California Voters Could Make Housing Projects More Financially Feasible Next Week
California voters will decide on an $11.25 billion housing bond this November. Proposition 1 would provide a springboard for examining how affordable housing legislation, public funding and policy changes can help providers nationwide build more homes, preserve existing housing and complete projects.
Welton Jordan, chief real estate development officer at EAH Housing, believes California's approach could teach other states what funding alone cannot solve.
Jordan told GlobeSt.com that this Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond represents an important opportunity to address one of the biggest challenges in affordable housing development: the gap between what it costs to build homes and what affordable rents can support.
"Public funding helps close that gap and can help projects secure other financing, including federal tax credits, local funding and private investment," Jordan said.
"Bringing those sources together makes it possible to build affordable homes that no single source could finance on its own. The more predictable that funding is, the easier it is for developers to plan projects, secure financing, and maintain a pipeline of housing that can move forward."
For organizations like EAH Housing, which has more than 1,500 homes across California that could benefit from the bond, this kind of investment can make a meaningful difference in whether projects are financially feasible.
"It supports our commitment to creating more affordable housing in communities where it is needed most, helping families and individuals access quality homes in markets where affordability remains a significant challenge," Jordan said.
"The opportunity is not just to allocate funding, but to deploy it in a way that helps projects move forward efficiently and creates affordable homes that serve communities for decades."
It's More than Securing Money
Getting homes built requires more than securing the money. Developing affordable housing in high-cost markets such as Oakland, Los Angeles and the Monterey Peninsula takes significant investment, careful planning and years of coordination, Jordan said.
Developers must navigate permitting and approval processes, manage construction costs and coordinate multiple financing sources, all of which can affect whether a project moves forward and how quickly.
But if Proposition 1 passes, more work should improve the timeline process. To realize the bond's full potential to address California's housing shortage, the state should also look for ways to make the development process more predictable, improve coordination among agencies and reduce unnecessary delays, according to Jordan.
For now, California voters between the current early voting period and Tuesday will decide on whether they want to approve the initiative, which could significantly address the financial landscape and provide more of an incentive for developers to build.
Source: GlobeSt/ALM