California churches, hospitals could build affordable homes on empty land under new bill

A San Francisco Democrat unveiled legislation this week to let religious groups and nonprofit hospitals use excess land and parking lots for affordable housing projects.

Senate Bill 899 would permit those organizations and their partnered developers to work around local zoning rules that often limit or block affordable projects.

The proposed law would also streamline construction to minimize the time it takes and money needed to build the homes. To qualify, all of the units in a project would have to be designated as affordable housing, and the faith-based or hospital affiliate would have to commit to keeping rents in that range for 45 to 55 years.

Hospitals and churches could skirt the red tape in residential areas as long as the building doesn’t exceed 40 units and three stories. That limit expands to 150 homes and five stories in commercial and mixed-use regions.

Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, argued during a Friday press conference in his city that California is facing an “emergency” spawned by a “massive shortage of every conceivable type of housing.”

“We have an obligation to make sure everyone has access to housing,” Wiener said. “SB 899 offers a creative approach to this crisis.”

Many churches and nonprofit hospitals already have in mind surplus land and parking space that could be better used for homes, Wiener he said. The legislation would place them in a better position to leverage underused or overlooked assets for the people they already serve.

“There is great precedence for this. But you’ve got to have vision,” said Rev. Arnold Townsend, vice-president of San Francisco’s NAACP. Townsend said religious organizations also suffer from the lack of affordability that’s forced low-income residents out of California or the city and into other states or regions.

“The people who volunteer, the people who donate, are no longer in the city,” Townsend said. “So then everybody begins to suffer to a greater degree. It’s absolutely essential that people support this effort.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom tasked lawmakers during his Feb. 19 State of the State address with delivering housing ideas that spur construction.

Newsom set an ambitious goal during his 2018 campaign to build 3.5 million new homes by 2025, a target that requires 500,000 units per year.

Lawmakers this year have introduced measures to cut development fees, asked for ongoing billions in the state budget to battle homelessness and expanded a Los Angeles-area law that skips environmental review for emergency and supportive housing projects to apply statewide.

This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 12:12 PM.