September 10, 2024
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 3093 (Ward) Land use: housing element: streamlined multifamily housing.
Request for VETO
Dear Governor Newsom,
The City of San Marcos respectfully requests a veto on AB 3093 (Ward), which would require local governments to account for the housing needs of people experiencing homelessness in their housing elements without funding to develop the plans, implement strategies, or support the construction of affordable housing.
San Marcos appreciates recent amendments that clarify the obligations of this measure. However, AB 3093 still adds new duplicative and costly requirements at a time when the state budget includes more than $1 billion in cuts to affordable housing programs.
Specifically, AB 3093 adds two new income categories to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) framework: acutely low-income (ALI) and extremely low-income (ELI). While these new categories are intended to help assess the needs of homeless residents, they fall within the existing very low-income category, which already accounts for the needs of individuals in our cities earning between 0% and 50% of the area median income.
The City of San Marcos is concerned that this will only lead to duplicating planning efforts since existing housing element law already requires cities to analyze the special housing needs of homeless residents and assist in developing adequate housing to meet the needs of extremely low-income households. Housing element law also requires cities to identify sites and encourage the development of various housing, including supportive housing and transitional housing. Through these processes, cities are doing more than ever to plan for the needs of unhoused residents in their communities.
The City of San Marcos shares the goal of preventing and reducing homelessness and increasing the supply of affordable housing in our communities. However, real progress will require ongoing funding that allows for the development of long-term, ambitious plans that support unhoused residents and prevent more individuals from losing their homes. In the absence of ongoing funding to address homelessness, the complicated requirements included in AB 3093 fail to expand or develop local governments' capacity to address immediate homelessness challenges across California.
Cities across California are planning and approving millions of new homes at all income levels despite new bills introduced every year that have changed the rules mid-stream, significantly altering cities’ housing element certification process. These complex, multiyear housing plans are laborious, time-consuming, and costly. With many cities still navigating the state’s certification process for the sixth cycle, now is not the time to create new vague requirements that will only further these delays in certification.
For these reasons, San Marcos requests your veto on AB 3093 and looks forward to working together to bolster local government efforts to support our most vulnerable residents.
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Jones
Mayor
CC: The Honorable Governor Newsom
League of California Cities, [email protected]
City Council
[email protected]