Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Community Development

But I want to at this time, request all staff in the Capitol to encourage your Members to come down so that we can obtain that quorum and begin our business for the day. We have only three items on the agenda today. One is on the consent calendar, and then two items up for a vote. So we will wait a few minutes for Committee Members unless we have one of our authors here, our colleague, Assembly Member Mckinnor. If you're interested, we can participate as a Subcommitee and bring up your resolution. Wonderful. Then you may proceed to present it.

Good morning. Good morning, Chair and Members. The American dream of home ownership is slipping away from the average citizen, and the inability to obtain and keep housing has led to an increase in evictions and is contributing to the increase in our unhoused population. A nationwide shortage of housing units is further moving that dream away from millions of Americans.

AJR 9 would urge the United States Congress to pass and the President to sign the Housing and Homelessness package, which includes three groundbreaking pieces of legislation that would address the issues of affordability. Accessibility head on. HR 4233 Maxine Waters the Housing Crisis Response act of 2023 would provide more than 150,000,000,000 in fair affordable housing investments, which would be the largest investments of affordable housing in our nation's history.

It would also create 1.4 million affordable homes and would address the racial wealth gap through the first-ever investment in homeownership for first time first generation homebuyers. HR 233. Maxine Waters the Ending Homelessness act of 2023 would reduce poverty in America by transforming the Housing Choice Voucher program into a federal entitlement, allowing every household that qualifies for assistance to receive it. It would also ban housing discrimination based on income and veteran status.

HR 231 Maxine waters the down payment towards Equity Act of 2023 would close the US racial wealth and home ownership gap by providing 100 $1.0 billion indirect assistance to help first time first generation home buyers purchase their first home. We are in the middle of a housing crisis and keeping people in their homes and off the streets should be our top priority. Urging Congress and the President to act and sign the housing package is a crucial step in fully investing and tackling our housing crisis ahead. Straight ahead. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Ms. McKinnor, are there any witnesses in support today?

No.

Okay. Anybody in the room who wishes to testify in support of AGR 9? Seeing none. And we have anybody in opposition? And seeing none. I'll turn it to the Committee for any comments on Assemblymember Lee.

Thank you so much, Mckinnor, for bringing this forward. We definitely need the Federal Government to step in and help with the nation's housing crisis. And I'm glad you're bringing this resolution forward so that we can officially support it. I would love to be a co-author, if you allow me to be on there, even though I'm an LA Member, but love to join in the efforts to have more federal partnership. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lee. Seeing no other Members wish to speak, Ms. McKinnor, at this time, we don't have a quorum. And when we do establish a quorum, we'll be happy to entertain a motion and a vote on the resolution. Thank you for bringing this resolution forward. We know very well here in California how much we are relying on our federal counterparts to do their fair share, to be able to support us in our needs to address housing and homelessness crises.

And we know there are important work that is being done in the Congress that you've highlighted here. And so I look forward to being able to support this resolution today and on the floor.

Thank you, Ms. McKinnor. I'm sorry. Offer you an opportunity to close, if.

Thank you.

I ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Ms. McKinnor. Have a good day. And with that, I'm going to turn a chair. Unfortunately, our Vice Chair is still on his way. Who would like a gavel? Mr. Mathis. All right substitute for the day.

Not only substituting, but vice chairing. Okay, Mr. Ward, when you're ready.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. And Members, I'm introducing AB 1635 this morning. It would modify current law relating to the Department of Motor Vehicles property located in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego to ensure that it be used for the development of affordable housing and to maximize redevelopment potential on the site. Now, why is this here?

Back in 2007, the Legislature passed SB 754 to enact and authorize the Department of General Services, with the consent of the DMV, to lease or exchange for a period, three parcels of property across the state acquired and used by the DMV. One of those is this Hillcrest parcel in San Diego.

But nearly 20 years has passed and unfortunately, since SB 754 has been enacted, no agreements have been executed on this site, and the property continues to be in need of replacement in the midst of a growing and vibrant neighborhood all around it. So AB 1635 will allow a clear picture and specific direction for the site program vision to maximize our housing outcomes on state property.

An accelerated timeline to complete what is becoming a hole in the revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood with shared state and local goals met with this. I have two witnesses in support. Moiratop representing the City of San Diego, and Holly Fermani, representing the San Diego Housing Commission.

Thank you. We'll pause for a brief second and establish quorum. Secretary, please cal roll.

Ward. Here. Ward. Here. Patterson. Kalra. Lee. Lee. Here. Quirk-Silva. Reyes. Here. Reyes. Here. Mathis. Here. Mathis. Here. Wilson. Wilson. Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. Carry on, please.

Good morning, Committee. Mr. Chair, it's good to see you all this morning. Holly Fraumeni De Jesus Lighthouse Public Affairs on behalf of the San Diego Housing Commission. As the region continues to face a housing and homelessness crisis, we continue to encourage and embrace very creative solutions like this one that will help us create more housing on public property. As many of you know, underutilized government owned properties provide unique opportunities to produce more of the affordable housing units needed in San Diego and throughout the state.

On behalf of the Commission, I want to thank the Assembly Member of our new chair of this Committee for continuing his leadership and addressing this issue with essential innovative solutions like AB 1635, and I urge your support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members, I am Moira Top. I'm here on behalf of the City of San Diego. San Diego has been a leader over the last few years of promoting housing development. Just last month, the City Council adopted Mayor Todd Gloria's second installment of a massive change in local ordinances and land development programs to really promote housing development. And if you've been to the Hillcrest site in San Diego, it is obvious that this is a perfect site for housing.

And so we think this is a great example of a state and local partnership that can really, it's not going to change everything about our housing crisis, but it is a really important step within the region. And so we respectfully ask for your aye vote and really look forward to working with the state to make this project come to fruition.

We've got a motion in a second. Let's hold our horses and wait for any public comment and support our opposition.

Morning, Members. Mark Stivers the California Housing Partnership, and very pleased to support the Assemblyman's first Bill as Chair of this Committee. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning. Mary Ellen Shay, California Association of Local. Housing Finance Agencies in support.

Thank you. Back to you, Mr. Ward. To close, actually. Sorry. Any comments from the dias.

Well, thank you very much. And sorry I'm a little late. Kids got to school safe.

I appreciate the kids.

Well, I appreciate we had an opportunity to chat about this yesterday, and I like being able to move forward on something that's been kind of in the works for a while. And I kind of look at it, obviously, a little district type Bill, and I think we need more affordable units. Obviously. I think that could, you know, it'll. It'll be interesting, hopeful. I'm very optimistic that there will be somebody that will come along and build the project. But I wonder if you had any.

And I missed part of the presentation, obviously, but do we have sort of optimism, like I do, that those units will be built onto this project and there won't be an issue, the 25% affordable won't sort of clog it up?

No. Thank you for the question. We have seen projects being built in San Diego that actually have accommodated 40% affordable on site under the base zoning requirements under some new local ordinance that I had the pleasure of enacting my last year on council. We, of course, build 100% affordable units across the state when financing is able to be acquired. And we have a lot more work to do in that space as well. So, of course, that's achievable. It's a minimum threshold, and I want to make sure that we are addressing both affordable and middle income units through this opportunity.

Well, thanks. Felt like I needed to ask a question. I appreciate your first act as Chairman here. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Thank you for those comments. Ms. Wilson.

Thank you, Chair Ward, for bringing this forward. I appreciate the intent know increase housing production. I mean, increase housing units right here in this neighborhood. I have a fellow in my office, Laura, who grew up in this neighborhood, and she put in her notes that this was the perfect spot for housing and unfortunate that it hadn't been used so far and that you're enforcing, really, the previous agreement to be able to lease this property.

What I really appreciate about this particular language is that it does open it up for others later if we can't get the prescriptive in there to force the issue. And I think part of what we need to do across the state is ensure that underutilized land is part of housing production and part of that inventory. So thank you for doing that. And thank you for enforcing the rule. And of course, like I said, I heard it's a really great neighborhood to have new housing.

It is. Thank you, Ms. Wilson.

All right, any other Members.

Scoot up here. Well, good morning and happy 2024 and to all our new housing buddies here. But I do appreciate this Bill as well. So echoing some of my colleagues comments, but I think that one of the things that we are going to need to do as a state is exactly this type of thought, which is looking forward and with some of the legislation that was passed last year related to faith based, and we are going to have some opportunities we haven't seen.

And this is the type of practice that we want to get in the practice of doing, which is planning ahead for these units that we know we desperately need. So I appreciate it and move the Bill.

Thank you, Ms. Quirk-Silva.

Any other alibis? Mr. Chair, I know I'm only subbing today, but I do like your Bill and I like to see these type of local efforts, especially when it's agencies, with agencies working together to do good things. So I'd like to be added as a co author on your Bill to show some support. And with that, if you'd like to close.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate the robust conversation on a district Bill. I recognize this is a site specific question at hand, but I think one that is just a data point in the broader picture of what we need to do to be able to work and maybe be a little bit stronger with state agencies and departments about our expectations as a Legislature and what we want to see.

That said, 20 years of non activity on the site, despite this authorization highlights, I think, a lot of fundamental questions that we have to dig into as a Committee about what's going on and why we can't move in a timely fashion the opportunity sites that are really right there at our disposal, what is going on with process, what is going on with financing.

And so I think teasing a lot of that out through the work that we do as a Committee is going to be one of our key tenants here in the year ahead of us. So with that, respectfully ask for your aye vote.

All right, thank you. Just like to say again, this is the things we need to be doing as a legislative body is making sure these agencies aren't dragging their feet and moving forward. And that's why I asked to be on the Bill with you, because it might be a district Bill, but this is an example. And hopefully this will kind of shake them a little bit to get their act together with that secretary please call the roll.

Motion do pass to the Assembly Committee and appropriations. Ward. Aye. Ward. Aye. Patterson. Patterson. Aye. Kalra aye. Lee. Aye. Lee aye. Quirk-Silva. Aye. Quirk-Silva. Reyes. Reyes. Aye. Mathis. Aye. Mathis. Aye. Wilson. Aye. Wilson. Aye.

All right, thank you. And we'll hand the gavel back over to the Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Mathis, and thank you, everybody. Appreciate that. We're starting off on a positive note that we have a unanimous Bill that is being able to get out. I just wanted to highlight, I know everyone is. We start early at nine, and so people are making their way. You know, I'm punctual, so I try to make sure that we're being efficient with our time so that we can, of course, get on with our Wednesdays.

But I want to welcome you all to this year's Committee on the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development. I think it is without, it'd be an understatement to recognize, especially with our speaker's support, that we have one of the biggest crises facing us.

And the responsibilities of this Committee weigh on all of us to be able to think about those bigger solutions to help support the construction of more workforce and affordable housing and the work that we need to do, to be able to address one of California's biggest cost of living needs and the pressures that they're facing. We've got to make sure that we are being responsible with the dollars and the programs that we're thinking about. How are they effective? How are we addressing homelessness?

And we have to recognize that more than 50% of our state are renters, and they've got to make sure that they have some champions and supporters in balance with the need that we have as landlords to be able to address their issues. So we have a lot of strategic goals that I know that we're going to accomplish.

I want to welcome and thank our new Committee Members, Assemblymember Reyes, Assemblymember Lee, and Assemblymember Wilson, to this Committee, and of course, our returning Members for their expertise, Mr. Kalra. Assemblymember Quirk-Silva. I know. Mr. Mathis, welcome today, substituting in for Assemblywoman Sanchez and our Vice Chair. I'm happy that you are returning with me, Assembly Member Joe Patterson. Thank you for our collective effort in advance, and I look forward to working with all of you today.

And thank you to our Committee staff, our Committee secretary, and our consultants. We are grateful in advance for all of your institutional knowledge and leadership and guidance, because it's going to inform us on how to make policy better and ultimately deliver on the needs that California students are expecting us to work on.

And I'd be remiss if not acknowledging and thanking Mr. Steve Wartheim, our principal consultant for this Committee, who has chosen a good time on the calendar to make a little bit of a switch to another opportunity in the Assembly that I know will stay very connected with housing issues and will be able to be a good ally, but has served this Committee well, and we're grateful for his deep knowledge and contributions. This will be his last hearing today, and we wish you well in the future.

With that, we have one item on consent. Calendar day item number one. I hear a movement by Mr. Mathis and a second by Ms. Wilson. Madam Secretary, please call the roll on consent.

[Roll Call]

That passes unanimously. And we had item number three, which is AJR 9. That was presented as a Subcommitee. I will entertain a motion moved by Mr. Lee, seconded by Ms. Reyes. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

That passes by a vote of six to one to one. And with that, I think that we have. And then, just to close this out, item number two achieved a eight to zero vote that passes to appropriations. And concludes our business for the day. It. Thank you all for being here. We are adjourned, and we'll see you next time.