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Hello Housing California Supporter,
In this edition of the Capitol Reporter:
May Budget Revision Proposes Quick Sweep of Housing Funds
Governor
Brown's revised budget would require redevelopment successor agencies to disburse $3.5 billion in cash
balances to schools, cities, counties, and special districts in the coming
fiscal year (July 2012-June 2013). This includes $1.1 billion in Low- and
Moderate-Income Housing Funds.
Under
the terms of last year's dissolution legislation, AB 26x, all cash balances eventually have to be distributed to the local taxing
entities. The budget proposal would ensure the distribution happens in the next
fiscal year. Schools would receive approximately 57 percent of the funds,
allowing the state to reduce its school funding by $2 billion.
Assemblymember
Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), and Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles),
continue to press for an alternative approach that would preserve the housing
funds for their original intended purpose and keep the state budget whole. Housing
California and our allies are discussing various options with legal counsel --
options that could be enacted with a majority vote of the legislature.
In
a Monday press release, we highlighted the human and fiscal benefits of
building homes with the housing funds. They include:
- Allowing 12,000 households
that are homeless, overcrowded, or paying too much in rent to move into an
affordable apartment or single-family home.
- Creating 27,000
construction-phase jobs, leveraging $3 billion in additional private and public
investment, and generating $126 million in one-time state tax receipts and $23
million in annual receipts.
- Stabilizing the lives
of thousands of children and improving their school performance by giving them
a quiet place to study and sleep.
Developers
from around the state are calling their senators to press for adoption of
legislation that would preserve the housing balances.
Brown
also proposes to use $198 million from the Attorney General's recent bank
settlement to pay debt service on bonds sold pursuant to propositions 46 and
1C. Attorney General Kamala Harris has come out strongly against this idea.
Contact: Julie Snyder, 916.447.0503 x102 or jsnyder@housingca.org.
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Governor Submits Reorganization Proposal to the Legislature
Governor
Jerry Brown submitted his proposed reorganization of state departments and
agencies (Governor's Reorganization Plan 2) to the legislature last week. His action started the clock running on the 60-day
deadline under which one house of the legislature can reject the proposal to
prevent it from going into effect. If neither house rejects the proposal, it
takes effect.
In
the midst of the budget crisis, the reorganization has garnered very little
attention. Among many other changes, it would merge the Department of Housing
and Community Development (HCD) and California Housing Finance Agency and move
them into a new Business and Consumer Services Agency.
Given
the vital role of the housing market in the state's economy, housing advocates
have suggested that creating a separate housing agency would be appropriate. Alternatively,
locating HCD with Caltrans or with other human services departments could
provide important institutional links between housing and transportation, on
the one hand, or housing and other human services, on the other.
Contact: Julie Snyder, 916.447.0503 x102 or jsnyder@housingca.org.
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Housing California Officially Supports Prop 1C Modification Bills
Housing
California's Board of Directors has approved support positions for a package of
three bills dealing with Proposition 1C programs written about in our May 3rd
Capitol Reporter. These separate pieces of legislation are moving
through the Assembly. AB 1951 (Atkins) and AB 2447 (Skinner) seek to better utilize state resources by moving existing unspent
money into higher-demand programs. AB 1951 would provide $30 million more into
the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP) and AB 2447 would create a state version
of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. AB 1672 (Torres) tweaks the threshold for accessing funds from the Housing-Related
Parks program in attempt to get the funds moving in a timelier manner. Please
see the May 3rd Capitol Reporter article for more details on the bills.
Contact: Zack Olmstead, 916.447.0503 x108 or zolmstead@housingca.org.
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Select Committee on Homelessness Delves into the Intersection of Health and Homelessness
The
Assembly Select Committee on Homelessness held its
second hearing of the year on Thursday, May 10th in Sacramento. The hearing
focused on a topic crucial to reducing and ending homelessness: Healthcare
resources as a necessary component of a coordinated response. The committee was
fortunate to have some of the most-informed experts from the field as
participants, including United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Deputy Director Jennifer Ho, Peggy Bailey from the Corporation for Supportive
Housing, Brenda Goldstein of LifeLong Medical Care, and Mike Herald from the
Western Center on Law and Poverty.
View
materials from the hearing. Testimony and presentations should be
available soon on Assemblymember Toni Atkin's website.
Details
for the next hearing (which is expected to be held in San Francisco) will be
announced shortly.
Contact: Zack Olmstead, 916.447.0503 x108 or zolmstead@housingca.org.
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