HWG Advocacy Day in Sacramento
The Community Housing Working Group, comprising diverse organizations and nonprofit developers from across California, met in Sacramento on April 23rd to attend meetings with legislators and staff, and to host a panel discussion on the impacts of the state’s legacy of exclusionary single-family zoning.
It was an invaluable day of learning, sharing first-hand insights, and discussing solutions to remove artificial barriers to production, access, and affordability. Meetings with legislators and staff focused on protecting housing funding, opening exclusionary single-family neighborhoods to create more housing choice for communities of color, using housing development to improve local economies, and recognizing the impact of California's insurance crisis on non-profit housing providers.
The luncheon panel, moderated by Konstantin Hatcher of California YIMBY, showcased experts Tia Boatman Patterson, President and CEO of Community Reinvestment Corporation, Noerena Limón representing Unidos US, and Hank Levy, Treasurer-Tax Collector, Alameda County.
The conversation examined how exclusionary single family zoning laws - with roots in redlining - were originally designed to segregate communities and prevent social and economic mobility. These laws can and should be reformed to unlock opportunity for disadvantaged and historically marginalized communities, create more equitable housing choices, drive economic mobility and increase local revenue and investment in communities.
“The physical environment a child grows up in really does matter and affects where they end up,” said Boatman Patterson. “Growing up in a mixed-income neighborhood increases the likelihood that kids will go to college.”
Recalling her childhood living in public housing - a fourplex in a diverse mixed income neighborhood she knew she would go to college and never felt disadvantaged, although her mother was low income. Her mother was later able to purchase a home, which was a more common opportunity for first-time homebuyers in decades past.
“Now, we simply don’t build enough entry-level homes to support the need and provide first-time homeownership opportunities,” she added. “While many low to moderate income families could afford a small entry-level home, the supply is not available, and they are forced to continue renting rather than owning their own home and building wealth.”
Limón added that California has the second lowest home ownership in the country, primarily because of this lack of entry-level housing production. Black and Brown families overwhelmingly create wealth through homeownership: Latino homeowners have an average net worth of $233,000, while non-homeowners have only $8,000.
“Overwhelmingly, the majority of California residents are non-white. It is obvious that increasing homeownership among families of color is the key to increasing the California homeownership rate overall.”
“Our system does not support a continuum of housing. Creating entry-level home ownership inventory would give many individuals currently living in affordable housing ownership opportunities.”
Levy stressed that County Treasurer/Tax Collectors (TTCs) have a variety of tools in their toolbox to boost housing inventory, including Chapter 8 of the tax code which allows for the transfer of tax defaulted properties to nonprofit affordable housing developers.
“TTCs can encourage affordable development by investing in local banks’ financial instruments and dictating where they will be directed,” he explained. “Just last week I bought a CD from a regional bank which in turn will be invested in affordable housing.”
Boatman Patterson added, “The collection of more property tax revenue, from residential lots that are divided into smaller more affordable homes that can accommodate entry-level buyers, provides more general fund dollars to support better schools, code enforcement and other public services for the community.”
To learn more about the work the Housing Working Group and its members are doing visit our News and Participant Work pages. For information about becoming a member of the Housing Working Group, contact us here.