Palo Alto Online
By Gennady Sheyner
With cities throughout California struggling to meet the state's affordable housing goals, state Sen. Josh Becker has authored a bill that would make more funding available for below-market-rate projects and expand the types of development that would qualify as "low-income" housing.
Becker's bill, Senate Bill 1094, aims to offer a financial boost to cities that have failed to meet their obligations for affordable housing under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process, a regional quota system that requires jurisdictions to plan for a certain number of dwellings in each income category over an eight-year planning cycle.
Each city is required by law to submit for approval to the state Department of Housing and Community Development a document that lays out the city's strategies for meeting the regional goals and identifies sites that could accommodate housing.