CHC Housing News

CHC Urges Legislators to Spare Redevelopment Funding as Budget Deficit Solution

Alli Warren — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:32:17 -0400

As State Legislators look for a way out of the budget impasse, CHC is urging our representatives to reject any proposals to take redevelopment funding. Redevelopment agencies throughout the state leverage their tax increment funding with unprecedented Prop 1C TOD and infill support in order to create critical incentives for building new affordable housing near jobs and transit. (For a copy of CHC’s letter, please click this link to our Policy Update page)

CA Redevelopment Association Executive Director (and CHC Board of Director member) John Shirey issued a ‘Legislative Alert’ on August 12 stating, “There are also strong indications that a take of at least $200 million in redevelopment funds will be part of the package. It is unclear whether the take will be one-time or ongoing…It is not enough for legislators to state they do not support takes of redevelopment funds; they must also make it clear to legislative leaders they will not support a budget that harms local government, including redevelopment.”

Please see the attachment for an example of what was sent to California legislators in anticipation of a possible Sunday 8/17 State budget vote.

Land Use Planning Progress: SB375 Update

Alli Warren — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:25:08 -0400

Land Use Planning Progress – as you know, CHC has actively supported Sen. Ducheny’s sensible land use reform bill SB303 over the past two years agreeing whole-heartedly that greater certainty in the planning, entitlement, and project-approval processes is essential if we are to markedly increase housing production across California. Substantial progress has taken place lately in merging the intent of SB303 with SB375, the land-use planning bill that for the first time would establish carbon reduction standards as part of a comprehensive land-use reform. As explained in the attached CBIA Memorandum on SB 375: “In addition to linking regional transportation planning with local land use planning, [SB375 would now] align both of those activities with the state-mandated housing element process and provide significant regulatory reform to develop projects that are proposed within areas consistent with a ‘sustainable communities strategy’. Please also download the Sacramento Bee’s August 7 Editorial entitled, “A Breakthrough on Regional Plans”.

Background -- Senate President pro tem-elect Darrel Steinberg introduced SB375 last year to establish carbon reduction objectives for California’s landmark ‘Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006’ (AB32) by creating a state-based land-use planning and decision-making process. In its original form SB375 was a non-started for builders, developers, and local government – all of whom actively opposed the bill in 2007. Senator Ducheny and SB303 sponsor CBIA have worked together with the League of California Cities over the past 6 months to negotiate a series of constructive amendments to SB375 geared toward ensuring greater certainty in the development process while ensuring incentive-based improvement to development patterns. These amendments are summarized in the attached CBIA Memorandum; please also download the Sacramento Bee’s August 7 Editorial entitled, “A Breakthrough on Regional Plans”.

SB375 is currently being amended to reflect the progress summarized in the attached memorandum. We will notify CHC members of the new language and action steps in the near future.

August 2008 CHC Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 8

Alli Warren — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:17:21 -0400

Inside this newsletter...

Executive Director Report: CHC Engaged: Federal Housing Stimulus Bill Passage is Landmark Shift in Government's Role in Housing
It’s not everyday that those of us in the housing sector can announce the passage of legislation that is effectively a sea change in public policy. Given the very grim realities of the housing market nationally, just such massive federal intervention has occasioned this ‘good news’. The most important federal housing legislation in a generation includes a full array of support including measures to address the foreclosure and credit crisis, provide new oversight and structural reforms for the GSEs, revise and improve LIHTC regulations, increase bonding capacity, and create a national housing trust fund...

CARB releases Draft AB32 Scoping Plan—Implications for Land Use Planning and Housing
The already fast pace of new actions and policies across California to address global warming seems to be increasing as of late. Over the past few weeks a state-wide green building code was approved, discussions continued among legislators and interest groups on SB375 and SB303 (the housing-related land use/regulatory reform measures) and the long awaited Scoping Plan for AB32 (the landmark global warming reduction bill) was released. With the energy debate in Washington centered only on where and how to drill for more oil, California’s leadership on climate change and creating new ways of addressing energy issues is still the biggest game in town...

CHC Member Project Profile: LINC Housing's Pepperwood Apartments
WCHC member organization, LINC Housing is committed to creating and preserving housing that is affordable, environmentally sustainable, and a catalyst for community improvement. With their Pepperwood Apartments, opened in 2007, LINC has successfully completed an inspiring rehabilitation project in San Bernardino County’s Rancho Cucamonga...

To read more click on the attachment below.

Housing Bill Signed by President

Alli Warren — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:22:09 -0400

UPDATE 8/4/08: On Thursday, July 31, President Bush signed one of the most important federal housing policies in a generation. A full menu of support for the housing sector includes measures to address the foreclosure and credit crisis, provide new oversight and structural reforms for the GSEs, revise and improve LIHTC regulations, increase bonding capacity, and create a national housing trust fund. For more specifics, please see the 7/231 NY Times article below...

Some background on the bill:
As of the end of March 2008, over 210,000 residential properties across California were in foreclosure. Under the Senate-passed formula of the federal housing stimulus package (H.R.3221) California stands to benefit from $365MM in direct funding and leverage over $780MM in additional grants which, in turn, will generate over 6,500 new jobs and return nearly $10 billion in property taxes.

The federal housing stimulus bill (currently embodied in H.R. 3221) is a comprehensive measure that includes a regulatory overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; a plan to help borrowers avoid foreclosure by refinancing through the Federal Housing Administration and a $14.5 billion package of housing-focused tax breaks including $4 billion in federal neighborhood stabilization funding to enable the purchase of vacant, blighted residential properties in order to rehabilitate them and resell or rent them to low-to-moderate income families; and LIHTC reforms to permit Housing Credits to be used toward Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Liability and also fix the annual Housing Credit Percentages at 4 and 9 percent.

With President Bush indicating his intention to veto the housing bill, support of fiscally conservative, so-called “Blue Dog Democrats” is seen as essential to provide the necessary veto-override majority. In addition to urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to coordinate passage of the bill, CHC has also reached out to the (7) fiscally conservative, so-called Blue Dog Democrats within California’s congressional delegation – at both their Washington and district offices. Please stay tuned for more updates on this important federal legislation.

Bush Signs Sweeping Housing Bill
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
The New York Times
Published: July 31, 2008

WASHINGTON — President Bush signed into law on Wednesday a huge package of housing legislation that included broad authority for the Treasury Department to safeguard the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies and a plan to help hundreds of thousands of troubled borrowers avoid losing their homes.

Mr. Bush signed the legislation, which Congress approved last week, shortly after 7 a.m. in the Oval Office, the deputy White House press secretary, Tony Fratto, said.

The law authorizes the Treasury to rescue the mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, should they verge on collapse, potentially by spending tens of billions in federal monies. Together, the companies own or guarantee nearly half of the nation’s $12 trillion in mortgages.

Partly to accommodate the rescue plan for the mortgage companies, the bill raises the national debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion, an increase of $800 billion. The bill also creates significant liabilities and risks for taxpayers, that are virtually impossible to calculate.

“We look forward to put in place new authorities to improve confidence and stability in markets, and to provide better oversight for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Mr. Fratto said. “The Federal Housing Administration will begin to implement new policies intended to keep more deserving American families in their homes.”

A half-dozen top advisers to the president, including the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who was the leading advocate of the legislation in the administration attended the signing. But it was not a particularly auspicious occasion given the precarious state of the nation’s financial system, and the pressure that Mr. Bush came under to sign a bill that contained provisions he had opposed.

Though the legislation was the product of months of intensive work by lawmakers in both parties and has been hailed as the most aggressive intervention by the government into the housing market in more than a generation, perhaps since the New Deal, no members of Congress were invited to the signing.

The enactment of the legislation comes in the same week that the administration announced that Mr. Bush would leave behind a record $482 billion deficit, which will probably grow substantially if home values continue to decline and if there are further reductions in corporate and personal income as many economists are forecasting for the rest of the year. Because of the growing deficit, Democrats said, the debt ceiling had to be lifted regardless of the housing bill.

The new housing law includes a plan aimed at helping as many as 400,000 homeowners pay off their troubled mortgages and replace them with more affordable, government-insured loans. The program is voluntary and the lenders must agree to take a sizable loss, reducing the principal of each loan, before they can be refinanced.

The law authorizes the Federal Housing Administration to insure up to the $300 billion in such loans but the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that only $68 billion of that authority is likely to be used. The original lenders will have to pay upfront fees into an insurance fund, and borrowers will pay continuing insurance premiums of 1.5 percent a year to insulate taxpayers against losses from defaults.

The budget office has estimated that 35 percent of the refinanced loans will end up in trouble again.

The authority for the Treasury Department to help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is limited only by the debt ceiling. The budget office has said that a $25 billion expense should appear on the federal budget for the next two fiscal years, representing its best estimate of how much the program will end up costing taxpayers.

But the budget office said there was a better than 50 percent chance that the rescue authority would not be used, and there would be no cost, while there was a 5 percent chance that one or both of the mortgage giants would lose another $100 billion or more, costing taxpayers a vast sum.

Some experts have said that the law was wrong-headed in its effort to retain the hybrid nature of the mortgage finance giants, which are private companies with publicly traded stock, but which now have an explicit guarantee of help from the government — an arrangement that critics say privatizes the profits but socializes the risk and any losses.

David M. Walker, the former comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office who is now president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said that Mr. Bush might have been unwise to sign the measure.

“Providing authority to the secretary of the Treasury to extend credit or to buy stock is one that will end up costing the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” Mr. Walker said in an interview earlier this week.

Mr. Walker noted that other government interventions in the private market, including a rescue of the Chrysler automobile company had provided an opportunity for taxpayers to profit. But when it comes to the mortgage giants, he said, there is no upside.

“The way this is structured,” he said. “It’s only a matter of how much the taxpayers are going to lose.”

Supporters of the legislation — including Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and Senator Richard C. Shelby, Republican of Alabama, the leaders of the banking committee, and Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, the main author of the legislation in the House — say the law represents the best way to help stabilize the housing market, potentially putting a solid floor under declining prices.

The bill includes an array of other aid for troubled borrowers, and about $15 billion in housing-related tax breaks. It also includes nearly $4 billion grants to local governments to buy and refurbished foreclosed properties, which Mr. Bush had opposed even as he signed the measure. The White House views that provision as a giveaway to banks and other lenders who own the seized properties.

CHC Opposes AB2818

Eric Mackres — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:20:00 -0400

UPDATE: 7/25/2008: Due to recent developments in Sacramento, CHC has come out in opposition to the Housing Authority Dispositions Bill (AB2818). Please see the official letter of opposition in the attachments.

Following on last week’s monthly CHC Policy Leadership Taskforce conference call where we discussed a number of current bills wending their way through the legislature, we wanted to provide the attached status update. Among the good news is that TOD and Infill funding for Round 1 will be augmented by $150MM if today’s vote in the Assembly (and yesterday’s in the Senate) results in the Governor’s signing AB1252 next Tuesday, July 1st as expected; it is also promising to see that the new incarnation of Sen. Ducheny’s Land Use Bill SB303 has apparently achieved support of both builders and local government resulting in approval this week in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.

At the same time, we are concerned that the Housing Authority Dispositions Bill (AB2818) also passed out of committee this week; this measure would create new procedures for housing authorities that will result in a rash of unintended consequences; as Carol Galante (BRIDGE Housing) and Chris Gouig (Alameda County Housing Authority) reported on last week’s call, the measure has never been vetted with housing authorities and despite the urging of CHC and others to ‘hold for study’ the measure appears to have legs. CHC will continue to call for proper deliberation that incorporates all of the key interest groups.

Finally, on the federal housing policy front, the Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (HR 3221) is at a critical stage this week where late amendments to strike the proposed national housing trust fund as well as $4 billion in ‘neighborhood stabilization’ funds are being wrestled to the floor. CHC is on record urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reject such amendments and help pass this important piece of federal housing funding legislation.

As always, we welcome your input and will continue to keep you apprised of developments both in Sacramento and Washington.

$600MM in Catalytic Public Funding for California Housing Awarded

Eric Mackres — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:48:45 -0400

CHC is pleased to alert its members to some very encouraging news at a time when the housing sector and the state economy could use it most:

On Wednesday, July 9th, Governor Schwarzenneger announced that recent awards by the CA Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) of over $600MM in Proposition 1C and Proposition 46 housing bond funding will result in new rental and ownership housing opportunities for over 17,000 Californians: over $215MM for the Los Angeles Region; over $175MM for the San Francisco/Bay Area; over $123MM for the Greater Sacramento/Stockton Region; over $40MM for the Central Valley; over $36MM for the San Diego Region; over $15MM for the Inland Empire; and over $11MM for the Central Coast Region. For a more detailed breakdown of awards through Infill Infrastructure, TOD, Farmworker Housing Grants, BEGIN, MHP, and EHAP programs, please refer to the Governor’s Press Release.

LA Housing Partnership seeking Project Manager

Eric Mackres — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:47:01 -0400

CHC member, the Los Angeles Housing Partnership, Inc is conducting a job search for a project manager.

Detailed job description and application instructions are included in the posting attached below.

July 2008 CHC Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 7

Alli Warren — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:03:56 -0400

Inside this newsletter…

Executive Director Report: State and Federal Mid-Year Housing Policy Update; New Center for Housing Policy Resources; Farm Worker Housing
Given the record pace lately of various housing bills in the legislature, it’s perhaps not difficult to see the analogy to this especially dangerous wildfire season for California. Fueled by the steady pace of housing foreclosures, crippled by constrained capital markets, and uncertain in the face of the politically-contentious state budget battle looming on the horizon, our housing picture may be hazy but there’s also reason for hope...

CHC Washington Affiliate Center for Housing Policy Inaugurates Resourceful New Website of State and Local Housing Solutions
CHC is proud to be one of only two regional affiliates of the National Housing Conference (NHC), the Washington D.C.-based housing advocacy organization that for over 75 years has led the way on enlightened housing and community development policies on a federal level...

CHC Member Project Profile: Self-Help Enterprises’ Sand Creek
With their Sand Creek development, Self-Help Enterprises is addressing the tremendous need of an unincorporated farm worker community in Tulare County which has one of the highest rates of poverty in California...

To read more click on the attachment below.

CHC's 2008 Policy Forum and Housing Hall of Fame Awards: A Great Success!

Eric Mackres — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:23:52 -0400

The California Housing Consortium annual CHC Policy Forum and Housing Hall of Fame Luncheon was a great success. See pictures and a summary of the event by Clicking Here!

City of Pasadena Seeking Director of Housing

Eric Mackres — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:30:49 -0400

CHC Member, the City of Pasadena seeks a talented and committed leader to direct their new Housing Department. The Director will manage housing programs with a total appropriation of over $37M and a department staff of 26 employees. The City wants innovative new development and revitalization to maximize affordable housing, rehabilitation and rental assistance to community members with diverse income levels. The Director will also strengthen partnerships between other public and private leaders, non-profit agencies, affordable housing developers, and a diverse and engaged community. The new Director will have the opportunity to refine a cohesive strategic plan for the department positively influencing the quality of life in all neighborhoods.

More information on the position and application instructions are available in the attached job posting.