For Immediate Release: Wed, Sept. 11, 2019

Contact: Adam Bink | abink@spitfirestrategies.com | 415-495-4200 x113 | 716-725-4569 (cell)

Statement on the Legislature’s action concerning the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program (SB 5)

The following statement can be attributed to Lisa Hershey, Executive Director:

“The crisis that Californians face when it comes to housing affordability requires a sustained solution–not a band-aid, nor a one-time infusion of dollars. The inadequate supply of homes available to families struggling the most means more than 1.4 million of California’s lowestincome families are paying far too much towards rent–forcing many of them into homelessness. That’s why Housing CA supports SB 5. It provides an ongoing, sustainable, accountable source of funding to cities and counties to ensure new homes are available and affordable for residents in our communities. What’s more, by subsidizing homes near job centers and focusing on transit-oriented development, SB 5 will help end so-called ‘supercommutes’ that keep families apart, increase rates of asthma in our communities, and worsen the climate crisis plaguing our state. “Our thanks go to Senator Beall for his leadership, as well as his colleagues, Senators McGuire and Portantino, and Assemblymember Mullin, for their work on this legislation, and to the diverse coalition of partners that came together to support a bold, sustainable solution, including the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the League of California Cities, the California Housing Partnership, and other key allies. We strongly urge Governor Newsom to live up to his promise to end what he rightly terms a ‘crisis’ by signing this bill.”