Who We Are

Vision

A Grandpa and his young grandson, dressed in bright shirts, lay on their backs on the grass, looking at each other, and laughing.

Housing California envisions a California with homes, health, and prosperity for all in thriving, sustainable communities.

Peace

Safe-haven

Stability

Love

Laughter

Music

Community

Family

Retreat

Affordable

Mission and Goals

Housing California brings together a diverse, multi-sector network to prevent and end homelessness, increase the supply of safe, stable, affordable housing options, and reverse the legacy of racial and economic injustice by building power among the people most impacted by housing injustice, shaping the narrative, and advocating for statewide policy solutions.
An African American senior woman holds a mug while smiling and sitting on a couch next to an African American male.

We work to address housing affordability and homelessness through two primary policy approaches:

  • Land Use: Promoting affordable housing production and influencing where affordable homes are built by regulating how land can be developed.
  • Finance: Increasing and protecting public investment in affordable homes and supportive services.

We also partner with our allies on supporting tenant protections by strengthening laws that help keep people in their homes.

“Without Housing CA in its place, with its level of high regard across the sectors, there would be more silo effect; who they are means that people can take a break from those silos and come together. The geography of California and the historical bureaucracy would be too much for anyone on their own to bridge.”

Steve Root

Communications Coordinator
Mutual Housing California

An African American woman stands, clapping her hands, amongst a group of other people also clapping.

Strategic Directions

To help us reach our vision, Housing CA advances our work through three strategic directions:

  1. Shape Narrative: To shift California’s housing and homelessness dominant narrative from a problem-focused, individual blame frame to a solutions-oriented, societal change frame.
  2. Shift and Build Power: To cultivate, connect, and lead a statewide network of grassroots, grasstops, and treetops organizations for greater collective impact on moving state-level housing and homelessness policies that center racial equity and economic inclusion.
  3. Change Policy: To advance bold systems change solutions that create homes, health, and prosperity for all in thriving, sustainable communities.

History

Housing California began as a conference in 1979 with a small gathering across the street from the State Capitol. The gathering became an annual event, and over the last four decades has grown into one of the largest and most diverse affordable housing and homelessness conferences in the country.

Housing California became a broader, state–wide advocacy organization in 1988 as a result of the growing state advocacy work in affordable housing.

The organization has a history of powerful leadership and successes in state policy, having played an integral role in the passage of statewide propositions, state budget allocations for affordable housing and homelessness services, and a host of legislation on homelessness and land use policy.

“The conference has been in some ways a calling card for what Housing California has been; however, it has become much more than just a conference. It’s active in the Capital, defining the issues around affordable housing especially in this time when there’s a remarkable public interest and legislature interest in trying to do something about the housing crisis facing California.”

Murtaza Baxamusa

Program Manager for Regional Sustainability, County of San Diego, and Housing California Board Member