UPholdings joins 100+ organizations to support Legislature’s budget proposal to restore affordable housing and homelessness funding

The affordable housing and homelessness crises continue to top surveys as the most urgent issues facing the state. Far too many of our neighbors, our friends, and our families are being forced into homelessness due to a lack of an affordable home. These crises are holding our state back from being the inclusive, equitable, and prosperous state that we all want for California.  

We greatly appreciate Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to restore the $500 million for the state Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in the May Revise. However, at a time when the state continues to face a shortfall of at least 1.2 million homes affordable to lower-income households and tens of thousands of Californians are experiencing homelessness, we are deeply concerned by the May Revision’s proposal to zero-out all other General Fund resources for affordable housing and homelessness in this budget year and claw back $1.96 billion in critical resources committed in previous budgets. Our state cannot afford, nor can our communities accept in good conscience, these cuts. Most local governments will terminate services that prevent and end homelessness, and California’s anemic affordable housing production will plummet, leaving a similar amount of precious federal resources on the table in the process. 

That is why we have joined 100+ other organizations in writing to express our support of the Legislature’s budget proposal, specifically the priority to restore funding to several of the state’s most essential affordable housing and homelessness programs. Specifically, in addition to approving the state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits the Governor restored in the May Revise, we call on the Governor to restore $325 million in proposed reversions to the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP), HCD’s core affordable rental housing production program and to fund the Homeless, Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Program at $1 billion.  

• HHAP funds are used to slow and reduce homelessness, providing interim housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness

• ·MHP is the state’s largest, most flexible program for affordable housing production, complementing HHAP by providing a destination for those receiving HHAP services

Now is not the time to abandon the state’s commitment to addressing homelessness and our dire affordable housing needs. These targeted investments in MHP and HHAP will help us cement and build on the progress we have made to date until we can enact longer-term funding solutions.

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