Now is our last chance to secure budget funding for affordable homeownership!
Earlier this month, Governor Newsom put forth his May Revision for next fiscal year’s state budget. In his presentation, he made an announcement: California has a budget surplus of nearly $100 billion. Never before have we enjoyed such an opportunity to make transformational investments in our state’s future.
Unfortunately, one of our most powerful vehicles for transformation was not included – an investment in affordable homeownership for more Californians.
The California Homeownership Coalition – representing Habitat for Humanity California, the California Building Industry Association (CBIA), the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), and others – is advocating for:
Homeownership is critical to our state’s future, and we have a unique and urgent chance to secure the opportunity for more Californians. While we face historically low rates of homeownership – with Black and Latino Californians disproportionately affected – we have an exceptional surplus that could change the story.
Now that the Governor has proposed his revised budget, our state legislature has until June 15th to make their amendments. This is a crucial moment for us to tell our lawmakers that homeownership matters, and that more Californians deserve a chance to achieve it.
“We’re shoulder to shoulder every day with families who experience that transformation that homeownership can offer,” says Janice Jensen, President and CEO of Habitat East Bay/Silicon Valley. “Over the years, I have known parents that go from worrying that the next rent hike will displace their families, to watching their grandchildren play in the rooms of their Habitat homes decades later. I’ve seen hours-long commutes reduced to minutes, as we’ve made homeownership affordable in and near the communities where people work. We can make this the story for thousands more Californians with just a modest investment from this historic surplus; we cannot let this chance slip by.”
We know that an investment in affordable ownership housing is an investment in equity. It’s an investment in closing our state’s racial wealth gap. It’s an investment in stability, economic mobility, and generational wealth.
We cannot move the needle on our affordability crisis without producing more affordable homes – we have a production shortfall of over one million affordable homes to overcome. And it’s a problem that not only drives ballooning housing costs, but inflation overall.
We can change this. If we fund CalHome and down payment assistance, we can change the trajectory of this housing crisis. With just a click and a minute of your time, you can tell our state legislators that you support homeownership for more Californians.