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CAA this week applauded a newly released Senate budget proposal for including rental assistance and addressing California’s ongoing homelessness crisis and housing shortage.
Housing-related highlights from the Senate’s “Build Back Boldly” plan include the following:
Bringing tax fairness and relief for renters by reforming and expanding the renters tax credit.
Providing “first and last month” rental assistance to remove a key barrier for those experiencing homelessness to move back into permanent housing.
Establishing a financing tool for accessory dwelling unit construction to produce more affordable units
Providing incentives to convert vacant or underused commercial and retail space into affordable housing.… Read More
Tagged: News
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget blueprint for 2020-21 includes several proposals that could help Californians recover financially from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newsom’s $227.2 billion spending plan, which he submitted to the Legislature this past Friday, would provide financial help to low-income Californians, launch a program to create jobs, and offer tax credits to spur affordable housing construction.
Tagged: News
Several Northern California counties this week extended their shelter-in-place orders while loosening certain rules that affect rental housing.
The revised orders lift some restrictions on certain low-risk activities, including construction, outdoor businesses, and residential moves.
The health officers for Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Marin counties, plus the city of Berkeley, issued new orders Wednesday. These orders take effect May 4, after the current health orders expire.
The new orders will allow housing construction to proceed with certain safety protocols. Previously, housing projects in the seven jurisdictions could only continue if 10% of the units… Read More
Tagged: COVID-19
Michael Weinstein and his AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the organization bankrolling a statewide radical rent control initiative, have been accused of violating multiple political finance laws while campaigning to defeat a major housing-production bill.
Earlier today, California YIMBY, which stands
for Yes In My Backyard, filed a formal complaint with the California Fair
Political Practices Committee. The complaint alleges that Weinstein ignored
well-established state reporting requirements in spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars to oppose SB 50 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.
The legislation, which died last month on the
Senate floor, would have allowed for expedited housing construction, including… Read More
Tagged: Proposition 10Rent Control
Gov. Gavin Newsom this
month signed more than a dozen CAA-backed bills intended to address California’s chronic housing shortage.
The bills will help
remove local barriers to housing construction, boost incentives for building
higher-density affordable housing, and make it easier and cheaper to add second
units to residential lots.
Gov. Gavin Newsom
“We’ve
invested more in new housing than at any point in our history, and we have
created powerful new tools to incentivize housing production,” Newsom said in this news
release. “Now, we are removing some key local barriers
to housing production. This crisis has been more than a… Read More
Gov. Newsom this week signed legislation that will provide dollars for housing while also imposing penalties against cities that refuse to build their fair share.
The legislation, Assembly Bill 101, is a
trailer bill, meaning it followed the main budget bill already signed by the
governor this summer.
Among other things, the bill specifically
allows for fines of up to $100,000 per month if a city fails to comply with the
state’s housing element law. That law mandates that cities plan for and deliver
housing at all levels of affordability for their residents. About 40 California
cities are out-of-compliance with… Read More
Tagged: Affordable housing
Over CAA’s objections, the Long Beach City Council this week
approved an ordinance that effectively caps rent increases at 10% on the city’s
older apartment buildings and limits the ability of landlords to terminate
tenancies.
The Tenant
Relocation Assistance Ordinance, which advanced Tuesday on a 6-3
vote, contains forms of both rent control and so-called “just cause” eviction
policies. The council is expected to formalize approval of the ordinance with a
second vote June 11.
Less than six months after Proposition 10 went down in crushing defeat, Michael Weinstein is again attempting to return extreme forms of rent control to California, a move that would decimate the supply of housing for California’s working families.
On Friday, Weinstein filed preliminary paperwork with the state attorney general to place another statewide initiative before voters, aiming for the 2020 ballot.
According to initial paperwork filed with California Attorney General’s Office, the new initiative seeks to create the Rental Affordability Act. Under this measure, cities and counties would be free to impose rent control on buildings after they turn… Read More
The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday voted to push forward with a temporary mediation program to address high rents while housing supply catches up with demand.
The program now moves to a second hearing set for April 23.
The mediation program is included
in the Tenant Protection and Relief Act introduced last year by Councilman
Steve Hansen, Vice Mayor Eric Guerra and Councilman Rick Jennings.
A state senator’s bid to boost multifamily construction near transit and job centers has already gotten farther than a similar proposal by the lawmaker last year.
On Tuesday, the Senate Housing Committee
approved SB
50 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, on a 9-1 vote. It is a
retooled version of last year’s SB 827, which failed passage.
SB 50 would allow for expedited housing construction near existing job centers and public transportation.
Sen. Scott Wiener
If they request it, developers who agree to build qualifying “job rich” or “transit rich” housing projects would be eligible for certain incentives, such… Read More
Tagged: News