Enterprise, along with over 65 partners across the state, is advocating for a $500 million investment in a new acquisition preservation program, known as the Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program, or CAPP.
CAPP is one of several priorities led by the Stable Homes Coalition, which Enterprise co-leads with partners Housing California and Public Advocates. The CAPP budget appropriation is being led in the California Legislature by Assemblymember Richard Bloom.
CAPP would bring much-needed state funding to support the acquisition and preservation of unsubsidized affordable housing and its stewardship as permanently affordable by nonprofit developers, community development corporations, community land trusts and public agencies. CAPP would fill an unmet need by providing quickly deployable capital to purchase private rental housing off of the speculative market, stabilize current residents and keep these homes affordable.
This one-time investment in CAPP would provide the resources necessary to acquire an estimated 4,500 homes – providing stability and preventing displacement for the households that live there today, while also preserving these homes as permanently affordable for generations to come. Over the next 55 years, these homes are estimated to serve over 49,500 households.
The overwhelming majority of low-income Californians live in private market rental housing. Although this housing is not deed-restricted or publicly subsidized, it is rented at levels more affordable to low-income Californians and is thus referred to as “unsubsidized affordable housing.”
A recent analysis of real estate transaction data by our partners the California Housing Partnership found that there are currently over 1.1 million unsubsidized affordable homes across the state. Maintaining and deepening the affordability of these homes is essential to ensuring affordable housing choices for low-income Californians.
The Bay Area lost 32,000 unsubsidized affordable homes annually between 2012-2017, and San Diego lost an estimated 72 percent of its unsubsidized housing stock affordable to very low-income households between 2000-2020. This loss of unsubsidized affordable housing stock is especially acute as small, more community-minded landlords sell buildings to larger, investor-owned real estate companies. As a result, there are fewer and fewer affordable options for low-income Californians, who are disproportionately people of color, and new affordable housing production is not keeping pace with this loss.
Local programs to acquire these properties and preserve them as permanently affordable housing have proven to be a successful place-based strategy to keep vulnerable Californians housed, but state dollars are needed to leverage local enthusiasm and ensure equitable impact across the State. CAPP is an important opportunity to leverage the State’s significant budget surplus to invest in housing stability for California’s most vulnerable residents today while adding to our affordable housing supply for generations of Californians to come.
To learn more about CAPP and get involved in the effort, please contact our Senior State and Local Policy Director Justine Marcus.