FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2025
Press Contact: Edie Irons, [email protected], 415-275-2060
Today, Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw delivered the Newsom Administration’s annual state budget proposal and released this Budget Summary.
All Home released the following statement from Susannah Parsons, Director of Policy and Legislation.
“The good news for housing and homelessness in this year’s budget is not a budget line item, but a long-overdue structural change in how these issues are managed within State government. Unfortunately though, we’re not seeing the robust continued investments that would be needed to keep accelerating progress on housing and homelessness.
“California needs to use every tool at our disposal to keep building affordable homes and reducing housing costs, to address homelessness and keep millions of cash-strapped neighbors stably housed. That’s why we’re excited about the proposal to create the California Housing and Homelessness Agency.
“Solutions to our state’s toughest challenges deserve focus and dedication—for too long, housing and homelessness programs have been a confusing patchwork of programs and processes spread across multiple departments and lines of authority, including BCSH, the Governor, and the Treasurer. This system doesn’t work for anyone; it’s burdensome for the State to administer and costly and slow for developers and providers to navigate. A single agency could rationalize and simplify state housing programs to reduce costs and delays, and align streamlined processes with our RHNA and climate goals.
“We all need our state government to do everything in its power to speed the production of housing and efficiently deliver the services that help people get and keep housing. This proposal is a powerful way to advance those goals, outside the ups and downs of budget cycles. Too many Californians are waiting for a home so they can come in off the streets, or living in unstable conditions because there isn’t enough housing they can afford, having to choose between paying rent and buying groceries. That’s unacceptable.
“In December, new HUD numbers showed that homelessness increased by only 3% in CA in 2024, compared to an 18% increase across the US overall. That suggests the state’s considerable efforts and investments in recent years are having an effect, but now is not the time to take our foot off the gas for any of the solutions we currently have in place.
“That’s why we are disappointed that this budget proposal does not seem to include new funding for the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program—though we’re encouraged that the Administration stated openness to working with the Legislature on it. For the last several years, HHAP has been one of California’s largest and most important sources of flexible funding for local jurisdictions and homelessness response systems to develop and expand programs to both end and prevent homelessness. We also don’t see additional investments in critical housing programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and the Multifamily Housing Program—missed opportunities, to say the least.
“This is a critical moment. The devastating fires in LA will put added pressure on our housing system, housing relief is unlikely to come from the federal government, and local governments have limited tools to address challenges at this scale. The high cost of housing in our state is driving our affordability crisis, as well as homelessness, and we need the State to sustain its investments in the solutions we know work.”
