🏡💚 What's next for 2023 social housing bills
October 13th, 2023
If you’ve been reading these newsletters, you know we’ve been tracking the social housing bills that were going through the Legislature this year. It’s worth noting that in a few short years we’ve gone from social housing as an essentially unknown concept to having multiple bills putting forward visions for social housing in the state. It also reveals how in many ways this concept is still being defined.
But with his signature on SB 555 over last weekend, Governor Newsom signed the first definition of social housing into state law, and set in motion a process that will take an explicit look at the role social housing can play to address the housing crisis.
SB 555 (Wahab), the Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023 will require the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to produce a study that includes a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities, resources, obstacles, and recommendations for social housing to assist in meeting the the state’s housing needs. The bill also puts into law a definition of social housing as housing that meets all of these criteria:
The housing units are owned and managed by a public agency, a local authority, a limited-equity housing cooperative, or a mission-driven nonprofit entity solely for the benefit of residents and households unable to afford market rent.
Each social housing development contains housing units that accommodate a mix of household income ranges, including extremely low, very low, low-, and moderate-income households unable to afford market rent.
Residents of the housing units enjoy full protection against termination without just cause or for any discriminatory, retaliatory, or other arbitrary reason, and shall be afforded due process prior to being subject to eviction procedures.
The housing units are protected for the duration of their useful life, and the land associated with the housing units is protected permanently, from being sold or transferred to any private person or for-profit entity or a public-private partnership.
Residents have the right to participate directly and meaningfully in decisionmaking affecting the operation and management of the housing units in which they reside.
This is a huge win for housing justice and tenant groups that sponsored, supported, and pushed for the bill (the bill’s co-sponsors were ACCE, Housing Now, Tenants Together, and Public Advocates).
Now it’s all about implementation. While the bill provides a fair amount of guidance on what should be included in the study, it will still require community input and ongoing advocacy to ensure that it follows the spirit and intent of the law.
Winning social housing in California is a long-term vision. This is just one step forward amidst an enormous sea of transformation that will need to occur in order to guarantee affordable housing to everyone. But it’s a step worth celebrating before work on the next step begins.
Sen. Wahab speaks at rally with the GND Coalition, CEJA, and partners in support of SB 555
As you may recall, Assemblymember Alex Lee also had a social housing bill this legislative cycle, AB 309, which also passed the Legislature. This would authorize the state to identify and develop up to 3 social housing pilot projects on state-owned property.
Governor Newsom vetoed this bill over the weekend, citing budget concerns and the potential for the bill to infringe on state sovereignty over state-owned real property by granting local government review of state projects. This is perhaps some indication over the differing approaches to building social housing in the state, as well as the Governor’s receptiveness to them.
We’ll stay tuned for what happens with Lee’s bill next year. We already expect another social housing bill to come back next cycle, SB 584, a labor-backed bill to build “laborforce housing” by taxing short-term rentals, which was turned into a two-year bill this session.
Advocates are also celebrating the signing of SB 567 (Durazo), The Homelessness Prevention Act. Though this bill was significantly watered-down through the legislative process due to real estate industry pressure, it is still a meaningful win that creates more protections for tenants.
There are a number of other housing bills that passed this session, as other places have remarked on this as “a year for YIMBYs.” While I won’t take time to go into the complexities of that now, it’s worth reflecting on both the political landscape of housing at this moment, and what is being identified as the underlying roots of the housing crisis in these solutions.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Newsom signs tenant bills to lower security deposits, prevent more evictions (LA Times) — rundown of bills signed that are set to protect tenants
As rooftop solar debate flares, builders, landlords and renter advocates are taking sides (CalMatters) — the intersection of energy and housing issues coming up in the latest CPUC attempt to cut incentives for solar on apartment buildings.
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We’ll be back with another newsletter next Friday morning. Please send any relevant topics, articles, reports, or intel to me at zach@apen4ej.org!
