FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sacramento, CA
Contact: Unai Montes, umontes@housingca.org, 310.962.7369 (Bilingual)
Jordan Miller, Enterprise Community Partners, jcooke@groupgordon.com, 212-784-5703
Traci Mysliwiec, California Housing Partnership, tmysliwiec@chpc.net, 415-672-1923

Affordable Housing, Homelessness, and Housing Justice Organizations from Across California Respond to Final 2023-2024 State Budget

We extend our appreciation to Governor Newsom and the Legislature for maintaining prior year commitments to affordable housing production and preservation, homelessness resources, and housing-related infrastructure – as well as the additional investments of $500 million in the State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program and $100 million in the Multifamily Housing Program in the 2023-2024 State Budget. 

These investments are critical; every dollar committed to these proven programs will result in more affordable homes and more Californians assisted out of homelessness. One-time investments, however, especially at this limited scale, 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 comprehensive, 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, fund 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 shelters. Ongoing investments can 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. 

The 2024 ballot will be critical to this investment strategy. We look forward to engaging with Governor Newsom regarding his bond proposal to fund behavioral health treatment beds and housing for people with behavioral health conditions. In addition, we strongly support a 2024 statewide affordable housing bond, AB 1657, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, which will provide tens of thousands of permanent homes for lower-income individuals and families – protecting them from falling into homelessness or allowing them to exit homelessness – and ensure that people exiting treatment facilities are able to access housing they can afford. AB 1657 addresses the #1 cause of homelessness: a lack of affordable, stable, permanent housing, by providing funding for the production and preservation of new affordable homes. 

Cities, counties, and regions are also essential partners in achieving our housing goals and state leaders have a vital role to play in facilitating local communities’ ability to scale investments. This is why we support ACA 1, championed by Assemblymember Aguiar Curry, to empower local governments to raise funding for affordable housing through bonds. ACA 1 would unlock billions of dollars of local funding by setting the vote threshold for local affordable housing bond measures at 55 percent.

We all have a role to play in addressing the state’s urgent housing needs and urge state leaders to collaborate with community partners and local governments to forge a comprehensive path forward. 

Signatories:
All Home
California Coalition for Rural Housing
California Homelessness and Housing Policy Funders Network
California Housing Partnership
California Housing Consortium
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Compass Family Services
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Council of Community Housing Organizations
Elevation Community Land Trust
East Palo Alto Community Alliance Neighborhood Development Organization (EPACANDO)
End Poverty in California (EPIC)
Ensuring Opportunity: The Campaign to End Poverty in Contra Costa County
Enterprise Community Partners
Evolve
Friends Committee on Legislation on California
Funders Together to End Homelessness
Housing California
Housing Trust Silicon Valley
Imagine LA 
Indivisible California StateStrong
Lift to Rise
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Non-profit Housing Association of Northern California
Orange County People’s Budget
PICO California
Resources for Community Development
San Diego Housing Federation
San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness
Self-Help Enterprises
San Francisco Tenants Union
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation
SV@Home Action Fund
The Greenlining Institute
United Parents and Students
Western Center on Law and Poverty