For Immediate Release: January 26, 2021
Contact: Adam Bink
Cell: 716-725-4569
abink@spitfirestrategies.com
Contact: Christina Gotuaco
Cell: 650-242-5880
cgotuaco@chpc.net
California’s affordable housing leaders offer sneak preview of forthcoming Roadmap HOME 2030
Coalition unveils framework of bold policy priorities for 2021-22 legislative session
SACRAMENTO — As the 2021-22 legislative session gets underway, Housing California and California Housing Partnership offered a sneak preview of the forthcoming Roadmap HOME 2030, a 10-year comprehensive, racial equity-centered, and evidence-based framework of bold policy solutions to end homelessness and create stable, affordable homes for all Californians. Developed in partnership with leading policy experts, researchers and advocates from across the state, the organizations unveiled 12 early policy solutions California state legislators are urged to prioritize this year.
“As Amanda Gorman, the National Youth Poet Laureate, so eloquently stated at the Presidential Inauguration, ‘Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.’ I see California in this same light. Our moment is now to lean in and finish this business by first transforming California’s housing justice system,” said Lisa Hershey, executive director of Housing California. “The pandemic, natural disasters, and racial injustice have created the perfect storm from which real change can be born. Californians – both government officials and everyday residents – have shown a hunger for a California with safe, affordable, stable homes in thriving communities for ALL. The policy priorities we unveiled today, and the solutions in the forthcoming Roadmap HOME 2030 plan, are the long-term strategy we need to unlock homes, health and prosperity for all.”
The state has seen recent achievements, such as Project Homekey, that have provided critical, yet temporary solutions or one-time allocations. Despite these wins, there is growing consensus amongst advocates and government officials, like the State Auditor, that the scale and scope of housing issues demand a larger coordinated and comprehensive approach. Among the critiques included in the Auditor’s report, it found that “California is failing to build enough affordable homes for lower income residents” due, in part, to uncoordinated efforts on local and state levels and an “ineffective approach to planning,” concluding that “the State needs to expand the purpose of its housing plan and require HCD to provide a roadmap for how the State is going to build enough affordable housing to address the severe shortage.”
“Past attempts at solving our homeless and housing crises have been well-intentioned but lacked two key ingredients: a clear destination and a map showing us how we get there through a sustained, long-term effort,” expressed Matt Schwartz, president and CEO of the California Housing Partnership. “The Roadmap HOME provides both by weaving together the best ideas in the Capitol with bold, new evidenced-based approaches to speed up and lower the cost of providing affordable homes for everyone at the scale we need to meet these challenges in earnest.”
“Small solutions don’t solve big problems. As Senate Housing Committee Chair, I’ve prioritized big and bold ideas to solve our housing problems that match the scale of the crisis,” added Sen. Scott Wiener. “While we have taken important strides these past few years, it’s clear to me that it’s time we had a long-term comprehensive plan like the Roadmap HOME.”
“While California has taken some steps toward addressing our homelessness crisis, in order to solve the crisis and create affordable housing for all, we must have a long-term game plan,” Assemblymember David Chiu agreed. “I’m excited to work with the Roadmap HOME 2030 team to identify comprehensive long-term solutions.”
Despite unprecedented publicity, funding and legislative efforts to solve housing and homelessness, California’s challenges have persisted and even worsened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Roadmap HOME delivers a fresh approach to the way we look at housing policies and begins the transformation of our state’s housing justice system to help meet ongoing and renewed calls to root out systemic inequities and racism across our society. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office agreed, noting recently, “While the Governor’s budget reflects his commitment to curbing homelessness and addressing housing affordability, by once again proposing significant state resources toward these issues, the Governor’s response continues to focus on one-time solutions. As we have said previously, a clear, long-term strategy would make it more likely that the state’s investments would have a meaningful ongoing impact on its housing and homelessness challenges.”
The solutions in the Roadmap HOME offer a multi-pronged framework for legislative solutions that:
- Invest in our values by prioritizing housing resources for those struggling the most, especially Black, Latinx, Indigenous and people of color
- Promote fairness by restructuring tax and finance systems to undo racial inequities
- Protect people by updating and enforcing the rules that safeguard Californians struggling to afford a home and facing discrimination
- Reimagine growth by transforming how we use land to create affordable homes and access to opportunity
- Create efficiency and accountability by designing seamless, coordinated housing and homelessness systems to close racial equity gaps and create homes for all.
“The James Irvine Foundation’s goal is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. In 2019-2020, we explored how philanthropy could promote secure, safe, affordable housing for low-income workers, particularly our Black and Brown neighbors. The more we learned, the more it became clear that a piecemeal approach wasn’t working,” said Leslie Payne, Senior Program Officer. “Californians deserve comprehensive, equity-centered and evidence-based solutions, implemented with investment that matches the scale of the need. The 10-year vision in California’s Roadmap HOME 2030 is an important part of what our residents need to rebuild the California Dream.”
“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative applauds the release of the Roadmap HOME’s initial package of 2021 policy priorities. As a major supporter of California organizations combating homelessness and the housing crisis, we believe the Roadmap is exactly the kind of long-term, comprehensive approach that is needed to make substantial progress in reducing the number of Californians who are homeless and struggling to pay their rent,” added Ruby Bolaria Shifrin, Director of Housing Affordability at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “We urge the Governor and Legislature to act on these recommendations immediately.”
“California’s Roadmap HOME 2030 offers a collaborative path forward in statewide housing and homelessness solutions,” said Andrea Iloulian, senior program officer at The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. “Our hope is that any experience of homelessness in Los Angeles County is rare, brief, and non-recurring, and permanent housing is essential to achieving this goal. Voters in Los Angeles have made significant, long-term commitments to addressing homelessness, but we cannot do this alone. Roadmap HOME 2030 offers state policymakers an opportunity to embrace meaningful, long-term recommendations – grounded in the experiences of people with lived expertise – at the intersection of housing and homelessness policy.”
To learn more about California’s Roadmap HOME 2030, visit roadmaphomeca.org.
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