Report 2020-108 Recommendation Responses

Report 2020-108: California's Housing Agencies: The State Must Overhaul Its Approach to Affordable Housing Development to Help Relieve Millions of Californians' Burdensome Housing Costs (Release Date: November 2020)

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To ensure that local jurisdictions make sufficient efforts to facilitate the development of needed affordable housing in the long term, the Legislature should require HCD to develop and submit to the Legislature specific and objective standards—for example, a maximum number of parking spaces required per housing unit—for how local jurisdictions can mitigate barriers to lower-income housing development across all the potential barriers they control, such as zoning and parking. HCD should tailor these standards to ensure that local jurisdictions implementing them have made it feasible for developers to build the housing necessary to meet lower-income housing goals. The Legislature should also require that HCD consult with local jurisdictions; regional governments; and affordable housing developers, advocates, and researchers in determining these standards. The Legislature should consider this information when developing legislation to mitigate additional affordable housing barriers: for instance, it could require local jurisdictions to adopt the standards for all potential affordable housing sites in their housing plans unless they provide reasonable justifications for using different standards.

Description of Legislative Action

As of November 17, 2021, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: No Action Taken


Description of Legislative Action

As of May 17, 2021, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: No Action Taken


Description of Legislative Action

AB 68 (Salas) states legislative intent to implement the recommendations in the audit.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced


All Recommendations in 2020-108