Governor Newsom Announces Awards of More Than $825 Million to Build Affordable Housing Through Accelerated Approval Process
Press Release
"As we demand more housing to be built at the local level, it is incumbent upon the state to reimagine and modernize our own approval process," said Governor Newsom. "State applications that were once redundant, and overly bureaucratic, are now streamlined to ensure projects are not stalled in an endless bureaucracy that favored process over production."
This new process was made possible when Governor Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 434 by former Assembly member Tom Daly (D -- Anaheim), which allowed for multiple housing applications to be narrowed down into a single award process. Under this new approach, requests for housing development funds have soared. The first round of new Multifamily Finance Super Notice of Funding Availability (Super NOFA) received more than $3.5 billion in developer requests -- a sharp contrast to years of undersubscription.
""The California Multifamily Super NOFA transformed a once burdensome and lengthy funding application process into an accessible and smart one-stop shop that will get more housing built faster," said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. "This results in new homes for struggling working families, veterans, farmworkers, and people exiting homelessness. California will continue to act with urgency to find new, innovative solutions to fast track housing development."
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) last year combined state-funded multifamily housing programs to make them accessible to more communities, more equitable in serving the lowest-income Californians, and more targeted toward achieving better outcomes in health, climate, and household stability.
"California continues to advance our commitment to building 2.5 million homes -- with one million affordable homes -- by 2030, as outlined in our Statewide Housing Plan," said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. "Our simple approach to funding helps us accelerate much-needed construction and ensure the lowest-income Californians have access to quality homes near jobs, transit, schools, and other necessities that will make our communities more inclusive for decades to come."
Source