Housing California Provides Redevelopment Update

(from Shamus Roller of Housing California) Barring any action by the Legislature, redevelopment agencies will dissolve on February 1. While many of the details regarding dissolution are unclear, this result will undoubtedly make it more difficult to build homes for Californians of modest means.

The Supreme Court’s decision on redevelopment has its roots in the economic crisis, the overconfidence of Proposition 22, the rushed passage of AB 26x and AB 27x (the redevelopment bills), and the decision by the California Redevelopment Association and the League of Cities to challenge the legislation in court. Affordable housing has become a casualty of California’s governance problems and the lack of revenue to run the state.

Housing California is working on multiple fronts to preserve funding for affordable housing. Our staff has been in the Capitol meeting with legislators and Capitol staff to see what avenues are available to preserve and create funding for affordable housing.

In the short term, there are two bills related to redevelopment that have been introduced:

• SB 654 (Steinberg) Clarifies that any Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund balances will be transferred to the successor housing agency for use under current redevelopment law. (AB 26x contained conflicting sections on this point.) Housing California strongly supports this bill.

Next: This bill will be heard in Senate Transportation and Housing January 10 at 1:30.

• SB 659 (Padilla) Would extend the deadline for redevelopment agencies' dissolution from the current February 1 deadline to April 15. We have not yet seen the bill language, but this bill could give us the time to craft a compromise that keeps redevelopment and the affordable-housing funds.

Next: Assembly Local Government will hear this bill within a couple of weeks.

Things will be changing rapidly over the coming weeks and we will do our best to keep you informed. Now is a great time to call your legislator and remind him/her how important the redevelopment housing funds have been to making sure that all Californians have a safe place to call home.