68 California Department of Housing and Community Development Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Examples of Contributing Factors to Fair
Housing Issues by Area
Outreach
● Lack of a variety of media (e.g., meetings, surveys, stakeholder interviews) ● Lack of marketing community meetings
● Lack of meetings at various times
● Lack of accessibility to draft documents
● Lack of language access
● Lack of accessible forums (e.g., webcast, effective communication, reasonable accommodation procedures)
Fair Housing Enforcement and Outreach Capacity
● Lack of local private fair housing outreach and enforcement ● Lack of local public fair housing enforcement
● Lack of resources for fair housing agencies and organizations ● Lack of state or local fair housing laws to support strong enforcement ● Unresolved violations of fair housing or civil rights law (including challenges to protect the constitutional and statutory rights of unhoused people) Segregation and Integration
● Community opposition
● Displacement of residents due to economic pressures
● Lack of community revitalization strategies
● Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods ● Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities ● Lack of regional cooperation
● Land use and zoning laws
● Lending discrimination
● Location and type of affordable housing
● Occupancy codes and restrictions
● Private discrimination
● Source of income discrimination
● Lack of tenant protections
● Harassment
● Lack of supportive housing in community-based settings ● Policing and criminalization
California Department of Housing and Community Development 69 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Racially and Ethnically Concentrated Areas of Poverty
● Community opposition
● Deteriorated and abandoned properties
● Displacement of residents due to economic pressures
● Lack of community revitalization strategies
● Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods ● Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities ● Lack of regional cooperation
● Land use and zoning laws
● Location and type of affordable housing
● Occupancy codes and restrictions
● Private discrimination
● Lending discrimination
● Policing and criminalization
Disparities in Access to Opportunity
● Access to financial services
● The availability, type, frequency, and reliability of public transportation ● Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods ● Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities ● Lack of regional cooperation
● Land use and zoning laws
● Lending discrimination
● Location of employers
● Location of environmental health hazards
● Location of proficient schools and school assignment policies ● Location and type of affordable housing
● Occupancy codes and restrictions
● Private discrimination
● Policing and criminalization
Disparities in Access to Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities ● Access to proficient schools for persons with disabilities ● Access to publicly supported housing for persons with disabilities ● Access to transportation for persons with disabilities ● Inaccessible government facilities or services
● Inaccessible sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, or other infrastructure ● Lack of affordable in-home or community-based supportive services ● Lack of affordable, accessible housing in range of unit sizes ● Lack of affordable, integrated housing for individuals who need supportive services ● Lack of assistance for housing accessibility modifications ● Lack of assistance for transitioning from institutional settings to integrated housing ● Land use and zoning laws
● Lending discrimination
● Location of accessible housing
70 California Department of Housing and Community Development Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
● Occupancy codes and restrictions
● Lack of effective accommodations for unhoused people with disabilities ● Regulatory barriers to providing housing and supportive services for persons with disabilities ● State or local laws, policies, or practices that discourage individuals with disabilities from being placed in or living in apartments, family homes, and other integrated settings ● Policing and criminalization (especially people with mental disabilities or neurodivergent individuals) Disproportionate Housing Needs, Including Displacement Risks ● The availability of affordable units in a range of sizes ● Displacement of residents due to economic pressures
● Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods ● Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities ● Lack of renter protections
● Lack of protections for mobilehome park residents
● Land use and zoning laws
● Lending discrimination
● Lack of rental relief programs for people at risk of homelessness Site Inventory
● Community opposition
● Lack of community revitalization strategies
● Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods ● Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities ● Lack of regional cooperation
● Land use and zoning laws
● Local policies or practices (e.g., councilmember veto) ● Location and type of affordable housing
● Private discrimination
72 California Department of Housing and Community Development Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Examples of Affirmatively Furthering Fair
Housing Actions
Housing Mobility Strategies consist of removing barriers to housing in areas of opportunity and strategically enhancing access. Examples include:
● Voucher mobility
● Housing mobility counseling
● City-wide affordable rental registries
● Landlord outreach to expand the location of participating voucher properties ● Landlord education and outreach on source of income discrimination and voucher programs ● Assistance with security deposits and moving expenses for voucher holders and other low-income tenants ● Extend search times for particular groups with housing choice vouchers, such as larger families with children or persons with disabilities
● Regional cooperation and administration of vouchers (such as through portability and shared waiting lists);
● Affirmative marketing can be targeted at promoting equal access to government-assisted housing or to promote housing outside the immediate neighborhood to increase awareness and the diversity of individuals in the neighborhood
● Collaborate with high performing school districts to promote a diversity of students and staff to serve lower income students
● Developing multifamily housing opportunities95
● Encouraging the development of four or more units in a building ● Encouraging collaboration between local governments and community land trusts as a mechanism to develop affordable housing in higher-opportunity areas.96 ● Accessibility programs focus on improving access to housing, transit, public buildings and facilities, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and businesses New Housing Choices and Affordability in Areas of Opportunity means promoting housing supply, choices and affordability in areas of high opportunity and outside of areas of concentrated poverty. Examples include:
● Zoning, permit streamlining, fees, incentives and other approaches to increase housing choices and affordability (e.g., duplex, triplex, multifamily, accessory dwelling units, transitional and supportive housing, group homes) in high opportunity areas ● Target housing creation or mixed income strategies (e.g., funding, incentives, policies and programs, density bonuses, land banks, housing trust funds) ● Inclusionary requirements
95 The federal FHA includes design and construction requirements for all residential buildings with four or more attached units. In buildings with stairs, all ground floor units must be accessible, and in buildings with elevator access, all units must have minimum access. There is no federally mandated standard for accessibility in single family homes. Government Code section 12955.1, subdivision (b), requires 10 percent of units in multifamily buildings without elevators consisting of 3 or more rental units or 4 or more condominium units are subject to accessibility building standards.
96 See Community Land Trusts and Stable Affordable Housing, available at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featdarticle-110419.html, last visited on March 19, 2021.
California Department of Housing and Community Development 73 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
● Scattered site affordable development
● Targeted investment and programs, including sweat equity, down payment assistance, new rental construction
● Accessibility modification programs and other measures that proactively enhance accessibility ● Increase accessible number of units above state law through incentives, policies, funding and other similar measures
● Developing waiting lists for persons with disabilities, such as coordination with regional centers for developmental services and targeting those lists to property owners or homeowners making units (e.g., ADUs) available
● Leveraging in-home or community based supportive services ● Develop a campaign to combat local opposition
● Increase number of ADUs allowed per site
● Increasing opportunities for community ownership of housing Place-based Strategies to Encourage Community Conservation and Revitalization Involves approaches that are focused on conserving and improving assets in areas of lower opportunity and concentrated poverty such as targeted investment in neighborhood revitalization, preserving or rehabilitating existing affordable housing, improving infrastructure, schools, employment, parks, transportation and other community amenities. Examples include:
● Targeted investment in areas of most need focused on improving community assets such as schools, recreational facilities and programs, social service programs, parks, streets, active transportation and infrastructure ● Develop a proactive code enforcement program that targets areas of concentrated rehabilitation needs, results in repairs and mitigates potential cost, displacement and relocation impacts on residents
● Dedicate or seek funding to prioritize basic infrastructure improvements (e.g., water, sewer) in disadvantaged communities
● Address negative environmental, neighborhood, housing and health impacts associated with siting and operation of land uses such as industrial, agricultural, waste storage, freeways, energy production, etc. in disadvantaged communities
● Address negative impacts from climate change through investments in adaptation measures such as urban forestry, flood prevention measures, etc. in disadvantaged communities ● Target acquisition and rehabilitation to vacant and blighted properties in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty
● Inter-governmental coordination on areas of high need ● Prioritized capital improvement programs
● Develop new financing
● Recruit residents from areas of concentrated poverty to serve on boards, committees, task forces and other local government decision-making bodies
● Catalyze leadership and future community wide decision-makers, including affirmative recruitment in hiring practices ● Leverage private investment for community revitalization, including philanthropic ● Expand access to community meetings, including addressing language barriers, meeting times 74 California Department of Housing and Community Development Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Protecting Existing Residents from Displacement comprises strategies that protects residents in areas of lower or moderate opportunity and concentrated poverty and preserves housing choices and affordability. Examples include:
● First right of return to existing residents and policies that include moving expenses ● Multi-lingual tenant legal counseling
● Affirmative marketing strategies or plans targeting nearby neighborhoods, a Disadvantaged Community or a Low-Income Community
● Replacement requirements in targeted growth areas such as transit stations, transit corridors, job and housing rich areas, downtowns and revitalization areas or policies on sites identified to accommodate the housing needs of lower income households ● Rent stabilization programs beyond what is required by California Civil Code 1946.2 ● Just cause eviction or other efforts improving tenant stability beyond what is required by California Civil Code 1946.2 ● Policies to preserve Single Room Occupancy (SRO) housing or mobilehome parks ● Condominium conversion restrictions
● Land banking programs actively receiving funding
● Community benefit zoning and/or other land value recapture strategy ● Rent review board and/or mediation, foreclosure assistance, or multilingual tenant legal counseling services ● Density bonus ordinances that expand on state replacement requirements ● Implementation of an overlay zone to protect and assist small businesses ● Establishment of a small business advocate office and single point of contact for every small business owner;
● Creation and maintenance of a small business alliance; ● Increased visibility of the jurisdiction’s small business assistance programs; ● Formal program to ensure that some fraction of a jurisdiction’s purchases of goods and services come from local businesses
● Prioritization of Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) for public contracting ● Environmental contamination mitigation and hazard mitigation measures such as seismic retrofits, flood adaptation measures, etc. to prevent displacement from disasters ● Eliminating crime-free or nuisance ordinances or programs that result in penalties to landlords and evictions of tenants
California Department of Housing and Community Development 71 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Sample Contributing Factors & Actions Matrix
Identified Fair
Housing Issue
Contributing
Factor
Priority
(high, medium, low) Meaningful Action