A powerful group of nonprofits and housing advocates Thursday called for bold statewide reforms and higher corporate taxes to attack California’s homelessness crisis and affordable housing shortage.
The 10-year, Roadmap Home 2030 proposal, backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and charitable arms of the James Irvine and Conrad N. Hilton families, aims to end homelessness and create 1.2 million affordable homes in California. The sprawling plan — a mix of policy and community activism — calls for far more aggressive action by lawmakers and the business community. The total package could cost $17.9 billion annually.
“People have always come to California to build a better future,” said Lisa Hershey, executive director of the nonprofit Housing California. “That promise is in jeopardy.”
Housing advocates are having a moment. Silicon Valley tech companies have pledged billions of dollars to build new homes and affordable apartments in the Bay Area and California, and the state’s Project Homekey initiative has brought new resources to shelter the homeless.
The affordable housing community also is optimistic about President Joe Biden’s relief and infrastructure plans to bring additional federal resources to housing.
U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., on Thursday formally requested additional aid for homeless Californians from HUD, saying the federal government should provide at least 50,000 emergency housing vouchers for vulnerable residents. A January 2020 census estimated the state homeless population has reached 161,000.
“It is essential that the federal government works collaboratively with California to address homelessness,” the senators wrote.
Roadmap Home 2030 lays out more than 50 policy and community goals to eliminate homelessness, add more than 1 million affordable homes and apartments, protect renters and address systemic housing discrimination against Black, Latino and other residents of color.
The proposal calls for tax reform to increase government spending on housing programs and subsidies. The effective corporate tax rate in California is 4.2%, advocates say, less than half the rate businesses paid in the 1980s. Tax cuts under former President Donald Trump also diminished resources for government-backed housing initiatives.
Housing advocates also want to reform home financing regulations that have discriminated against communities of color. The plan authors say the state needs to overhaul development laws to make it easier and cheaper to build new homes, especially in job-rich areas that have offered limited opportunities for poor and working-class residents.
“Housing production is nowhere near where it needs to be,” said Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, chairman of the housing and community development committee and backer of the proposal. “We have a long road ahead of us.”
But the California Chamber of Commerce has already taken strong stands against current bills aimed at raising taxes for housing priorities. The business lobby this week released a list of “job killer” bills, and opposes a variety of tax increases and efforts to curb local influence over new development.
The chamber said AB 71, a proposal to increase the corporate tax rate and raise levies on the gross income of international companies, would unfairly push responsibility for the housing crisis on the private sector.
Housing advocates say the investments in secure housing for poor and low income residents will boost overall community health, bring stability to families and increase productivity and wages.
“Piece-mealing is not going to do this,” said Zella Knight of Residents United Network. “This is the moment to save lives.”
