Last month, we saw the end to a very busy legislative session and can report some great success from our coalition of California Habitat for Humanity affiliates:

  • In coalition with other statewide organizations, we secured a $350M budget allocation over two years to the CalHome Program, which is the only dedicated funding source for homeownership from the State of California.

  • The Governor signed the following bills that Habitat CA took a leadership role in getting through the Legislature:

    • AB 2217 (Reyes) Affordable Homeownership Production Act
      Authorizes the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to adjust caps within the CalHome program based on local development costs.

    • AB 1933 (Friedman): Property Tax Welfare Exemption
      Expands the Property Welfare Exemption to nonprofit builders constructing owner-occupied units for low-income homebuyers.

    • AB 2097 (Friedman) Parking Requirements Reform
      Gives affordable housing developers building units near transit or in neighborhoods with reduced car use the flexibility to determine how much parking is needed.

    • AB 2234 (Robert Rivas) Post Entitlement, improved permit processing
      Requires local agency adherence to already established streamlining processes.