land use decisions that encourage housing production. Developers and lenders must finance and build new housing. The federal government must continue to support and finance strategies to address these challenges. There must be a sufficient home building sector to design and build housing, and an adequate housing operations and maintenance housing sector to meet ongoing housing needs. Finally, all communities must be willing to accept that change is both inevitable and essential to a thriving California.

The state is helping local communities do the right thing through a variety of tools, including direct funding, incentives, recently passed legislation to  streamline  the development process, and technical assistance to help local governments plan for more housing. While education and technical assistance is always the first step in the state’s efforts, the state will continue to play an active role in enforcing housing legislation, particularly with communities that are not meeting their obligations, so that the necessary housing is built statewide and is available to every Californian.

What We Know About California's Housing Problem

California’s housing affordability crisis is an acute example of a national problem. In 2021, there was no state in the U.S. where a worker earning minimum wage could afford to rent a modest two-bedroom by working a 40-hour week. [ 6 ]  Low-wage workers and low-income renters will continue to be  cost-burdened  until we create permanent solutions to widespread  housing unaffordability  nationwide.

California has the least affordable housing in the U.S.

Wage Needed to Afford Two-Bedroom Rental by State

Source: 2021 Nationwide Two-Bedroom Rental Housing Wages from National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2021 Out of Reach Report.

California’s housing crisis, exacerbated by extreme supply and demand challenges, has resulted in decades of soaring housing and rental costs. Housing prices in California continue to rise. In August 2021, the statewide median sales price of a single-family home reached a new record—$827,940. [ 7 ] 

Today’s median home price exceeds the median price prior to the great recession.

Explore the median sale price of single-family homes statewide or by county since 1990. By sliding the buttons at the top of the graph, you can examine more details about annual or monthly median prices.

How have mounting housing prices impacted Californians?

Today, more than a third of households cannot afford their home. [ 8 ]  Housing is considered affordable when a household pays less than one-third of their income on all housing costs. If a household pays more than 30 percent of their income on housing, it is a  cost burden , and therefore considered unaffordable.

Both renters and owners across the state are experiencing high  cost burden .

The situation is especially dire for renters, more than half of whom are struggling to pay rent. [ 9 ] 

Zoom in to explore cost burden at the local level.

California is committed to a future where we all have the option to live closer to our jobs, services, and daily destinations. A lack of affordable housing options prevents many Californians from accessing those opportunities and resources, detrimentally impacting their quality of life, and has broader implications for the state’s economy. Housing unaffordability is a particularly acute problem for BIPOC, immigrants, young people, the elderly, low-income households, families with children, and people with disabilities. The HCD Final 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (Final 2020 AI) found that the state’s inadequate and vulnerable supply of affordable homes disproportionately impacts individuals and families based on their  protected characteristics , such as race, familial status, national origin, and disability status. Demographic changes have increased concentrations of poverty in already concentrated areas of race, ethnicity, and poverty across the state, exacerbating the problem for these communities. [ 10 ]  

BIPOC Californians are more likely to be  cost-burdened  by high rent prices.

Zoom in to explore and compare cost burden at the local level.

California's inadequate and vulnerable supply of affordable homes disproportionately impacts our most vulnerable communities.

  • Over half of BIPOC renters at all income levels cannot afford their homes. [ 11 ]  This stems from policies rooted in  systemic racism  within the housing finance system and land use regulations, such as  redlining . [ 12 ]  While policies have changed, the structural problems created by those policies persist and continue to influence housing and development patterns statewide. [ 13 ]  
  • Poverty rates for tribal populations are more than twice the rate for California, [ 14 ]  leaving tribal populations with fewer resources to pay for housing and other necessities.
  • More than one quarter of Californians are immigrants—the majority of whom are documented. [ 15 ]  Despite the large number of immigrants who call California their home, only 23 percent of immigrants are homeowners compared to a statewide average of 55 percent. [ 16 ] 
  • On average, young households in California earn only half of the area median income (AMI), and often have difficulty affording their homes. [ 17 ]  As a result, nearly 40 percent of young adults live with their parents. [ 18 ] 
  • Californians over the age of 60 account for 20 percent of the state’s population, and this group is projected to diversify and grow over the next 10 years. [ 19 ]  Fixed incomes and limited affordable or accessible housing options for  aging in place  or  downsizing  creates instability.
  • The vast majority—70 percent—of low-income families cannot afford their homes. [ 20 ]  Unsurprisingly, low-income Californians represent the largest group of people leaving the state since 2006. [ 21 ] 
  • Lower-income households are more likely to include members with disabilities than higher-income households. [ 22 ] 
  • California has over 7 million residents with disabilities, many of whom face extreme challenges finding housing that is affordable, accessible, and located near transit and supportive services. [ 23 ] 

Explore HCD's  affirmatively furthering fair housing mapping tool  to learn more about patterns of segregation and integration, disparities in access to opportunities, and populations with disproportionate housing needs and displacement risks.

To make matters worse, not enough housing is built near high-quality jobs, transportation, and services. As a result, the would-be residents of those housing units—who are more likely to be low-income and BIPOC [ 24 ] —are forced to find housing farther away from where they work, spending more money on transportation and facing longer commute times, contributing more to climate change, and living in places impacted by climate change related natural disasters.

Finally, a lack of affordable housing is the biggest contributor to homelessness. [ 25 ]  On a single night in January 2020, 161,548 Californians experienced homelessness, highlighting the direness of the state’s housing affordability and homelessness crises. [ 26 ]  As housing costs continue to rise, rent becomes less affordable for lower-income households, who are forced to live beyond their means or are pushed out of their homes and often, their communities. When an individual or household pays too much on rent, there is no space to save for emergencies. For the most vulnerable renter households, a single emergency or unexpected expense could be the difference between stable housing and homelessness. [ 27 ] 

In San Diego, California, for example, a family with one person working as a pre-school teacher, supporting a child and the other parent, makes an average of $35,560 a year. As you can see from a snapshot of their monthly cash needs below, this family is just one emergency away from eviction and cannot commit funds to saving for an emergency. Housing insecurity is a significant concern for low-income and many other Californians, who may be just one emergency away from homelessness.

Source: 2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. Earnings and expenditures calculated as national average for households earning $30,000- $39,999.

To better understand the sacrifices households face when paying too much for housing or other necessities, explore the Economic Policy Institute’s  Family Budget Calculator .

For families without housing stability, it is nearly impossible to get out of this vicious cycle of debt. California needs more housing for all households, available to people with low or no income—a pre-school teacher, a home health aide, a family member with a disability, a cashier with a newborn baby.

How Did We Get Here?

There simply has not been enough housing created in California over the last half century. [ 28 ]  

A combination of local permitting and zoning barriers, opposition to neighborhood change, segregation and exclusion, [ 29 ]  mounting construction costs, and a shortage of labor contribute to the insufficient number of housing units to meet Californians’ needs. [ 30 ]  Additionally, there have not been sufficient federal resources to build housing across the continuum in our state. [ 31 ] 

New construction of housing, both single family homes and apartments, continues to lag behind historical averages, and lags further behind the number of new units needed to meet housing demand.

Source: Building permit data provided by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development  State of the Cities Data Systems Building Permits Database . Population estimates from U.S. Census Bureau 2020 Decennial Census. 

Why Is There Not Enough Housing? There Are Several Contributing Factors.     

Watch  Segregated By Design , an animated documentary that examines the forgotten history of how the government unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy. Or read an in-depth publication on the history of racially exclusionary housing in California's San Francisco Bay Area from the Othering and Belonging Institute:  Roots, Race, & Place .

  • Historical patterns of housing segregation and exclusion: Stemming from land use planning and finance policies rooted in  systemic racism , [ 32 ]  segregation and neighborhood exclusion have had far-reaching impacts on housing and development patterns statewide. [ 33 ]  High levels of residential segregation are still present in many communities, leading to conditions that worsen inequalities. Residential segregation can lead to increased concentrations of poverty, poor health outcomes, and unequal access to jobs, education, and other services. [ 34 ]  Families of color want to live in racially integrated areas but often don’t get the chance. [ 35 ]  Inclusive communities cannot happen without a diversity of housing types.
  • Opposition to neighborhood change: Neighborhoods often impose barriers to prevent the approval of new housing projects. The misplaced perceptions around affordable housing developments and homelessness distract from solving the problem, divide communities, and create additional barriers in housing production. [ 36 ]  The legacy of racist land use and housing finance policies, which incentivized the creation of segregated communities and single-family neighborhoods, continues to influence the debate around allowable housing types and community character. [ 37 ] 
  • Numerous, varied, and opaque regulatory hurdles in local entitlement and permitting processes: There are many local approvals along the way, and tools that communities can use to stymie or delay housing and community development. Slow, opaque, and discretionary project review processes imposed by local governments can increase the costs for new developments and sometimes ensure that these housing projects are never constructed. [ 38 ]  Other regulations that may be well intentioned in the abstract can also become barriers when utilized with the specific intent to block housing—parking minimums, discretionary design review, building setbacks, endangered species protections, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) are just a few ways local governments can use existing regulations to inhibit housing production.
  • Insufficient land zoned and available for housing: Many local governments have not planned or zoned for needed housing in the past decades, particularly in places that are the least affordable. [ 39 ]  Planning and zoning are just the start—local governments must also prioritize the funding and development of affordable housing and infrastructure in local housing, community development, and economic development programs to serve the full range of people who need homes.
  • Federal support has not kept up with need: Despite modest increases in the amount of money allocated by the federal government for rental housing assistance in the form of deep-subsidy programs, an increase in the total number of renter households and mounting rental costs render these federal subsidies insufficient to meet demand. [ 40 ]  Only a fraction of renters that need assistance receive it, and this housing assistance gap is expected to worsen. [ 41 ] 
  • Affordable production constrained by financing limitations:  Affordable housing  developers often must stack many public and private funds to make affordable housing projects financially feasible. In California, this also requires accessing financing from multiple public agencies. The backlog of projects that applied for, but did not receive, public financing assistance over the past few years shows us that we must carefully manage affordable housing investments, and that there are problematic barriers within housing finance systems. To create a more effective and efficient housing financing delivery system, HCD is implementing Assembly Bill (AB) 434 to offer more standardization and predictability in affordable housing financing programs. However, this level of coordination will only go so far. The state also needs more federal resources and flexibility—including more 4 percent and 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), and an increase in the bond caps on 4 percent tax credits—to produce the number of units that California needs.
  • High costs continue to constrain new housing production: Building housing needs to be economically viable. At times, a confluence of factors including uncertainty in the permitting process due to local regulatory barriers, [ 42 ]  high fees from local governments, [ 43 ]  high land costs, [ 44 ]  a tight labor market, [ 45 ]  and high material costs, [ 46 ]  can make development infeasible altogether. In  infill development  projects, developers capture all these high costs.  Greenfield developments  often face fewer local regulatory barriers, less neighborhood opposition, lower development fees, and cheaper land prices, making initial costs for some types of greenfield development appear cheaper and more palatable for developers, but there are externalities associated with greenfield development—including increased fire danger, the loss of agricultural and working lands, higher commuting costs for households, and higher  vehicle miles traveled . California needs to address skyrocketing construction costs, as well as provide more high-quality training for a range of housing jobs from predevelopment to operations. The development, maintenance, and management of affordable and market rate housing produces an ecosystem of housing jobs, which is good for residents and good for workers.
  • Expiring subsidies and restrictions create potential loss of affordable homes: All past affordable housing investments have a subsidy expiration date. When developers build affordable housing, they build the physical unit with public subsidies, making it affordable for a set number of years. That affordability covenant needs to be replenished over time to maintain affordable rent and ensure that California’s important affordable investments can continue to serve low-income Californians for generations to come.

Over 22,000 affordable homes are at risk of conversion to market rate in the next five years.

Subsidized Affordable Homes At Risk of Conversion to Market Rate Units by County

Source: Data provided by the California Housing Partnership (CHPC)  Affordable Homes at Risk Report . Estimates include High Risk and Very-High Risk only.

What Growing Challenges Are Contributing to This Inherited Housing Problem?

The state continues to face unprecedented and unique obstacles, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic compounded the state’s housing crisis and made our responses to affordable housing goals more challenging and urgent. The convergence of the public health emergency and the existing housing crisis brought to light why addressing housing affordability and supply is critically important for individual and community health. [ 47 ]  Too many Californians are just one housing payment away from losing their home or live in overcrowded conditions to make ends meet, increasing their risk of contracting COVID-19. [ 48 ]  Emergency rent relief, federal stimulus payments, extended unemployment benefits, and eviction moratoriums prevented many Californians from facing homelessness, but households are still struggling to cover their monthly bills. [ 49 ]  

Lower-income renters, families with children, persons with disabilities, and BIPOC households were hit hardest by the pandemic  [ 50 ]  and are also the most likely to be behind on rent. [ 51 ]  For example, the Household Pulse Survey—a measurement of how the pandemic is impacting households across the country—showed that Black households are more than twice likely to be behind on rent compared to white households. Black households are also more likely to be behind on rent payments than the typical household in California, regardless of educational attainment and income.

Source: Data from U.S. Census Bureau   Household Pulse Survey , Weeks 37-39 (September and October 2021). The share of households behind on rent payments calculated as the average of Weeks 37-39. Excludes respondents in rental housing without rent or who did not report tenure. 

Climate Change

Homes built further away from existing neighborhoods and infrastructure are more likely to be in high-risk areas for fires, storms and severe weather, drought and nuisance flooding, and extreme heat. [ 52 ]  When families are forced to move further away from city and town centers due to cost constraints, they must commute longer distances to jobs, schools, and other community services; resulting in increased stress, higher household transportation costs, and less time spent with loved ones. Residents in these communities are more likely to rely on personal vehicles for daily commutes and errands, thus increasing overall  vehicle miles traveled (VMT)  and  greenhouse gas (GHG)  emissions throughout the state, and continuing to contribute to climate change. [ 53 ] 

Additionally, households living in older housing units, low-income and/or minority households, and communities with little disaster mitigation or preparation are particularly vulnerable to major loss with little to no protection—the ability to obtain affordable homeowner insurance to cover against extreme weather events or natural disasters is increasingly difficult. [ 54 ]  These households need ways to reduce disaster risk and increase climate resilience.

Given the housing need in California, we cannot afford to stop building housing; rather, the state must implement housing and climate resilience policies that work in tandem. In addition to meeting the minimum sustainable construction standards of CALGreen, the state’s green building code, California needs to build with more resilient materials, prioritize retrofitting aged housing for more resilience, and strategically build new housing in climate-smart places by balancing community needs and conservation. With the impacts of climate change, more and more communities, once in low-risk areas, are now vulnerable. [ 55 ] 

We understand that housing Californians is about more than just the home itself—it’s about access to safe, affordable homes and vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive communities. The state develops and implements housing policies and programs that allow us to fulfil achieve this vision while addressing both growing and other long-standing challenges— including low or limited access to high quality education, healthcare, jobs, transportation, and more. We continue to work towards a California where each resident can live, work, and play in healthy communities of opportunity. California continues to rise to the occasion with innovative and cross-sector strategies. By providing temporary and permanent housing, connected with supportive services, through  Project Roomkey  and  Homekey , more than 58,000 Californians experiencing homelessness were able to shelter or live in a safe and stable place during a public health crisis. As of February 23, 2022, the state prevented  displacement  and helped over 183,500 families stay in their homes through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). The state also clarified that U.S. citizenship is not a requirement to access these emergency services—everyone who needs help can seek it. Through programs like the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) and Infill Infrastructure Grant Program (IIG), the state funds housing and land use, infrastructure, transportation, and land preservation projects to support infill development and reduce  greenhouse gas  emissions.

What is the Housing Need in California?

Every eight years, the state sets a target for the number of homes needed for each income level to meet the housing needs of all Californians. Local governments must plan for enough housing to meet that housing need in their own community. We call this the  Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). 

To begin to address decades of undersupply, California must plan for more than 2.5 million homes over the next eight-year cycle, and no less than one million of those homes must meet the needs of lower-income households. This represents more than double the housing planned for in the last eight-year cycle.

More than just being a high number or an aspirational goal, the new housing need (RHNA) target is a legal obligation that cities and counties must abide by. The state helps cities and counties meet this goal through a combination of funding for housing planning and implementation activities, education, and technical assistance. While education and technical assistance is always the first step in the state’s accountability efforts, the state holds jurisdictions accountable for their housing obligations and compliance with state housing laws.

Through the implementation of a number of meaningful accountability reforms passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor in recent years, California’s 2.5 million unit target is no longer a paper exercise – it’s an expectation for the zoning, permitting, and construction of real, new housing units.

Although the vast majority of jurisdictions zoned for sufficient housing during the last housing need cycle, housing production did not keep pace with need. Local governments are required to both zone sufficient land to meet housing need and adopt plans and regulations to make it easier for developers to build housing to serve households of all income levels.

This previous housing need cycle, a rolling cycle that ends for the final set of jurisdictions in 2024, set the goal of 1.2 million new units. As of 2020, only 588,344 units, approximately half of the housing need goal, were added to the state’s housing supply. While there is still time to close the gap between housing need and housing supply in the previous housing cycle, it is anticipated that the state will fall short of its housing goals – particularly in the construction of housing units for lower-income Californians.

In this new housing need cycle (RHNA), the state is not only requiring that local governments plan for more housing, it insists on a much larger proportion of the planned units actually getting built, and has provided local governments with the tools to do so.

Current housing production must increase to meet these ambitious yet achievable goals, particularly to meet the needs of low- and very low-income households.

The state is taking bold and urgent action to help communities ensure that both market rate and affordable homes are not only planned for, but actually built. This includes:

  • Passing laws that  streamline  development
  • Increasing funding for affordable housing
  • Providing comprehensive technical assistance
  • Enforcing housing laws

California has an incredible record of innovation and problem-solving, and we have a chance right now to lead the way on housing. It’s up to us to build the future we want—one in which Californians have stable homes and are free to pursue their dreams, raise their families, and age with dignity. The state has taken bold actions to ensure every Californian has access to safe and stable housing that they can afford. We won’t get there right away, but we must start now.

What We Are Doing to Address the Problem

The Newsom Administration inherited a housing crisis a half century in the making, but, along with the Legislature, state departments, and local governments, is proactively working to address the problem.

Governor Newsom, since taking office in January 2019, has:

  • Signed 17 housing-related  California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)  reform bills to streamline the production of affordable and climate-smart housing
  • Created a one-stop shop for affordable housing funding to expedite the development of affordable housing (AB 434, Daly, 2020)
  • Created a new Housing Accountability Unit to assist local governments, and hold them accountable to their housing obligations
  • Passed nation-leading renter and eviction protections and launched rental assistance and foreclosure prevention programs to keep Californians in their homes

The state has also awarded billions of dollars to support the development of tens of thousands of affordable housing units in recent years:

  • Since July 2018, the state has awarded over 8 billion dollars to support the development of over 46,000 housing units.
  • The state plans to award an additional 6.5 billion dollars for housing development and operation over the course of 2022.

2017

The Legislature passed a historic and comprehensive housing package that provided a renewed focus on one of the most basic needs for every Californian…a home. This housing package offered an injection of new regulatory and financial resources, and with it, an opportunity to innovate in the ways we deliver housing throughout the state.

2018

Gavin Newsom was elected to be California's Governor. With his background and understanding of California’s values and complexities, he aimed to take on the state's biggest issues, including developing enough new housing units to meet the diverse needs of all Californians.

2019

After his inauguration, Governor Newsom and housing advocates in the Legislature took immediate action to blunt the worst impacts of the housing crisis and set the stage for cities and counties to enable more housing production. That included a historic $1.75 billion investment of the state’s budget to support the production of new housing and the country's strongest renter protection measures. Governor Newsom also signed  California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)  streamlining bills, making it easier to build  accessory dwelling units (ADUs) , homeless shelters,  permanent supportive housing , and rebuild after wildfire events, among other streamlining efforts to alleviate the housing crisis.

2020

The emergence of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic significantly altered the state’s approach to housing policy, and heightened focus on the need for racial equity in our policies and programs. The Administration jumped into action to meet immediate needs around the pandemic and leveraged federal funding for  permanent supportive housing  and emergency rent relief, while continuing to promote and practice  affirmatively furthering fair housing . In 2020, the Administration focused on supporting Californians facing the greatest hardships: investing nearly $1 billion of the state’s budget in emergency funding to help address the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness through  Project Roomkey ,  Homekey , and related social services. These investments protected many of our most vulnerable Californians from COVID-19 by providing  “non-congregate” shelter  and  permanent supportive housing . This type of direct, focused investment was implemented quickly and effectively, in partnership with local governments and housing providers—but it was not enough to solve a decades-long crisis.

2021

Californians can see that the homelessness crisis has reached an all-time high. Governor Newsom rose to the challenge and directed $12 billion of the state’s budget in 2021 to address homelessness and create housing—10 times more than what the state has ever spent on this problem in a single budget. The budget also included a $10.3 billion housing package, including funding for local governments to plan for additional housing, loans and grants for the construction and  preservation  of affordable housing, and assistance for first-time homebuyers and homeowners facing foreclosure. Additionally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state leveraged federal funding to rapidly launch the largest and most effective Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) in the nation – and the first of its kind in the state.

2022

Building on the momentum of previous investments, Governor Newsom’s proposed 2022 budget provides $1 billion to foster a comprehensive and integrated climate and housing planning framework. The funds will support programs that accelerate housing and infrastructure development in downtown-oriented areas across the state. The budget also provides funding for additional tax credits to increase affordable housing options and help local governments meet their  Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)  goals.

The state is removing barriers to development by continuing to provide resources for local planning efforts to accelerate housing development and implement legislative changes. The state is also focused on spending smarter, faster, and more effectively to address housing need.

Over the past four years, the state has made tremendous progress through legislative, administrative, regulatory, and budgetary actions by:

Protecting vulnerable populations and promoting more inclusive communities through tenant protections, affordable housing preservation, thoughtful coordination, housing program design, and evaluation

Preserving Affordable Homes and Keeping Tenants in their Homes: Encouraging housing stability by enhancing tenant protections, enforcing housing laws, preserving the stock of affordable housing and  naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) , funding emergency rent relief, and providing additional legal protections to  vulnerable populations .

In the short-term, the state is administering several programs that keep people in their existing homes. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the housing market in countless ways, but primarily by increasing the risk of eviction or foreclosure. The state provided rent relief to landlords and renters, and legal aid to those facing eviction and foreclosure. In the long-term, the state is ensuring that existing affordable housing stays affordable through the following preservation efforts.

  • Protecting existing affordable housing properties from conversion to market rate rentals (AB 1521, Bloom, 2017)
  • Ending excessive rent increases and ensuring there is  “just cause” for evictions  through the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482, Chiu, 2019)
  • Providing legal aid for those facing eviction or foreclosure (SB 113, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, 2019)
  • Protecting the health, safety, and financial security of mobilehome residents through registration and inspection programs, including fee and tax waivers, and residency law protection program (Mobilehome Assistance Center; Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program; Register Your Mobilehome California Program)
  • Providing greatly needed emergency rental assistance to Californian renters and landlords who faced financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with qualifying participants eligible for 100 percent of rent and utilities owed (AB 832, Chiu, 2021)
  • Keeping owners in their homes through mortgage relief, housing counseling services, and anti-foreclosure protections (California Housing Finance Agency’s (CalHFA) COVID Mortgage Relief; NMS Housing Counseling; AB 3088, Chui, 2020)
  • Providing $500 million to establish the Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program, allowing community land trusts, other nonprofits, eligible tenant buyers, and prospective owner-occupants to acquire and rehabilitate small buildings that are at risk of foreclosure, keeping these units available for low-income residents (SB 1079, Skinner, 2020; Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program)
  • Convening a series of tenant roundtables across the state (Press Release: Attorney General Bonta Launches Housing Strike Force, Announces Convening of Tenant Roundtables Across the State)
  • Establishing a Housing Strike Force, tasked with enforcing tenant rights, mortgage servicing, and other consumer protection laws; as well as issuing consumer alerts advising tenants and homeowners on their protections under state and federal law (Press Release: Attorney General Bonta Launches Housing Strike Force, Announces Convening of Tenant Roundtables Across the State)

“The COVID-19 pandemic left many families without the income needed to cover their rent and stay in their homes, and too many tenants have lived with the fear of eviction. We have moved quickly to disburse help to renters and landlords, assisting nearly 55,000 households.”

—Lourdes M. Castro Ramírez, Secretary, Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency

Reducing Barriers to Housing Access: Facilitating deliberate action to explicitly address, combat, and relieve disparities resulting from past patterns of segregation to foster more inclusive communities.

California has launched a vigorous effort to address all types of discrimination in housing. This effort encompasses initiatives requiring every public agency to commit to  affirmatively furthering fair housing  (AFFH) policies, prohibiting source-of-income discrimination (including rental housing vouchers), expanding affordable housing funding eligibility to Tribes, and clarifying eligibility for undocumented Californians. Taken together, these programs represent a coordinated effort to address housing inequity.

  • Requiring every public agency to commit to  AFFH  for housing and development programs (AB 686, Santiago, 2018; AB 1304, Santiago, 2021; Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing; Housing Element Law)
  • Prohibiting source-of-income discrimination to protect households that have tenant-based rental assistance vouchers and other non-wage income sources (SB 329, Mitchell, 2019)
  • Expanding eligibility for affordable housing funding programs for Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHE), and providing technical assistance to increase access (AB 1010, Garcia, 2019;  Executive Order  N-15-19)
  • Promoting a broad diversity of housing serving a range of incomes to foster inclusive communities (California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) Mixed Income Program)
  • Modifying the state’s farmworker housing tax credit to increase usage (AB 571, Garcia, 2017)
  • Bringing in a focus on racial equity to funding programs through scoring (Homekey, Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program, Emergency Solutions Grants-Coronavirus (ESG-CV))
  • Clarifying eligibility for undocumented Californians in housing assistance programs (Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP))
  • Providing funding for low- and moderate-income homeowners seeking to create  accessory dwelling units (ADUs)  on their property (CalHFA ADU Grant Program)
  • Removing racially restrictive covenants during real estate transactions (AB 1466, McCarthy, 2021)

Increasing Coordination and Collaboration for Addressing Homelessness and Housing Need: Coordinating resources and aligning state programs across local entities and state departments to better serve Californians. Homelessness continues to be one of the most visible symptoms of a housing system that is not meeting the needs of all Californians. Although the challenges of addressing homelessness are enormous, the state is intently focused on the needs of this population.

New legislation created the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) – formerly the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) – which coordinates efforts to address homelessness across state agencies. Several programs continue to offer technical assistance to cities, counties, and  Continuums of Care (CoCs) , helping with the adoption of  Housing First  policies and  Housing Element Law , and aligning housing and transportation goals. Other programs are providing funding for emergency homelessness programs and promoting the production of senior housing. Rounding out the effort to address homelessness, the state created the Homelessness Data Integration System (HDIS) to better track how governments have responded to the homelessness crisis and the outcomes of state investments.

  • Creating the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH), to coordinate efforts to prevent and end homelessness across state agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), Business, Consumer Services and Housing (BCSH), and the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) (AB 1220, Rivas, 2021)
  • Providing on-demand technical assistance to California counties and  CoCs  with building administrative capacity, implementing  Housing First  guidelines, and stabilizing exits from homelessness (Technical Assistance to Improve the Delivery of Homelessness Programs)
  • Providing guidance to cities and counties with implementing requirements of  Housing Element Law  for integrating homelessness data into community planning (AB 139, Quirk-Silva, 2019)
  • Funding emergency programs to support addressing immediate homelessness challenges (Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program and the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP))
  • Creating the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS) to better track how California has responded to the homelessness crisis (California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH))
  • Coordinating with state agencies—such as the Departments of Social Services (DSS) and General Services (DGS)—on shared goals through  Project Roomkey  and  Homekey 
  • Aligning state housing programs with best practices, such as the  Housing First  model to address homelessness (Cal ICH Housing First guidelines, Project Roomkey, Homekey)
  • Planning and collaborating to increase senior housing production to accommodate the growing senior population, while also encouraging  downsizing  in senior households living in homes larger than their needs, freeing up additional housing for larger households ( Executive Order  N-14-19 – Master Plan for Aging)
  • Aligning housing and transportation goals through incentives (Caltrans Sustainable Communities Grant Program, Local Partnership Program (LPP), Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP), Trade Corridor Enhancement Project (TCEP), and Solutions for Congested Corridors (SCCP)

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Meet the residents of HCD’s Homekey program.

“…to feel HUMAN again for once is so refreshing.”

Strengthening Land Use Policies to Advance Affordability, Sustainability, and Equity

Streamlining Housing Development: Increasing the supply of affordable housing to all income levels by reducing the time and cost associated with the development of housing units.

Over the past few years, the state has approved and implemented a robust package of legislation aimed at facilitating faster housing production. The legislative package promoted a more straightforward process for housing approvals at the local level by streamlining the permitting process via ministerial approvals, offering additional  CEQA  exemptions and expanding the capacity for  accessory dwelling units (ADUs) . The Legislature also provided new funding for local governments to improve their housing processes as well as a better coordination system for the delivery of state funding. Finally, the state also took steps to preserve the authority it already had to ensure low-income housing is included in new developments.

  • Streamlining development in areas not building enough housing, through policy tools such as ministerial approvals and  CEQA  exemptions (SB 35, Wiener, 2017; AB 73, Chiu, 2017; SB 540, Roth, 2017; AB 2162, Chiu, 2018; AB 1560, Friedman, 2019; SB 288, Wiener, 2020B; SB 7, Atkins, 2021; SB 10, Wiener, 2021)
  • Providing financial resources, such as grant funding, and incentives to local governments to support policy or process improvements that accelerate production of housing for all income levels (Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program - SB 2, Atkins, Building Homes and Jobs Act, 2017)
  • Offering incentives to cities and counties through the  Prohousing Designation Program  in the scoring of competitive state housing, community development, and infrastructure programs (Budget Act of 2019 - AB 74, Ting, 2019; AB 101, Committee on Budget, 2019)
  • Requiring local governments to address barriers,  streamline  approvals, and expand potential capacity for  ADUs  and  junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs ) (AB 68, Ting, 2019; AB 881, Bloom, 2019; AB 587, Friedman, 2019; AB 670, Friedman, 2019; SB 13, Wieckowski, 2019; AB 671, Friedman, 2019; AB 3182, Ting, 2020)
  • Re-establishing authority to require a certain amount of lower-income housing as a condition of development of new rental units—i.e., inclusionary zoning (AB 1505, Bloom, 2017)
  • Allowing for missing middle housing production in formerly single-family zoning districts through state-level upzoning legislation (Accessory Dwelling Unit Laws; SB 9, Atkins, 2021)
  • Encouraging local governments to conduct robust public engagement and environmental review as communities are planned to reduce the time and cost spent on these activities at the project level (SB 330, Skinner, 2019)
  • Improving coordination in the state’s housing financing delivery system at HCD (AB 434, Daly, 2020)

In just 5 years, California experienced nearly a 10-fold increase in permitted  ADUs 

Source: Annual progress report data submitted by cities and counties.

Incentivizing Housing Production: The state has taken a multifaceted approach to unlocking additional housing potential.

The Legislature created a series of incentives to encourage housing development. These policies included, but were not limited to, programs that provide infrastructure and parks funding for cities that produce affordable housing, matching funds for cities and counties that contribute local funding to affordable housing, and incorporating housing goals into transportation plans. At the same time, the state took a variety of steps to utilize public land for the purposes of affordable housing production. Both the  Surplus Land Act  (SLA) and the  Excess Sites  program make public land available to affordable housing developers. These two initiatives have already produced significant dividends, resulting in over 5,000 units of affordable housing expected on current sites as of February 2022. By linking housing production to incentives and investments at local, regional, and state levels, and providing public land for the development of affordable housing, the state is leading the way to expand housing construction.

  • Providing funding for infrastructure, parks, and other non-housing community benefits as a reward to cities and counties that produce and preserve affordable housing (Transformative Climate Communities; Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities; SB 2 incentive programs)
  • Offering matching funds for cities and counties that utilize existing resources that facilitate housing investment (Local Housing Trust Fund)
  • Incorporating housing goals into existing and new transportation programs (Caltrans Sustainable Communities Grants Program, California Transportation Commission (CTC) Local Partnership Program (LPP); CalSTA’s Transit & Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP); CTC’s Active Transportation Program (ATP), CTC’s Solutions for Congested Corridors Program (SCCP); California Air Resources Board’s Sustainable Transportation Equity Project (STEP))
  • Making grants available for income qualified homeowners to incentivize  ADU  construction (CalHFA ADU Grant Program)
  • Creating a permanent source of funding to subsidize mixed-income housing projects (CalHFA Mixed Income Program established by SB 2)
  • Expanding  infill development  and density incentives, such as the  Density Bonus Law , to promote upzoning for infill and compact development (AB 1763, Chui, 2019; SB 9, Atkins, 2021; SB 10, Wiener, 2021; Accessory Dwelling Unit Laws)
  • Unlocking excess state land available for affordable housing ( Executive Order  N-06-19)
  • Connecting affordable housing developers to local surplus land and strengthening enforcement of the  Surplus Land Act  (SLA) (AB 1486, Ting, 2019; SB 791, Cortese, 2021)
  • Requiring cities and counties to inventory and report surplus and excess local public lands to include in a statewide inventory (AB 1255, Robert Rivas, 2019)

One of the challenges in building new affordable homes is acquiring land suitable for housing. In 2019, Governor Newsom took several actions to make state and local public lands available for affordable housing development, including connecting affordable housing developers to local surplus public land.

Notices of Availability for Local Surplus Land by Status

Strengthening Accountability and Enforcement: In addition to promoting new and innovative strategies to facilitate housing production, the state is also reaffirming and strengthening laws that are already working.

The state, in partnership with local governments, already has a comprehensive system to enforce housing goals. To strengthen that system, the state adopted several laws that improve our No Net Loss (of affordable housing) regulations, fortify our programs to prevent exclusionary policies, improve reporting requirements for  housing elements  and  Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)  goals, and track compliance of existing housing laws. The state took the additional step to create a new Housing Accountability Unit at HCD which will allow the Department to better enforce existing housing protections while implementing new housing laws such as  by-right approvals  and requiring housing elements to include information on how local governments are meeting their obligation to  affirmatively further fair housing . The California Department of Justice also developed a Housing Strike Force which will focus on holding cities and counties accountable for fair housing, equity, and housing production.

  • Strengthening No Net Loss provisions to maintain sufficient sites for affordable housing development in the  housing element s sites inventory (SB 166, Skinner, 2017)
  • Fostering development potential of sites by requiring additional or  by-right approvals  (AB 1397, Low, 2017)
  • Enforcing existing housing laws by tracking compliance and providing technical assistance (AB 72, Santiago, 2017)
  • Requiring updates to housing elements and annual progress reports to provide data on all new development (AB 879, Grayson, 2017)
  • Strengthening existing provisions of the Housing Accountability Act, making it enforceable to stop exclusionary behaviors (SB 167, Skinner, 2017; AB 678, Bocanegra, 2017; AB 1515, Daly, 2017; AB 2194, 2018; SB 330, 2019)
  • Obligating local cities and counties to plan for housing and expanding state oversight of the RHNA process (SB 828, Wiener, 2018; AB 1771, Bloom, 2018)
  • Eliminating restrictive moratoriums and development growth caps (SB 330, Skinner, 2019)
  • Promoting improved reporting and analysis to measure housing production outcomes (AB 1483, Grayson, 2019)
  • Creating a new Housing Accountability Unit at HCD (May Revision to 2021 Budget; AB 215, Chiu, 2021)
  • Requiring  housing elements  to include  affirmatively furthering fair housing  analysis and actions (AB 686, Santiago, 2018; SB 478, Wiener, 2021)

“A housing element is no longer a paper exercise – it’s a contract with the state of housing commitments for eight years and the Housing Accountability Unit will hold jurisdictions to those commitments.”

—Deputy Director for Housing Policy Megan Kirkeby, California Department of Housing and Community Development

Supporting Community Development, Sustainability, and Climate Resiliency: Encouraging land use policies and investments that support community and infrastructure development, as well as climate resilience strategies.

Working independently, and in conjunction with the federal government, the state manages a series of programs that helps communities respond to natural disasters and adapt to continuing climate change. The state applies for and distributes Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) after disasters strike and to help communities adapt to climate change. In addition, HCD partners with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR), and the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) to help update several statewide plans such as the State Climate Adaptation Plan, the State Hazard Mitigation Plan, and the California Adaptation Planning Guide. HCD also has the responsibility for enforcing the state’s green building code (CALGreen) which promotes sustainable construction practices.

Concurrently, the state administers several programs that encourage the development of housing in areas of opportunity (job- and transit-rich areas), invest in economic development in lower-opportunity areas, and bring commercial uses to established residential neighborhoods to promote walkability and lower  vehicle miles traveled . The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, Infill Infrastructure Grant Program, Regional Early Action Planning Grants of 2021 (REAP 2.0), and the Transit-Oriented Development Housing Program are some of the state programs that make transformative investments in infrastructure, transportation, and housing.

  • Continuing to integrate strategies to build more homes in areas of opportunity — job- and transit-rich areas with high-performing schools and other amenities — while promoting community development and infrastructure investments in communities with higher concentrations of poverty and fewer services (Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program; Infill Infrastructure Grant Program; REAP 2.0; Transit-Oriented Development Program)
  • Ensuring that Californians can bounce back after disasters strike by administering federal funds, as well as applying for more federal funding (Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR); Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT); National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC))
  • Promoting community resiliency and adaptation to climate change and natural disasters within state and local strategies (Federal CDBG—Disaster Funding; Broadband for All  Executive Order  N-73-20)
  • Supporting economic and social resiliency among vulnerable communities by adding requirements and incentives to housing funding programs to expand high-speed internet access in affordable homes (California Broadband Action Plan; EO N-73-20)
  • Partnering with CalOES, CNRA and OPR to update the California Adaptation Planning Guide, State Climate Adaptation Strategy, and State Hazard Mitigation Plan, among other plans, policies, and guides to strengthen state and local resilience to climate risks
  • Continuing to update and enforce CALGreen, the state’s green building code, to reduce negative impacts and promote those principles which have a positive environmental impact and encourage sustainable construction practices (2019 CALGreen Code)

“Meeting our affordable housing goals and advancing California’s climate leadership are priorities that go hand in hand, as these projects demonstrate. It is important now more than ever to build homes for Californians close to the places they need to be every day, like jobs and schools, as an integrated solution to reduce harmful emissions and create housing that meets the needs of all our communities."

-Governor Gavin Newsom

Lowering Per-Unit Costs: Identifying cost drivers and researching opportunities to reduce them.

Housing costs continue to be a significant barrier to families trying to buy a home in California. Although the market will continue to drive many of those costs that individuals face, the state is taking numerous steps to understand these costs and potentially alleviate them. Several new laws will provide needed direction and resources to study costs. As a result of recent legislation, the state is studying the costs of permitting and impact fees and developing a far-reaching data strategy for coordinating housing data across the state. At the same time, the state is pursuing more tangible initiatives such as funding programs that develop the labor force for the housing industry, promoting adaptive reuse construction ( Homekey ), alternative housing models (such as  ADUs ), and sustainable housing practices.

  • Conducting a study on the reasonableness of permitting and impact fees (AB 879, Grayson, 2019; AB 602, Grayson, 2021)
  • Encouraging alternative housing production methods, including adaptive reuse of aging and underutilized buildings and modular or manufactured construction (Homekey, Excess Sites program)
  • Promoting sustainable building practices and the construction of environmentally friendly housing (2019 CALGreen Code)
  • Reducing barriers and funding alternative housing models with lower production costs (Streamlining ADUs and JADUs through AB 68, Ting, 2019; AB 881, Bloom, 2019; AB 587, Friedman, 2019; AB 670, Friedman, 2019; SB 13, Wieckowski, 2019; AB 3182, Ting, 2020; AB 671, Friedman, 2019)
  • Promoting improved data collection, transparency, and analysis related to reducing housing costs (AB 1483, Grayson, 2019)
  • Funding workforce development programs to expand the labor force for housing development (May Revision to 2021 Budget)

Effectively administering public funds in affordable home development and rehabilitation, rental and home ownership assistance, and community development

Identifying Housing Funding Sources: Identifying sources of funding for affordable housing that do not add new costs or cost pressures to the state’s General Fund, but that support and align with other state policy goals.

California faces vast housing challenges with limited resources. As responsible stewards of public money, the state pursues programs that provide the most impact per dollar while remaining within the limits of the state budget. The state has provided over $4 billion of housing funding through the voter supported Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act, among other smaller funding sources that support affordable housing,  preservation  efforts, and investments in shovel-ready affordable housing projects.

  • Creating a robust ongoing funding source for affordable housing and infrastructure-related investments (SB 2, Atkins, 2017)
  • Augmenting ongoing housing funding with a one-time general obligation bond (SB 3, Beall, 2019: to build and renovate rental homes, to offer home loan assistance to Veterans, to construct additional housing in dense urban areas and near public transit, $450 million to aid low- and moderate-income homebuyers, and $300 million to provide loans and grants for development of farmworker housing)

Creating Policy and Program Consistency: Creating more consistency in guidelines, reporting requirements, and policy goals between state agencies involved in housing, transportation, air quality, and conservation.

There are many state agencies all working together to combat housing shortages and costs as well as climate and transportation issues. One way to improve outcomes is to ensure that everyone is working from the same set of goals, guidelines and reporting instruments. To this end, the state has initiated programs to facilitate efficient housing finance delivery, align HCD housing programs with Tax Credit and Bond Allocation programs, and coordinate the multiple agencies working on housing needs, climate resilience, and conservation towards a common goal.

  • Furthering state policy objectives of equity through a more effective and efficient housing financing delivery system at HCD (AB 434, Daly, 2020)
  • Providing consistent definitions, thresholds, and scoring for seven of HCD’s rental housing programs (AB 434, Daly, 2020)
  • Aligning HCD programs with the state Tax Credit and Bond Allocation programs (AB 434, Daly, 2020)
  • Coordinating housing need, climate resiliency, greenhouse gas reduction, public health benefits, and development and conservation goals throughout various state departments (various work groups with the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH), California Air Resources Board (CARB), Office of Planning and Research (OPR), California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), California Transportation Commission (CTC), the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), the Strategic Growth Council (SGC), the Department of Conservation (DOC), the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), California Energy Commission, and others)

"This is about both integrating HCD funding programs as well as aligning priorities across the entire California affordable housing financing system. Outcome? More housing, faster housing, in the right places."

– Director Gustavo Velasquez, California Department of Housing and Community Development

Who Loses Out When Not Enough Housing Is Built?

Californians with a wide range of characteristics, experiences, personal stories, goals, and aspirations lose out when not enough housing is built. This includes working families, aging seniors, persons with disabilities, school-aged children, youth aging out of foster care, college students, young adults entering the workforce, Tribes, formerly incarcerated individuals, immigrant communities, and persons exiting homelessness—often reflecting the unique experiences and demographics of their communities. [ 56 ]  Some populations face greater barriers that prevent them from accessing California’s limited housing supply.

The state has made record investments in affordable housing and taken bold and urgent action to streamline housing production, but we cannot unwind a crisis this long in the making overnight. In the most efficient areas, it typically takes years for housing to go from planning and zoning to move-in ready.

It can be done with resources and determination! Check out California’s 2020  Homekey  program as a model that showcases urgency, action, partnership, and efficiency to get results.

During the height of the pandemic, the state performed a wide range of activities to get people housed as fast as possible, as evidenced by the timeline below. The effort, output, and level of partnership between the state and local partners was unprecedented.

“Homekey has secured more than 6,000 units for individuals who would otherwise experience homelessness or be at risk of homelessness. Homekey has already started to change lives for the better in many communities by placing individuals on a path to long-term stable housing with services.”

– Secretary Lourdes M. Castro Ramírez, Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency

Where We Are Going in the Future

Housing prices and inequity continue to rise in California. Over the past four years, we have made incredible progress by coming together to tackle the housing crisis, but there is more work to be done.

Today, we have a unique opportunity to use bold short- and long-term strategies to address these problems.

Over the next 10 years, the state is working towards three objectives to ensure every Californian has a safe, stable, and affordable home:

Objective 1. Keep Californians in Their Homes

It is imperative that we work to keep people in their existing homes and communities, and preserve existing affordable homes. Keeping Californians in their homes includes direct financial support to residents, anti-eviction measures, and strengthening affordable housing  preservation  laws to better protect renters. It also recognizes that some of the most affordable housing units in the state are the ones that we already have and intervenes to preserve these existing subsidized and  naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH)  units.

Actions:

  • Prevent renters from being evicted and support renters facing eviction
  • Support homeowners facing foreclosure
  • Preserve subsidized affordable housing
  • Preserve non-subsidized affordable housing and keep existing tenants in these housing units

Objective 2. Produce More Affordable and Climate-Smart Housing

Through the following actions, we aim to increase the supply of housing at all affordability levels throughout the state and target production in the places where people need it the most, without displacing existing residents. This objective seeks to facilitate a greater diversity of housing models and typologies, outside of the status quo, to meet California’s pressing and diverse housing needs. We must produce new housing in areas with high access to opportunities and services without displacing existing residents, mitigate the risk of climate change while developing new housing units, provide housing units that are affordable to all Californians, lower housing development costs, and continue to enforce existing housing laws to achieve results.

Actions

  • Encourage greater diversity of housing types in all neighborhoods
  • Encourage new housing development in existing communities to reduce  vehicle miles traveled (VMT)  and mitigate climate change while simultaneously addressing housing need
  • Implement climate resiliency and sustainable building strategies
  • Support local and regional governments to encourage more housing at a range of prices, including identifying interventions to lower development costs and timelines for housing at all income levels
  • Research alternative housing models with lower production costs, such as manufactured and factory-built housing, including labor standards
  • Continue to hold local communities accountable for compliance with state housing laws

Objective 3. Continue to Act with Urgency to Address Homelessness and Housing Need

Now is the time to take bold actions to address our housing affordability and homelessness crisis that was decades in the making. We must continue to act urgently to address these crises. The status quo of bureaucratic delays, outdated building practices, and siloed attempts at housing solutions is no longer acceptable. We must provide for the needs of all Californians — especially those who are low-income, at risk of homelessness, or currently experiencing homelessness— through direct relief, prevention strategies, better information, and more flexibility.

Actions

  • Connect people with affordable housing and services faster
  • Eliminate barriers that cause delays in affordable housing funding allocations or housing construction
  • Strengthen commitments of existing partners and increase breadth of stakeholders working on eradicating homelessness, housing production, preservation, and programs
  • Align the state’s health care and housing responses more efficiently to better serve the complex needs of people experiencing homelessness

This is not a one size fits all approach. With policies, practice, and resolve, the state can meet every city and county where they are—to do their part to improve the quality of life for all Californians and the economic health of our great state.

Tracking Our Shared Progress

As we take action to meet these objectives, the state must be able to track our shared progress towards addressing the housing crisis.

Today, we are working with available data largely focused on the lagging outcomes we seek to change. Going forward, we plan to add leading indicators of progress. This is, and will be, a work in progress, further outlined in the state’s 10-year Housing Data Strategy.

Better data is essential in making and assessing progress towards each of our objectives.

Objective 1. Keep Californians in their Homes

While building more affordable housing is critical to meeting California's housing needs, it is also important to maintain the affordability of the housing that the state already has.

Rental Assistance Deployed

The best method of keeping Californians in their homes is preventing  displacement  and evictions. Efforts to keep Californians in their homes became particularly urgent with expiring state and federal COVID-19 eviction moratoriums. The state began addressing this need through the Rent Relief program.

The state can track the progress made in California’s COVID-19 Rent Relief program, which provides greatly needed rent relief to California landlords and renters who have faced financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Explore California’s  COVID-19 Rent Relief Program Dashboard  to view up to date information on households served by the program.

Since the Rent Relief program launched on March 15, 2021, California has led the nation in delivering assistance to those most in need and at risk of losing their housing. As of February 28, 2022, California allocated over $2.1 billion in emergency rental assistance to keep over 183,500 families in their homes.

Objective 2. Produce More Affordable and Climate-Smart Housing

The state must accurately assess progress along the housing production pipeline to understand where it breaks down and what types of homes are being built in which parts of the state.

Progress Towards Housing Need Goals

The state can track jurisdictions' progress towards housing need goals ( Regional Housing Needs Allocation ), from how much cities and counties are required to plan for, to how much housing they enable through zoning, to how much they permit, to how much gets built.

The state has passed legislation and allocated funding to incentivize development and  streamline  the construction process. Tracking the housing development pipeline will allow the state to measure the effectiveness of these policies.

While there are cities and counties doing the right thing, most continue to permit too few units.

Progress Towards Housing Need Goals (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) by Jurisdiction

Source: Annual progress report data through 2020 on units permitted during the 5th Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) cycle.

Location of New Housing Development

The state collects data on the location and status of new development projects, from the initial application through occupancy. The state can use this data to monitor whether or not jurisdictions are prioritizing and approving infill development in order to advance climate goals.

Explore HCD’s  Housing Element Implementation and Annual Progress Report Data Dashboard . Track the geographic distribution of housing development, including housing applications, building permits, and construction activity by locality, structure type and affordability.

Power BI Report

Grants and Technical Assistance

The state can track where we provide planning grants and technical assistance to encourage local cities and counties to plan for more housing and better understand how these resources support our shared housing goals.

Explore HCD’s  Planning Grants and Local Housing Strategies Map . View where HCD’s technical assistance teams are conducting outreach and support and see which jurisdictions have applied for planning grants.

Prohousing Participation and Alignment with State Goals

The state can measure the Prohousing Designation Program’s impact on local governments’ policies and incentives by tracking:

  • Local government applications for the Prohousing Designation, including their rate of success.
  • State funding programs that adopt incentives for the Prohousing Designation, including programs funding transportation improvements and other infrastructure.
  • The number of Prohousing Designated jurisdictions that successfully receive state funding via a competitive application process.

Objective 3. Act with Urgency to Address Homelessness and Housing Need

The state can leverage data to measure the impact of policies that streamline existing affordable housing programs and fund new, innovative programs to address homelessness and housing need.

Interim and Permanent Housing Unit Conversions

The state can track where conversions into interim and  permanent supportive housing  occurred through  Homekey . These homes will serve households who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.

Explore the  Homekey Awards Dashboard  to learn about affordable homes in your community supported by the second round of Homekey funding (December 2021 to February 2022).

Power BI Report

People Exiting Homelessness

The state can understand the dynamic nature of the people that seek homelessness services over time and determine the number of people exiting homelessness into permanent supportive housing.

Explore the  Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS ) to learn more about California's homelessness response system

California has significantly increased homelessness prevention services. In 2020, 246,142 people received homelessness prevention assistance, 40 percent more than the number of people served in 2017.

Excess State Land for Affordable Housing

The state can track where excess state properties are available and suitable for housing development, as well as where the state has made progress in ground leasing state property to develop affordable and mixed-income housing. This will help us track progress on recently passed executive action to spur development on public land.

Explore the state’s  Map of Excess State Properties  which are currently identified for affordable housing development. The number of properties will continue to grow as additional sites and/or buildings are identified as opportunities.

Statewide Affordable Housing Opportunities Sites

Experience

Outreach & Acknowledgements

To inform the Statewide Housing Plan, HCD engaged the public through a multipronged approach.

In May and June 2021, HCD held seven public listening sessions with a wide variety of stakeholders: five regional sessions (North, South, Central Coast, Central Valley, and Bay Area), as well as one session for Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHE), and one non-regional session to discuss housing priorities, goals, and strategies. The purpose of the listening sessions was to discuss housing strategies with communities and better understand what is working, what isn’t working, and how things have changed since the last plan.

HCD would like to thank the housing stakeholders and experts who helped shape this report, including representatives from:

  • California Air Resources Board
  • California Association of Housing Authorities
  • California Coalition for Rural Housing
  • California Housing Consortium
  • California Housing Finance Agency
  • California Housing Partnership Corporation
  • California State Association of Counties
  • ClimatePlan
  • Circulate San Diego
  • Disability Rights California
  • Greenlining Institute
  • Housing California
  • League of California Cities
  • Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority
  • Office of Planning and Research
  • Ohio State University Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity
  • Public Advocates
  • Public Counsel
  • SPUR
  • TransForm
  • University of California, Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute
  • University of California, Berkeley Terner Center
  • University of California, Berkeley Urban Displacement Project
  • University of California, Davis School of Law
  • University of California, Davis Center for Regional Change
  • University of California, Merced Political Science
  • University of California, Los Angeles Luskin School of Public Affairs

Contact Us

This is a crisis that California can and must solve. And we need your help to do it.

If you are pursuing an innovative way to address the housing crisis, let us know. We will continue to use the Statewide Housing Plan in an iterative fashion to track progress, identify obstacles and highlight successes.

We welcome your input and comments via email at SHP@hcd.ca.gov.

Source: Data for Wage Needed to Afford Average Unit is provided by the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2021 Out of Reach Report. Data for median income by occupation provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’  May 2020 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. 

Source: 2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. Earnings and expenditures calculated as national average for households earning $30,000- $39,999.

Source: Data from U.S. Census Bureau   Household Pulse Survey , Weeks 37-39 (September and October 2021). The share of households behind on rent payments calculated as the average of Weeks 37-39. Excludes respondents in rental housing without rent or who did not report tenure. 

Source: Annual progress report data submitted by cities and counties.