Sacramento, CA

Contact:
Chione Lucina Muñoz Flegal, Housing California, cflegal@housingca.org, 916- 287-9885
Matt Schwartz, California Housing Partnership, mschwartz@chpc.net, 415-203-7158
Danielle Carrasquero, Enterprise Community Partners, danielle.carrasquero@berlinrosen.com, 206-355-6189

We extend our appreciation to Governor Newsom and the Legislature for maintaining prior year commitments to the Multifamily Housing Program and the Regional Early Action Planning Grants 2.0 (REAP 2.0), and for making additional investments of $500 million in the State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program and $1 billion in the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program. These investments are critical; every dollar committed to these proven programs will result in more affordable homes built and more Californians assisted out of homelessness.

But we are also disappointed that the final budget cuts $1.1 billion of funding for other critical. affordable housing and homelessness programs, including the Infill Infrastructure Grant. Program, the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program, the Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program, and the CalHome Program. The budget also does not allocate future funding for these programs. While we understand that the state is facing a dire budget shortfall, choosing not to invest in these programs will slow California’s progress on addressing the affordable housing crisis and worsen the crisis on our streets.

Additionally, one-time investments are not sufficient to meet our state’s affordable housing and homelessness needs. We look forward to continuing to work with the Administration and the Legislature to develop a long-term investment strategy that prioritizes significant ongoing funding to solve homelessness and ensure that every Californian has a safe, stable home that they can afford. This requires scaling investment to build and preserve 1.2 million affordable homes over the next 10 years and funding programs to prevent people from falling into homelessness, foster capacity of our homeless services workforce, and provide permanent housing solutions and supportive services to thousands of our neighbors living on our sidewalks and in our shelters. Ongoing investments at scale will allow California to address the disproportionate harms of skyrocketing housing costs, housing instability, and homelessness on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, people living in poverty, and other marginalized communities and will move us towards a future where all Californians have a safe, stable, affordable place to call home.

We will continue to work with state leaders, local governments, and community partners to forge a comprehensive path forward that addresses our state’s urgent housing needs.

Statements on the final budget from California affordable housing leaders:

Chione Flegal, Executive Director, Housing California
“No matter what metric we use to evaluate our communities’ strengths—be it health, economic well- being, educational success, racial equity, or family stability—safe, stable, affordable housing is the foundation for Californians to thrive. When we prioritize housing affordability for everyone, communities are strengthened, and we secure a future of health and shared prosperity. We appreciate the Governor and the Legislature’s decision to reverse previously proposed cuts to critical affordable housing production programs, and for making investments in the state Housing Credit and the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention program, but we are calling on our state leaders to do more. To meet the urgent needs of struggling Californians, we need them to put a new housing bond before the voters and get to work on establishing a permanent state funding source for affordable housing and homelessness solutions.”

Sharon Rapport, Director, California State Policy, Corporation for Supportive Housing
“CSH is grateful for the hard work of legislative staff, legislative leadership, and the Governor in prioritizing funding for affordable housing and homelessness, despite this year’s budget crisis. We are also enormously thankful for all of those with lived experience of homelessness, service providers, counties, cities, homeless continuums of care, and housing providers who shared with state leaders their stories about the impact of state funding, and potentially devastating effects of losing it, on people experiencing homelessness. This year’s budget crisis demonstrates, more than ever, the need for an ongoing source of funding for housing and housing support services to make any progress in preventing and ending homelessness. We look forward to continuing to work with our state leaders toward this proven solution.”

Matt Schwartz, CEO, California Housing Partnership
“The California Housing Partnership appreciates the extraordinary efforts the Governor and state leaders made to maintain baseline funding for affordable housing production and preservation during this difficult budget year,” said California Housing Partnership CEO Matt Schwartz. “Going forward, we urge state leaders to continue working on developing new sources of revenue to support larger investments at the scale needed to produce and preserve the million new affordable homes the state has set as a goal.”

Francisco Dueñas, Executive Director, Housing NOW!
“Californians, across the state, keep identifying housing affordability and homelessness as top concerns that state leaders need to address. The monies that state leaders allocate for these programs means less families having to move schools in the middle of the school year and more families finding affordable housing closer to their work. These are real life decisions for individual families that, in the aggregate, impact all of us. “We are grateful for the monies that were included in this budget, even as we continue to build support for the permanent funding needed to make sure we have a home for every Californian.”

About: A broad multi-sector coalition of affordable housing, homelessness, and housing justice advocates release united statement in response to the Final 2024-2025 State Budget

California Coalition for Rural Housing
California Housing Partnership
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
CCH (Christian Church Homes)
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ)
Century Housing Corp
Compass Family Services
Corporation for Supportive Housing
EAH Housing
East Bay Housing Organizations
Enterprise Community Partners
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Holos Communities
Housing California
Housing NOW!
Housing Trust Fund Ventura County
Human Impact Partners
Inland SoCal Housing Collective
Justice in Aging
LeadingAge California
Lift to Rise
Long Beach Residents Empowered, LiBRE
Mercy Housing California
Merritt Community Capital Corporation
MidPen Housing
Milestone Housing Group
Mission Economic Development Agency
Mutual Housing California
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative
PATH
Resources for Community Development
Sacramento Housing Alliance
San Diego Housing Federation
San Francisco Tenants Union
Southern California Association of NonProfit Housing
SPUR
The Children’s Partnership
The Kennedy Commission
The San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund
United Parents and Students