By Ethan Varian
The Mercury News
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(The Mercury News) After pledging to hold local governments accountable for solving homelessness, Gov. Gavin Newsom is throwing his support behind a bill that would require cities and counties to plan for potentially hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes for California’s very poorest residents by 2040.
The requirement would be part of the every-eight-years housing plans jurisdictions already must send to the state.
“This new approach will require locals to better account for the needs of the lowest-income households and people experiencing homelessness in their long-term housing plans,” Newsom said in a statement.
Currently, local governments must plan to meet specific homebuilding targets set across a range of affordability levels, with the lowest level being for residents earning less than 50% of an area’s typical income. Assembly Bill 3093 would split that category into three new levels between 0% and 50%.
In Santa Clara County, 50% of the typical annual income is $96,000 for a single person, according to the state housing department. If the bill went into effect today, the county’s lowest affordability level would be for those earning between $0 and $19,050. (The upper income limit would increase for larger households.)
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The new rules would apply to the next round of housing plans, which Bay Area localities must finalize by 2031.
Last month, Newsom announced new accountability measures aimed at holding local governments accountable for getting people off the street and connected with services. A team within the state’s Housing Accountability Unit will be tasked with the additional oversight, including ensuring that cities and counties plan for more extremely low-income homes and supportive housing should the bill pass.
Last year, the unit worked with the state attorney general to sue Huntington Beach for failing to develop a housing plan. In March, a judge stripped the city of some of its authority to block new housing.
But even when jurisdictions satisfy the state’s planning expectations, that doesn’t mean affordable housing automatically gets built. With public funding severely oversubscribed, most local governments haven’t come close to hitting the affordable housing targets in their recent plans.
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