You could be a joint homeowner — with the state

Much has been made about the persistent disagreement between Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers over how to put money back in the pockets of Californians reeling from high gas prices and the rising cost of living, but what about addressing the state’s perennial problem — housing?

Don’t worry, there are disagreements there, too.

The $300 billion placeholder budget lawmakers approved Monday lays the groundwork for a plan to boost homeownership among lower- and middle-income Californians and in communities of color by providing first-time buyers most or all of the money they need for a down payment in exchange for partial ownership stakes in those residences, CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo reports. Participants would eventually repay the money into a self-sustaining loan fund.

Championed by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, the “California Dream for All” program would be funded by issuing revenue bonds of $1 billion a year for 10 years, and is expected to help about 7,700 borrowers annually.

Newsom, however, hasn’t signed off on the proposal. And while some industry groups support it, other experts warn of potential complications.

• The California Homeownership Coalition, a group that includes the California Association of Realtors, the California Building Industry Association and Habitat for Humanity: “These funding solutions are especially important for communities of color still facing disproportionately low homeownership rates because of decades-long discriminatory housing practices.”
• Andrew Caplin, a professor at New York University who wrote a book on shared equity programs: One concern is that politicians may feel pressured to not demand repayment and “in the end, it will all be agreed that we can’t really collect the money — like student loans.”

Meanwhile, as California awaits comprehensive figures from this year’s point-in-time count of the homeless population — the first since the pandemic ignited in early 2020 — the state is rushing to prevent more people from losing their homes.

• California’s housing department on Tuesday announced an expansion of its federally funded mortgage relief program, a move that could help tens of thousands more residents keep a roof over their heads. Under the loosened eligibility requirements, homeowners earning at or below 150% of their county’s area median income can now apply for relief of as much as $80,000 if they missed at least two payments prior to June 30, 2022, and are currently delinquent. Meanwhile, Californians who own their home outright or have up-to-date mortgage payments can receive as much as $20,000 to cover overdue property taxes if they missed at least one payment prior to May 31, 2022.
• So far, the program has paid more than $68 million to nearly 2,000 homeowners, according to state officials.
• Meanwhile, California’s pandemic rent relief program is facing at least two lawsuits, including one that alleges its botched implementation has put tenants at increased risk of eviction and homelessness.

Other housing news you should know:

• California has the country’s second-lowest homeownership rate at 56%, just above New York at 55%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. That’s lower than its 58% rate 60 years ago.
• As inflation and mortgage rates rise, some California home sellers are cutting asking prices — though most are still selling for higher sums, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Berkeley and San Francisco are considering possible November ballot measures to tax vacant homes — a move they hope could open up more rental opportunities, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
• Some see South Los Angeles developer Martin Muoto as a slumlord. Others see him as a visionary who’s managed to open homeless housing in less than half the time and at less than half the cost of government-run projects, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Placer County is offering $1,000 to landlords to incentivize them to rent to homeless veterans, per the Sacramento Bee.

The coronavirus bottom line: As of Monday, California had 9,169,339 confirmed cases (+0.7% from previous day) and 91,107 deaths (+0.1% from previous day), according to state data now updated just twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. CalMatters is also tracking coronavirus hospitalizations by county.

California has administered 76,967,300 vaccine doses, and 75.5% of eligible Californians are fully vaccinated.

Other Stories You Should Know

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1 Lawmakers fast-track abortion amendment

In stark contrast to California leaders’ lack of progress on delivering financial relief for residents — Republican lawmakers are scheduled today to hold a press conference chastising Democrats for “100 days of inaction” on gas rebates — a proposal to enshrine the right to abortion and contraception in the state constitution sailed through two legislative committees on Tuesday. The constitutional amendment — which Newsom and top Democratic lawmakers announced hours after Politico published a draft U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion suggesting justices are poised to strike down the federal constitutional right to an abortion — must be approved by two-thirds of legislators in both the Assembly and Senate by June 30 in order to land on voters’ ballots in November.

• Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, acknowledged that California already does more than any other state to allow easy access to abortion — something that wouldn’t change even if the nation’s highest court were to overturn Roe vs. Wade. But “I want to know for sure that right is protected,” she said. “We are protecting ourselves from future (state) courts and future politicians.”
• State Sen. Andreas Borgeas, a Fresno Republican, said he supported sending the proposed amendment to voters so they could have their say. But he said he was “concerned” that placing the right to an abortion in California’s constitution would be tantamount to “elevating” it above other fundamental rights, such as the right to water, food and health care.

A stack of other abortion rights bills cleared key committees on Tuesday, as did several Newsom-sponsored proposals to strengthen California’s toughest-in-the-nation gun control laws.

2 More money for UC Riverside?

Yet another budget battle is brewing over UC Riverside, which, despite enrolling more low-income undergraduate students than any other University of California campus last year, is also the least-funded. Part of that has to do with desirability: Located in the Inland Empire, UC Riverside attracts fewer out-of-state students — who pay about three times more in tuition than those from California — than other marquee campuses like UC Berkeley and UCLA.

Lawmakers — led by Democratic Assemblymember Jose Medina of Riverside — want the state to help make up that difference by injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into UC Riverside and other historically underfunded campuses, such as UC Merced. But one big wild card remains, CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn reports: Is Newsom on board?

• Kevin Cook, a higher education researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California: “Those campuses serve students in the Inland Empire and up in the Central Valley and that’s a key area for the state to focus on demographically.”
• Medina: “It will be an economic stimulus for our area.”

3 California marks 1-year reopening anniversary

It may all seem like a fever dream, but exactly one year ago today — on June 15, 2021 — Newsom, flanked by Minions, Smurfs and Transformers on a stage at Universal Studios Hollywood, declared California open for business after 453 days of COVID-19 lockdowns. To celebrate, he drew $15 million worth of prizes from the state’s controversial vaccine lottery.

A year later, with nearly 76% of Californians 5 and older fully vaccinated and a long-term COVID plan in place, the virus doesn’t dominate the headlines as much as it used to — but it still looms in the background like a shadow you can’t quite shake, as some counties reinstate mask rules and concerns grow over long COVID. The state’s 9.1% test positivity rate on Tuesday was significantly higher than the 0.7% logged on June 15, 2021. But death rates have remained relatively stagnant since April, state data show.

• State health officials continue to underscore the importance of getting vaccinated and boosted, noting that from May 16 to May 22, unvaccinated people were 5 times more likely than boosted people to contract COVID, 7.4 times more likely to be hospitalized and 8.2 times more likely to die.
• Nevertheless, a number of high-profile vaccinated and boosted officials have recently contracted COVID, including Newsom. After recovering, the governor attended last week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Other attendees, including U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, tested positive after leaving the summit. It’s Becerra’s second infection in less than a month.
• Dr. Erica Pan, California’s state epidemiologist, told the San Francisco Chronicle: “We’ve learned and reinforced that the vaccines are definitely doing the job of preventing serious illness. But we did not anticipate the immune evasion to happen so quickly with regards to infections.”

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