Six California Cities Earn Prohousing Designation

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) recently announced that the cities of Citrus Heights, Fontana, Oakland, Roseville, San Diego and West Sacramento have joined the city of Sacramento in earning the state's Prohousing Designation. These cities have committed to practices and policies that remove barriers to housing production.

Governor Newsom lauded the cities for stepping up "to aggressively eliminate bureaucratic obstacles and drive the growth of housing throughout the state." The Prohousing Designation provides incentives to cities and counties via additional points and/or other preferences in scoring competitive housing, community development, and infrastructure programs administered by HCD. These cities are now also eligible for $25.7 million in additional funding to help accelerate housing production and preservation.

Cities that receive the designation must demonstrate that they are promoting climate-smart housing in a number of ways, such as: streamlining multifamily housing development, up-zoning in areas near jobs and transit in order to reduce emissions, and creating more affordable homes in places that historically or currently exclude households of color and households earning lower incomes.

HCD provides more information here.