Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Raymond Hodges, Director, Department of Housing
Subject: Authorization to Apply for the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Prohousing Incentive Pilot Program
RECOMMENDATION:
title
Adopt a resolution:
A) Authorizing the Director, Department of Housing (“DOH”), or designee(s), to execute and submit an application for a grant award in an amount up to $1,000,000 from the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s (“HCD”) Prohousing Incentive Pilot Program (“PIP”), the Standard Agreement, any and all other documents required or deemed necessary or appropriate to evidence and secure the PIP grant, the Applicant’s obligations related thereto, and all amendments thereto, on behalf of the unincorporated Areas of San Mateo County (“County”); and
B) Approving the standard HCD provided Resolution approving an application for funding and the execution of a Standard Agreement in an amount up to $1,000,000, any amendments thereto, and any and all other documents required or deemed necessary or appropriate to evidence and secure the PIP grant, the Applicant’s obligations related thereto, and all amendments thereto.
body
BACKGROUND:
In 2019, the State of California, pursuant to Government Code section 65589.9, created the Prohousing Designation Program (“PDP”), which provides incentives for jurisdictions that are compliant with state housing element requirements and have enacted local Prohousing policies. The State of California defines Prohousing policies as policies which, “facilitate the planning, approval, or construction of housing.” Some examples include the provision of local financial incentives, reduction of development permit times and permitting fees, the preservation of affordable housing units at risk of becoming market rate units, and other similar policies. The PDP is overseen by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (“HCD”).
Local governments that receive a Prohousing Designation (defined below) through the PDP will receive a scoring advantage when applying for several competitive state funding programs including the Affordable Housing & Sustainable Communities Program, Infill Infrastructure Grant Program, the Transformative Climate Communities Program, and the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. These programs support housing, transportation, infrastructure, land use, and related objectives. HCD plans to add other state funding programs to the list after appropriate engagement with stakeholders and partner agencies.
The PDP awards points to jurisdictions using four scoring categories. To achieve a “Prohousing Designation”, applicants must demonstrate that they have enacted or proposed policies that significantly contribute to the acceleration of housing production in each of the four categories:
1) Favorable Zoning and Land Use
(2) Acceleration of Housing Production Timeframes
(3) Reduction of Construction and Development Costs
(4) Providing Financial Subsidies
In addition to the scoring advantage that the PDP provides with various state funding programs, HCD released $25,705,545.65 under the Prohousing Incentive Pilot Program (“PIP”) on December 15, 2022. These funds were released to provide additional financial incentives to local jurisdictions to obtain a Prohousing Designation and awards funds based on jurisdiction size and PDP score. Award funds can be used for various planning or implementation activities related to housing and community development. Applications are due on March 15, 2023.
DISCUSSION:
The County submitted an application under the PDP in March 2022. Since then, HCD has provided preliminary findings on the application and County staff has been working to address outstanding questions in order to formally receive a Prohousing Designation by March 31, 2023.
The unincorporated County is eligible for a base PIP award of $500,000 and a bonus award of $500,000, for a total PIP grant of $1,000,000. The bonus award will be based on the final score of the PDP. If awarded, the County has proposed to use the funds for the predevelopment, development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of multifamily, residential live-work, rental housing that is affordable to extremely low-, very low-, low-, and moderate-income households, including necessary operating subsidies and capitalized reserves for services.
The County seeks to address the shared statewide challenge of providing an adequate supply of affordable housing, and continues to aggressively pursue new sources of local, state, and federal funding to create more affordable housing choices and leverage County affordable housing commitments. In addition to the grant funds, a Prohousing Designation will provide a critical funding advantage for state programs that support affordable housing, transportation, infrastructure, and land use in the unincorporated areas of the County. In addition, it will send a strong signal to the housing development community statewide that the County is focused on accelerating housing production.
In accordance with application requirements, the resolution includes an Attachment A that: (1) is formatted in a way that differs from the standard County resolution to comply with the application requirements of the PIP; and (2) must be executed contemporaneously with the standard County resolution.
The County Attorney has reviewed and approved the resolution as to form.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The amount of the grant of PIP funds would be up to $1,000,000, disbursed to DOH as needed. This is a revenue agreement without a required match, so there is no Net County Cost.