STATE OF CALIFORNIA - BUSINESS, CONSUMER SERVICES AND HOUSING AGENCY GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT DIVISION
2020 W. El Camino Avenue, Suite 150
Sacramento, CA 95833
P. O. Box 952050, Sacramento, CA 94252-2050
(916) 263-6928 / FAX (916) 263-1757
www.hcd.ca.gov
3/30/2023
Matthew Taylor
Principal Planner
City of Riverside
3900 Main Street
Riverside CA 92505
Dear Matthew,
RE: Prohousing Designation – City of Riverside
Please Note: The Prohousing Designation award is under a media and public announcement embargo until released by the Office of the Governor or otherwise notified by HCD staff. HCD will provide updates on the timing of the award announcement and provide a social media toolkit and a quote from the HCD Director for use in local media releases. Please reply to this email and provide the name, email, and phone number of your Public Information Officer. Should you want to host an in-person event, please complete HCD’s online speaker request form [calhcd.service-now.com] to ensure the event is routed to our executive office.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (Department) is pleased to announce that the City of Riverside has been designated a Prohousing Jurisdiction under the Prohousing Designation Program. The Department has determined that the application meets Prohousing statutory requirements.
The Prohousing Designation Program was established in the 2019-20 Budget Act to acknowledge the policies of local governments that promote housing development. The purpose of the program is to encourage jurisdictions to pass and implement policies that accelerate housing production, promote favorable zoning and land use, reduce construction and development costs, and provide financial subsidies. Through a Prohousing Designation, the County of Placer has shown commitment and diligence and demonstrated itself as a partner to the state in combatting the housing crisis.
The City of Riverside’s Prohousing application contains several highlights. For instance, the City has established Streamline Riverside, a streamlining permit program that significantly reduces entitlement and building permit review times. The City also eliminated red tape through code updates to the Zoning Code while establishing uniform plan check turnaround times that ensure all City teams return plan review comments by the same date, creating efficiency and certainty for customers.
Additionally, the City has a documented practice of public land write downs for affordable housing projects that are new and under construction. This financial support comes from over $16 million in gap funding from the local general fund for affordable housing projects and interest-free rehabilitation loans of up to $60,000 per household.
Finally, movable accessory dwelling units (MADUs) are now permitted in all residential zones, including all multi-family and mixed-use zones that include an existing or proposed dwelling. MADUs are affordable small homes which can be built in a factory, delivered to site, and placed onto existing lots.
As a reminder, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) is state law (Chapter 958, Statutes of 2018) and a threshold requirement for receiving and maintaining your Prohousing Designation. The treatment of unhoused individuals has inherent intersections with public agencies’ duties to AFFH. People with disabilities, and particularly people of color with disabilities, continue to be disproportionately impacted by California’s housing crisis. People with disabilities are the most likely population to experience homelessness, be rent burdened or unable to afford housing, and face the highest rates of housing discrimination.1 2 This is an evolving area of law. Thus, the Department strongly recommends you monitor your policies, procedures, and ordinances for compliance with AFFH; examine possible disparate impacts on persons with protected characteristics; follow best practices regarding encampments published by the US Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) at Principles for Addressing Encampments; and follow the principles laid out in the Martin v. Boise decision. The Department may reach out if concerns with your implementation of AFFH arise.
Congratulations on your successful application. For further information, please contact Paul McDougall at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Megan Kirkeby, Deputy Director
Housing and Policy Development
1 National Disability Institute, Financial Inequality: Disability, Race and Poverty in America https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/disability-race-poverty-in-america.pdf. 2 HCD’s Final 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice https://www.hcd.ca.gov/policy-research/plans- reports/docs/final2020ai.pdf