by Robert J. Hansen
A Constitutional amendment was introduced in the California legislature yesterday that would create an account that 5 percent of General Funds tax revenue would be transferred to for ten years to address housing and homelessness.
ACA 14, the Housing Opportunities for Everyone (HOPE) Act, is a Constitutional amendment establishing a long-term funding stream for solving California’s housing and homelessness crisis according to its author, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks.
“Homelessness is the moral crisis of our time,” Wicks said on Twitter. “Solving it is a moral imperative.”
Berkeley architect Alfred Twu said ACA 14 is one of this year’s biggest housing bills and would set aside $10 billion in housing funding each year.
“Enough to house 50,000 people who are homeless and build an additional 40,000 affordable housing units each year,” Twu said.
In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low income and very low income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units according to the bill.
Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50 percent of their income toward rent.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very low income Californians.
Wicks said California voters consistently rank housing and homelessness as top issues we need to resolve,” Wicks said.
She said Governor Gavin Newsom has demonstrated unprecedented leadership in responding to this call.
“Now, it’s the Legislature’s turn to take bold and ongoing action to commit the resources needed to solve them,” Wicks said.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf applauded the authors of ACA 14 for proposing a consistent funding stream to address California’s greatest challenges; homelessness and the lack of affordable housing.
“The HOPE Act is a decade-long commitment that delivers solutions without raising taxes,” Schaaf said.
If ACA 14 passes in the legislature it will be on the November ballot for California voters to decide on.
Yeah right. The money appears out of thin air.
The state has been running huge surpluses so it has lots of money to tackle lots of problems and this is a major problem. To propose a huge solution is not unreasonable. Its the job of the legislature to examine the details and mechanics of what is possible.
And yet, its cities throughout the state have long-term structural deficits – usually related to retirements of city employees via the state-run CALPERS system.
You’d think that the state could take this money that they’re supposedly awash in, and address that.
Oh, be serious. And it will vacillate back to huge debts, as it always does. Once all the holes are filled in the pension debt crisis at all levels of gov’t, then make this claim about surplus.
The pension funds are doing better for two reasons. First the stock market has been way up. Secondly, Jerry Brown pushed through changes that increased contributions dramatically to the funds by state workers while reducing benefits for new workers. The Gen X, Millinials and Gen Z state workers hired after 2011 are paying for the profligacy of the state worker Baby Boomers. Municipal worker pensions are another problem but I don’t think that is a state budget problem. Please disabuse me if I’m wrong.
Good to know.
I guess we won’t be hearing any more about endless development Ponzi schemes to rescue Davis (from its previous Ponzi schemes), then.
I’m sure that the younger generations don’t want to “work off” those bills for the previous generations, regardless.
” 2.2 million extremely low income and very low income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units”
“Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50 percent of their income toward rent.”
Shocking numbers.
“Homelessness is the moral crisis of our time,” Wicks said on Twitter. “Solving it is a moral imperative.”
I agree with Wicks its a moral imperative.
Solving homelessness will never happen unless we find a way to solve drug addiction. Also because of our open borders due to the Biden administration we have an endless stream of homeless immigrants that will always lead to keeping our state underwater when it comes to adequate housing.
First of all not every homeless person is a drug addict although many are. Most UC college students are not drug addicts. See the article attached.
Secondly blaming immigrants is an excuse to do nothing. Still I agree to a certain extent. California has gone from 16 million to 40 million since I moved here in 1960. Yet we have failed to plan for and construct the housing we need for a population that was recognized to be growing dramatically 50 years ago when I was going to college.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/27/us/uc-berkeley-lawsuit-student-enrollment-housing-costs-cec/index.html
Most UC college students are also not homeless. That is not to deny that they pay a shît-ton for rent.
From the article:
That isn’t a ‘claim’, that is economics. Relative to not having thousands more students, housing will be even more scarce, and rents will climb even higher.