Legislative Work
California State Legislation
EBHO engages in state-level advocacy to ensure the realization of our vision — racially and economically just East Bay where everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable home.
Each year, we mobilize the power and wisdom of our membership and coalition partners to support state policy that produces, preserves, and protects affordable housing opportunities for low-income communities.
Take a look at our co-sponsored and supported bills below to dive into the diverse and transformative housing justice solutions proposed at the state level this year. We hope that you join us today – whether that is becoming a member and attending our monthly Regional Policy Committee, or taking action to show your support for EBHO’s legislative priorities!
Please contact Policy Associate Megan Nguyen at megan@ebho.org for more information about EBHO’s legislative advocacy.
2023 Legislative Agenda
East Bay Housing Organizations has a democratic process for endorsing legislation that includes consulting our membership, staff and Board. We are still in the process of endorsing bills for the 2023-2024 legislative session. Watch this space, and subscribe to our email list for updates!
CO-SPONSORED BILLS
AB 480 (Ting) – Surplus Land Amendments
Mandates that mixed-use projects on surplus land contain at least 300 residential units. Requires that local agencies maintain a list on their websites of all entities who have notified the agency of their interest in exempt surplus land. Expand the definition of exempt surplus land to include land that is owned by a California public use airport on which residential development is currently prohibited.
ENDORSED BILLS
SB 4 (Wiener) – Planning and Zoning; Housing Development; Higher Education and Religious Institutions
Allows for by-right zoning for 100% affordable housing projects on religious institution-owned land or on land of any independent institution of higher education.
SB 225 (Caballero) – California Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program (CAPP)
Establishes CAPP to provide resources to affordable housing developers, community organizations, and local jurisdictions to acquire unsubsidized rental housing from the private market, and local jurisdictions to acquire unsubsidized rental housing from the private market, reduce tenants’ risk of displacement and preserve housing as affordable rental housing or homeownership opportunities.
AB 312 (Reyes) – State Partnership for Affordable Housing Registries in California
Requires HCD to create a state-managed online database of affordable housing listings and applications. The database will eliminate redundancies among affordable housing applications by standardizing the necessary information typically required (i.e., income, family size, accessibility needs), and the platform will launch by mid-2027.
AB 346 (Quirk-Silva) – Greater Flexibility in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC)
In years when tax-exempt bonds are oversubscribed, AB 1288 permits the Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) to move the additional $500M (as proposed in the 2023/24 state budget) in state credits to the 9% federal tax credit program, as opposed to being restricted to 4% projects, allowing for more production of affordable housing.
AB 799 (L. Rivas) – Homelessness Accountability and Results Act
Ties grants from the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) Program with enhanced oversight, transparency, and accountability for local jurisdictions addressing homelessness. Jurisdictions receiving state funds would need to meet at least half of a number of goals, including reducing the number of unhoused people, those becoming homeless for the first time, and those returning to homelessness after reaching permanent housing.
AB 919 (Kalra) – Stable Homes Act
Creates a statewide Tenant & Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA/COPA) program for the sale of rental properties. Tenants, affordable housing providers, and local public entities would be given the right of first refusal to match the highest offer made by any other type of bidder during the sale process. Properties acquired would be subject to permanent affordability restrictions, just cause eviction protections, and could only be resold at an affordable price.
AB 920 (Bryan) – Housing Status Anti-Discrimination Protection
Adds “housing status” to the list of protected categories under California discrimination law, barring discrimination against people on the basis of their housing status from unequal treatment under programs administered, funded, or overseen by the state.
AB 1319 (Wicks) – Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) Modifications
Adds a set of important modifications to BAHFA, to increase success with the 2024 regional efforts, and ensure the agency can deliver on the legislature’s vision of an impactful regional collaboration that promotes housing stability and affordability in the Bay Area. The bill clarifies BAHFA’s range of lending powers, allows BAHFA to acquire and sell land to advance statutorily authorized purposes, expands types of assistance by tenant protection programs, and provides flexibility in anticipation of potential changes to state law.
Take Action!
LOOK UP A STATE BILL
WRITE A LETTER OF SUPPORT
We hope you join us in contacting your state representatives and sharing information with your community about using our power to impact legislators and create affordable homes for all people in the East Bay and the state of California.
In order to submit a letter of support for our legislation, please use the California Legislature Position Letter Portal. For your convenience, EBHO has pre-written letters of support ready to go, so this should only take a few minutes.
Instructions for submitting letters:
- All letters must be submitted using the State Legislature’s Position Letter portal.
- Download EBHO’s sample support letter for each bill above, and fill in your personal information. Save the updated document as a PDF. (If you don’t see a sample support letter for your bill yet, check back soon! We’ll be updating these letters as committee schedules are released.)
- If you have not used the portal before, you need to create an account. Click “Create an account” on the lower right of the landing page, and answer the questions. Be sure to differentiate if you are registering on behalf of an organization or as an individual.
- Once you are registered, you can input the bill number you wish to take a position on and select if you are submitting on behalf of an organization or “Yourself”
- The screen will indicate which committee(s) and legislative staff person(s) will be notified, and the system automatically selects the appropriate receivers, so you DO NOT need to click anything further at this step.
- Lastly, indicate your position on the bill, a title, and then attach a PDF of your letter.
If you have any questions, please refer to the Portal FAQ or contact megan@ebho.org.
Regional Policy Committee
EBHO’s Policy Committee organizes members to impact regional issues to create affordable homes and just communities and informs our approach towards action on statewide legislation. Join us to hear updates about developments in local, regional, and state policy, learn how to get involved, and weigh in on our legislative endorsements.
Policy Committee meets on the third Thursday of the month from 10 AM – 12 PM, and it is open to all EBHO members.
For more information or to get involved, contact Senior Director of Policy Jeff Levin at jeff@ebho.org.
2021-2022 Legislative Session
Last year, six of EBHO’s endorsed bills were signed into law!
Read about our past endorsements online, or download our 2021-2022 legislative recap as a PDF.