June 6, 2024

RE: Urgent need to support Legislature’s budget proposal to restore affordable housing and homelessness funding

The affordable housing and homelessness crises continue to top surveys as the most urgent issues facing the state. For us, the undersigned state leaders working across philanthropy, business, community and faith-based institutions, local government, affordable housing, homelessness, and more, these polls match what we see and feel in our communities each day. Far too many of our neighbors, our friends, and our families are being forced into homelessness due to a lack of an affordable home. These crises are holding our state back from being the inclusive, equitable, and prosperous state that we all want for California.

We greatly appreciate your proposal to restore the $500 million for the state Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in the May Revise. However, at a time when the state continues to face a shortfall of at least 1.2 million homes affordable to lower-income households and tens of thousands of Californians are experiencing homelessness, we are deeply concerned by the May Revision’s proposal to zero-out all other General Fund resources for affordable housing and homelessness in this budget year and claw back $1.96 billion in critical resources committed in previous budgets. Our state cannot afford, nor can our communities accept in good conscious, these cuts. Most local governments will terminate services that prevent and end homelessness, and California’s anemic affordable housing production will plummet, leaving a similar amount of precious federal resources on the table in the process.

That is why we are writing to express our support of the Legislature’s budget proposal, specifically the priority to restore funding to several of the state’s most essential affordable housing and homelessness programs. Specifically, in addition to approving the state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits the Governor restored in the May Revise, we call on the Governor to restore $325 million in proposed reversions to the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP), HCD’s core affordable rental housing production program and to fund the Homeless, Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Program at $1 billion.

Housing is the solution to homelessness, and MHP is the state’s largest, most flexible program for affordable housing production. MHP funds much-needed affordable housing through a cost-effective program that leverages other federal and private sources of funding 5:1. MHP funds developments across the state for the state’s most vulnerable, including specific focus areas through set-asides for rural communities and seniors. But without action, this program will come to an immediate halt, stalling construction of new affordable homes. This comes at the worst possible time when recent legislative successes to streamline the permitting of affordable housing have added 47,000 shovel-ready affordable homes to the funding pipeline and 2018’s Proposition 1 housing bond funds have already run dry.

Jurisdictions are using HHAP funds to slow and reduce homelessness, and now is a critical time to extend this hard-won progress. HHAP is a critical source of funding that allows local jurisdictions and continuums of care the flexibility to support a range of solutions to address homelessness in their communities and has connected thousands of unhoused Californians to shelter and housing. If the HHAP program is defunded this year, programs will wind down across the state, interim housing and shelters will be forced to close, and Californians experiencing homelessness will be left without a path to stable housing.

These two programs work in combination to prevent and end homelessness: HHAP provides
interim housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness, and MHP
complements HHAP by providing a destination for those receiving HHAP services and keeping
California’s lowest-income households from falling into homelessness in the first place. Failure
to fund these two programs will stall affordable housing development and jeopardize the local
infrastructure that has been built to address homelessness.

Now is not the time to abandon the state’s commitment to addressing homelessness and our dire affordable housing needs. These targeted investments in MHP and HHAP will help us cement and build on the progress we have made to date until we can enact longer-term funding solutions.

Sincerely,

A Community of Friends
Abode Communities
Affordable Housing NOW
ACLU California Action
All Home
Alliant Communities
Brilliant Corners
Burbank Housing
CA Behavioral Health Planning Council
Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation
California Coalition for Community Investment
California Housing Partnership
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Center for Community Advocacy
Center for Employment Opportunities
Center for Sustainable Neighborhoods
Century Housing
City of Goleta
Community Corp. of Santa Monica
Community Economics, Inc.
Community Human Services
Community Vision
Compass Family Services
Council of Community Housing Organizations
County of Marin
CSH
CTY Housing, Inc.
Danco Communities
David Baker Architects
Destination: Home
Disability Rights California
EAH Housing
East Bay Housing Organizations
Ensuring Opportunity Campaign
Enterprise Community Partners
Episcopal Communities & Services
Evolve California
Florence Aliese Advancement Network, LLC
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
FSY Architects, Inc
Gunkel Architecture
Healing Wings
Homebase
HomeFirst
Homes & Hope
Housing Accelerator Fund
Housing Action Coalition
Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura
Housing California
Housing Claremont, Inland Abundant Housing
Housing El Dorado
Housing Innovations and Solutions
Housing Trust Fund Ventura County
Hyder
Indivisible CA: StateStrong
International Children Assistance Network (ICAN)
Inland SoCal Housing Collective
Inner City Law Center
Insight Housing
Interfaith Community Services
LA Family Housing
Latinas Contra Cancer
Let Spirit Lead, Inc.
Lift to Rise
Linc Housing
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
Lutheran Social Services of Northern California
Mercy Housing California
Merritt Community Capital
Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care
MidPen Housing
Mission Economic Development Agency
Mogavero Architects
Mono County
Multiculturalism Rocks LLC
Mutual Housing California
Mutual Support Housing Communities
National Alliance to End Homelessness
New Beginnings
Operation Dignity
Peninsula Solidarity Cohort
People for Housing Orange County
People’s Self-Help Housing
PICO California
Prevention Institute
Promotores de Salud de OC
PYATOK Architects
Resources for Community Development
Riverside County Housing and Workforce Solutions
Root & Rebound
RTFH
Sacramento Housing Alliance
Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness
San Bernardino Free Them All
San Diego Housing Commission
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation (SFHDC)
San Joaquin Valley Housing Collaborative
Santa Clara Methodist Retirement Foundation
Sonoma Applied Villages Services (SAVS)
SCANPH
SDS Capital Group
Self-Help Enterprises
Serving Seniors
Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation
SPUR
SSG/HOPICS
St. Joseph’s Family Center
St. Mary’s Center
Sunnyvale Community Services
Supportive Housing Alliance
SV@Home Action Fund
Tenderloin Housing Clinic
The Children’s Partnership
The Kennedy Commission
The People Concern
The Unity Council
TransForm
Turning Point Community Programs
UPholdings
Upward Bound House
Urban Focus
Urban Habitat
Valley Restart Shelter
Venice BeachHead
Venice Community Housing Corporation
Welcoming Neighbors Home
Western Regional Advocacy Project
Wise Up Incorporated
WLCAC
WORKS, Women Organizing Resources Services and Knowledge
WUNZ Apparel in Action (The WUNZ Supersuit)
YIMBY Action
YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley
Zen Development