Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has designated Sacramento and Placer as "Prohousing" counties, reflecting their efforts to speed up housing production in a region with a dire shortage of affordable homes.
Both counties have streamlined their housing development processes, making it easier, faster and cheaper to build more apartments, duplexes and homes for all income levels, according to state and local officials.
Sacramento County Planning Director Todd Smith said cutting red tape is a win for the region’s home builders, home buyers and renters.
“We know time is money,” Smith said. “If we can reduce that time, save applicants money, they can get housing built more quickly and often not pass on that extended or protracted entitlement cost to future homebuyers.”
Placer County Board of Supervisors chairperson Jim Holmes called it “a point of pride” for his county to earn the designation, according to a news release. Placer’s streamlining efforts and infill housing projects have helped “us grow responsibly and reduce commutes for our residents,” he added.
The prohousing label gives the counties a leg up when they apply for competitive state grants that can help fund affordable housing and related infrastructure. Sacramento housing advocates have said one of the region’s biggest challenges is competing against Southern California and Bay Area communities for limited state dollars.
Smith of Sacramento County says the prohousing label won’t move the region to the front of the line, “but it boosts us up in the scoring criteria.”
Any such boost could make a big difference for the thousands who struggle to afford the region’s high housing and rental prices.
Voreece Soto, 66, is one of them. She says the region desperately needs to build more housing and faster. She lives at Meadowview’s shelter for unhoused women in South Sacramento and has been waiting since she signed a lease in November to move into a two-bedroom apartment at the Arena Senior Apartments on Truxel Road, just east of the former Sacramento Kings arena site. She said she’s been told her apartment is still under construction.
Experiencing delays and not knowing when she’ll be able to move in has been “really depressing” and “heartbreaking,” added Soto, who said she has a subsidized housing voucher through Sacramento County’s Housing Choice Voucher Program for low-income residents.
A report published last May by the nonprofit California Housing Partnership found Sacramento County has a shortfall of nearly 60,000 affordable homes for its lowest-income renters. Placer County’s shortfall was nearly 8,600 affordable homes.
Additionally, the report found that renters in Sacramento County must earn more than twice the state’s minimum wage, or $31.25 per hour, to afford the average two-bedroom apartment, up from nearly $27 per hour in 2020. Meanwhile, renters in Placer County had to earn $32.54 to afford that county’s average rent of nearly $1,700 for a two-bedroom apartment.
Sacramento and Placer joined the city of El Cerrito in receiving the prohousing designation this month. They are the first counties in California to earn the label, but not the only communities in the region to be selected.
Last December, six other jurisdictions were chosen, including Roseville, Citrus Heights, Fontana, Oakland and San Diego. Last February, the city of Sacramento was named the first prohousing community.
On Tuesday, February 21, the Sacramento City Council will vote on whether to approve an application for up to $2.5 million from the state’s Prohousing Incentive Pilot Program. Officials expect the grant money, if awarded, could be used to fund a new affordable housing project in the city.
Contact CapRadio reporter Chris Nichols at [email protected]
Follow us for more stories like this
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
Donate Today
