Sacramento, CA – Two State Senators who chair the key committees focused on housing and housing financing legislation in the Senate are partnering on two critically important legislative hearings this fall.

Senator Jim Beall, Chair of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee and Senator Mike McGuire, Chair of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee will hold the first of two hearings this Tuesday, in the Capitol.

“California is in the midst of a serious housing crisis,” Senator McGuire said. “Approximately 2.5 million lower income families in California pay more in rent than they can afford and 1.5 million of them spend at least half of their monthly income on housing. We all know this is an alarming problem, and we must work together to find solutions. I am grateful to partner with Senator Beall on these critical hearings and look forward to advancing  a comprehensive affordable housing package with him next year that will help close the housing gap.”

The first hearing, “Housing for Working Families: How Do We Pay For It?” kicks off at 1:30pm this Tuesday, Oct. 2 in Capitol Room 4203. This hearing will assess current state and other funding sources for affordable housing, seek to identify funding gaps, and begin a discussion of why funding alone is not sufficient to address the state’s housing crisis. The second hearing, which will be held later this fall in Southern California, will focus on the effects of land use policies on housing affordability and non-fiscal policy options to address California’s housing needs.

“California’s housing crisis didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t get fixed overnight,” said Senator Beall. “The joint hearings allow legislators to gain different perspectives to identify potential solutions as we craft a housing plan for next year. Judging by the large number of housing bills that have been introduced in the past couple of years, and the fact that four of the 11 initiatives on the state ballot relate to housing, I think everyone has gotten the message loud and clear that it is time to act.”

An all-star panel of housing experts from across the Golden State lined up to speak at Tuesday’s hearing are:

• Matt Schwartz, President/CEO, California Housing Partnership Corporation
• Lisa Bates, Deputy Director of Financial Assistance, California Department of Housing and Community Development
• Larry Flood, Director of Financing and Interim Director for Multifamily Programs, CalHFA
• Emily Halcon, Homeless Services Coordinator, City of Sacramento
• Jim Mather, Chief Lending Officer, Housing Trust Silicon Valley
• Aaron Laurel, City Manager, City of West Sacramento
• Michael Coleman, Fiscal Policy Advisor, California City Finance
• Nick Cammarota, General Counsel, California Building Industry Association
• Holly Wunder Stiles, Director of Housing Development, Mutual Housing California
• Anya Lawler, Policy Advocate, Western Center on Law and Poverty

Throughout these hearings, the two committees will be exploring comprehensive solutions that can be adopted to close the housing gap and effect positive change at a regional and local level. Questions that will be addressed could include:

• Do one-size-fits-all approaches really work, or do we need a framework that allows solutions to be tailored to specific sizes of communities?
• How do we ensure that all communities across the state, big and small, do their part to address the housing shortage?
• Can the state offer a combination of incentives? This could potentially include additional long term funding and streamlining policies to encourage cities and counties to overcome local political barriers to increasing affordable housing in their communities.

Both hearings will be livestreamed online at www.senate.ca.gov.

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