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BACKGROUND The Governor's approval of the 2017 housing package was a response to the ongoing and serious challenge of housing availability and affordability in the State. Findings of a recently published report titled, California's Housing Future: Opportunities and Challenges (Executive Summary included as Attachment 1), include: • Production averaged less than 80,000 new homes annually over the last 10 years, and ongoing production continues to fall far below the projected need of 180,000 additional homes annually. • Lack of supply and rising costs are compounding growing inequality and limiting advancement opportunities for younger Californians. Without intervention much of the housing growth is expected to overlap significantly with disadvantaged communities and areas with less job availability. • Continued sprawl will decrease affordability and quality of life while increasing transportation costs. • The majority of California's renters — more than 3 million households — pay more than 30 percent of their income toward rent, and nearly one-third — more than 1.5 million households — pay more than 50 percent of their income toward rent. • Overall homeownership rates are at their lowest since the 1940s. • California is home to 12 percent of the nation's population, but a disproportionate 22 percent of the nation's homeless population. • For California's vulnerable populations, discrimination and inadequate accommodations for people with disabilities are worsening housing cost and affordability challenges. The State has consistently recognized the important role that local governments play in the production of housing. The State has deployed a range of strategies over recent years in an effort to address housing needs: these include the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), allocated to each local jurisdiction through the regional Council of Government (COG)1 as their "fair share" of the Statewide housing need; in legislation that requires local jurisdictions to accommodate housing through appropriate zoning and reducing barriers to the production of housing; in incentives such as density bonuses for affordable housing; and in streamlining provisions intended to remove regulatory constraints, particularly for housing in proximity to transit. The "housing package" builds upon and expands these existing measures. In the Bay Area,the Metropolitan Transportation Commission(MTC)and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)serve as the regional COGs. Page 2 of 9