Supported Legislation

California Community Builders works with legislators and other advocates to develop and support legislation to promote wealth building, housing production and affordability, adequate regulation of the financial industry, and access to capital for diverse families and small businesses.

The 2023 Legislative Session

CCB is to highlight important legislation we’ll be supporting this year:

Expanding ADU production and supporting Community Land Trusts  

  • Author: Assembly Member Ward

  • Sponsor: California Community Land Trust Network

  • Summary: The legislation, authored by Assembly Member Warn and sponsored by our friends at the California Community Land Trust Network, removes obstacles to Community Land Trusts utilizing the state’s primary funding source for the creation of accessory dwelling units (ADUs). The legislation amends CalHome’s ADU program to explicitly permit financing of projects owned by CLTs.

  • Contact: Leo Goldberg (leo.goldberg@cacltnetwork.org) 

  • Additional Materials: CA CLT Network Potential State-Level Policy Priorities for 2023

Acquisition fund to create permanently affordable units

  • Bill number/Authors: SB 225, Senator Caballero and Assembly Member Haney (Community Anti-Displacement & Preservation Program)

  • Sponsors: Enterprise Community Partners; Housing California; Public Advocates

  • Summary: This proposal would fund the acquisition of currently unsubsidized affordable rental housing, enabling mission-driven organizations, including CLTs, to purchase these buildings and preserve them as affordable. A $500 million investment in the program could create 4,000 to 4,500 deed-restricted units.

  • Contact: Jeffrey Roth (Jeffrey.roth@sen.ca.gov)

  • Additional Materials: Fact sheet

Help churches build affordable housing (Yes in God’s Back Yard)

  • Bill number/Author (s): SB 4, Senator Wiener

  • Sponsor: Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California

  • Summary:  The bill will streamline the building process for faith-based institutions and non-profit colleges that want to build affordable projects for low-income families by allowing them to build multifamily housing, both rental and for-sale.

  • Contact: Abram Diaz (abram@nonprofithousing.org)

  • Additional Materials: Fact sheet

The 2022 Legislative Session

The 2022 session of the California Legislature devoted more attention to issues of housing and homeownership than any in recent memory. One of the bills we sponsored passed, one failed to move forward, and a number of other measures related to housing and homeownership were considered. For more details, see our September 2022 roundup of homeownership legislation.

One of our sponsored bills, AB 2873, the “Affordable Housing Supplier Diversity Act,” authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), passed and was signed by Governor Newsom in September. It requires the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee to collect supplier demographic data from developers who receive funding from the affordable housing tax credit program. The data, which will be publicly available, will be used to set diversity and inclusion goals and encourage use of diverse suppliers in building affordable housing.

Sadly, our other sponsored bill, AB 2560, failed to move forward. Co-sponsored by CCB with Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services and the Richmond Community Foundation and introduced by Assembly member Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), it would have created new, much-needed sources of acquisition and construction financing for affordable homeownership. It would have required local governments to identify blighted properties and work with community developers to acquire and rehabilitate these properties into affordable homes.  While the legislation did not succeed, CCB remains committed to this important concept and will continue to work on it going forward.

While other useful measures did pass, as noted in our full roundup, California still has much to do to address our ongoing housing crisis and make homeownership possible for all of our state’s diverse communities.