By SDCN Staff
Sacramento, CA–Thousands of new homes are coming to cities throughout the state – leading to greater affordability and stronger communities.
As part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s statewide strategy to reduce homelessness by increasing housing availability, the California Department of Housing and Community Development today announced the award of over $414 million through an innovative streamlined finance program, paving the way for development of another 2,099 new homes — with 2,068 of those homes reserved for low- to extremely low-income Californians.
“We cannot solve either the homelessness or housing affordability crisis without creating new housing. Today’s announcement will create thousands of new homes for California families, helping hundreds of thousands of people access housing.” Newsom said.
In 2019, during his first State of the State address, Newsom announced the state would begin focusing on the housing and homelessness crisis — becoming the first governor in history to make this issue a statewide priority.
Through new programs and funding, California is outperforming the nation in turning around the decades-in-the-making homelessness crisis. A key part of the governor’s strategy is increasing the state’s housing inventory and helping strengthen affordability to every family.
In September 2020, Newsom signed into law a bill to streamline the state’s complex web of housing finance and create a new process that allows developers to apply to four separate programs through a single application, reducing delays that can drive up costs and derail projects. Modeled on efficiency and cost savings to maximize housing outcomes, the innovative process has awarded $1.622 billion to support the development of 12,676 affordable homes statewide since 2020. These projects are expected to serve 248,993 Californians.
“Over $400 million committed to communities across the state will expedite and expand opportunities to build affordable housing and make much-needed infrastructure improvements,” said Tomiquia Moss, Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. “These awards will galvanize the collective public-private response to serve low-income households, including seniors, Veterans, large families, and residents with special needs, and accelerate climate and health outcomes in neighborhoods across California.”
“Governor Newsom’s creation of the Multifamily Finance Super NOFA was a major step in streamlining a complex housing finance system to reduce costs and allow more affordable homes to be built,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. “His creation of the California Housing and Homelessness Agency will give us the tools to build on this and other Department successes in addressing housing availability and affordability at scale—tackling a crisis decades in the making and strengthening communities throughout California.”
The awards totaling over $414.2 million will make possible the development or rehabilitation of 2,099 homes in 16 California counties. Of those homes, 794 are reserved for extremely low-income Californians—defined as people earning up to 30 percent of Area Median Income (AMI); 866 are reserved for households earning 31-50 percent AMI; and 408 are reserved for those earning 51-80 percent AMI.
The awards include:
$244.1 million of Multifamily Housing program funds to support 10 projects with 769 assisted units.
$128.9 million of Farmworker Housing Grant program funds to support 10 projects with 345 assisted units.
$28.5 million in Infill Infrastructure Grant Program awards to support development of 553 assisted units, with 370 units reserved for seniors, 316 for large families, and 338 units of permanent supportive housing for residents with special needs.
$12.7 million in Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program funds to create 87 homes for veterans.
These awards follow a recent announcement by the Newsom Administration of continued support for local communities with awards of $106.2 million of voter-approved Proposition 1 funding for the development of hundreds of supportive Homekey+ housing units serving veterans and other Californians with behavioral health challenges. More funding is on the way with HCD reviewing applications for $1.033 billion in additional Homekey+ funding for veterans, in addition to $1.11 billion for projects serving all Californians at risk of homelessness with behavioral health challenges.
