State Treasurer John Chiang introduced his new housing team last week, who will lead his effort to expand affordable housing across California. Mark Stivers will serve as the executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, which allocates tax credits to private housing developers, and Jeree Glasser-Hedrick will serve as executive director of the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, which is responsible for programs that assist first-time homebuyers and also encourages the development of affordable rental properties. Through a combination of private meetings and open community forums over the next six months, the team will “seek to obtain a detailed root cause analysis of why California has 13 of the 14 least affordable metropolitan housing markets in the nation.” By the winter of 2015, Chiang hopes to present a first round of solutions that will fall within three categories:

1. Reforms that can be implemented administratively or through regulatory reform at the four major state housing programs, which include the Tax Credit Allocation Committee, Debt Limit Allocation Committee, Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing and Community Development. 
2. Public and private sector partnerships which best leverage the tools and resources of both sectors.
3. Reforms or new programs requiring legislative approval.

Starting at the end of January, Chiang and his housing team plan to begin meeting with local government officials, developers, financing experts, federal and state housing officials, land use experts, the construction trades, real estate economists and community leaders. They will also meet with leaders of the state’s high tech and life sciences industries and other business sectors whom they identify as having been particularly impacted by California’s affordable housing shortage. Community forums will be scheduled for the late summer. A copy of the treasurer’s full press release can be found here. For questions, please contact Kevin Gould, CBA’s senior vice president and director of state government relations, at kgould@calbankers.com or (916) 438-4410.