Housing Opportunity Committee

Land Use and Environment Committee

Legislative Committee

Taxation Committee

June, 2008

The following is for study only and has NOT been approved by the Housing Opportunity Committee,  Land Use and Environment, Legislative or Taxation Committees, the Executive Committee or the Board of Directors.

Issue:
Should C.A.R. adopt a definition of "affordable housing" that can be implemented as policy in legislative and regulatory venues?

Action:
Optional

Options:
1. Adopt the recommendation of the Affordable Home Ownership Working Group of the HOC as set forth below.
2. Reject the Working Group?s Recommendation.
3. Other. 
 

Status/Summary:

During its October, 2007 meeting, the Housing Opportunity Committee (HOC) considered proposals to create a permanent source of funding for "affordable housing". In the course of those deliberations it became clear that there is a diversity of views as to what can appropriately be considered by C.A.R. Members as "affordable housing". The Committee directed:

That C.A.R. Staff prepare an Issues Briefing Paper on "affordable housing", what it means under C.A.R.'s existing policy, and identify approaches and funding options supportable under that policy. This directive was modified by the 2008 HOC Committee at the January, 2008, meetings of C.A.R., and the "Affordable Home Ownership" Working Group of the HOC was created. Its mission was established by the HOC as follows:

Recommend to the full HOC, and ultimately the Board of Directors, a definition of "affordable housing" that can be used as a guide to the public affairs efforts of C.A.R as it advances our Members' agendas in legislative, regulatory, and political forums.

Discussion

The need for a more C.A.R.-specific definition is driven by the actions of other housing advocacy groups that have questioned C.A.R.'s "affordable housing" focus. They attempt to "brow-beat" REALTOR® representatives into taking positions regarding affordable housing that implement their respective agendas (e.g., re-sale price controls, inclusionary zoning, rent control, transaction fees, etc.). Such positions are clearly not consistent with the REALTOR® agenda.

C.A.R. has evidenced a long-standing commitment to "affordable housing", given the establishment of the Housing Opportunity Committee (HOC), as well as the Housing Affordability Fund.  HOC Chair Le Francis Arnold, as charged by C.A.R.'s Board of Directors during the January, 2008 meetings, selected a six-Member, six-Guest Working Group that included the Chair and Vice Chairs of HOC, the HOC Committee Liaison, and two Members of HOC as the Working Group Members. Chair Arnold also selected six C.A.R. Leaders consisting of two past C.A.R. Presidents and the Chairs of the Housing Affordability Fund, Legislative, Taxation and Land Use Committees. The Working Group participated in three monthly conference calls, one each in March, April and May. Spirited discussions ensued and a new proposed policy for consideration by the full Housing Opportunity Committee evolved through a progression that encompassed six drafts.

The recommendation of the Housing Opportunity Committee Affordable Home Ownership Working Group to the Housing Opportunity Committee, as to C.A.R.'s policy on affordable housing, is the following:

            Housing advocacy organizations promote many different definitions of

"affordable housing". The California Association of REALTORS® 

has chosen to define "affordable housing" as "affordable WORKFORCE

housing" and to focus its activities on helping create a path towards

"affordable home ownership" for the workers in California. Such

affordability must be evaluated in the context of housing costs within a

worker's community. This path starts with rental housing and then moves on to ownership housing generated by new construction, rehabilitation, and re-development.

REALTORS® believe that communities most effectively create the

opportunities for affordable workforce home ownership by avoiding 

restrictive regulatory policies, such as rent control and point-of-sale

mandates, and encouraging  affirmative actions such as flexible

zoning, innovative local planning, cooperative public-private

projects, density bonuses, "granny flats", mixed use developments, land

trusts, down payment assistance programs, and shared equity

arrangements.