Senator Wiener’s Housing Accountability and Affordability Act Set for Committee Vote Today

Sacramento –  Today the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee will vote on Senator Scott Wiener’s Senate Bill 35 – which will create a streamlined approval process for housing when cities are not meeting the housing creation goals required by the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), which will expedite the construction of affordable housing. At the hearing, representatives from affordable housing developers, renter advocates, and business groups will testify in support.

WHEN:           Tuesday, March 6 at 1:30pm

WHERE:         Senate Transportation and Housing Committee

                        California State Capitol, Room 4203

WHAT:           The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is the state-mandated process that sets the number of housing units that must be included, at all affordability levels, in each local jurisdiction’s housing element. Under SB 35, if cities aren’t on track to meet those goals, then approval of projects will be streamlined if they meet a set of objective criteria, including affordability, density, zoning, historic, and environmental standards, and if they pay prevailing wage for construction labor. The streamlining applies only to the income levels that aren’t being built for – so if a city is building sufficient market-rate units but not enough low-income units, the project must add low-income units to qualify for streamlined approval.

Livestreaming is available on http://senate.ca.gov/