To: Board of Supervisors
From: John Kopchik, Director, Conservation and Development
Report Title: Modification of the Annual Housing Element Progress Report for Calendar Year 2024
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE modification to the 2024 Annual Housing Element Progress Report (APR), in accordance with Government Code section 65400.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact on the County General Fund. This is an annual report to the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) and the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. Staff costs to prepare this report were covered by administrative funds related to the Department of Conservation and Development’s housing programs.
BACKGROUND:
The Housing Element is one of seven mandatory elements that every California jurisdiction must include in its General Plan. State law mandates that all local governments adequately plan to meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) allocates a share of the Bay Area regional housing need to all the cities and counties in the Bay Area.
The County's Housing Element is part of the 6th Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) Cycle that covers the eight-year planning period from 2023 to 2031. During this period, the County is expected to plan for the provision of 7,610 units of housing in the unincorporated County. Pursuant to Government Code Section 65400, the County is required to submit an annual report to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and the State Office of Planning and Research by the first day of April of each year. Jurisdictions are also required to submit the annual report to their legislative bodies for review and comment.
A report was prepared for the acceptance and approval of the Board of Supervisors (Board) on March 25, 2025. On March 24, 2025, ABAG staff sent a memo to jurisdictions providing additional reporting guidance in communication with the HCD staff regarding the reporting of affordable Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) that was based on a previously prepared ABAG consultant study. The additional guidance allowed jurisdictions in the ABAG region to report a certain proportion of non-deed restricted ADUs as affordable housing units. The guidance allowed a proportion of 30/30/30/10 of very low, low, moderate, and above-moderate units. This allowed for a considerable number of non-deed restricted ADUs to be counted towards the County’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation. However, the report provided at the March 25, 2025, Board meeting could not be modified in time due to the Brown Act and Better Government Ordinance requirements. Due to the process required to modify submitted APRs, HCD staff advised it would be better to submit a jurisdiction’s APR in its final form by the deadline rather than go through a modification review and submittal with their department. Therefore, staff modified the 2024 APR according to the received HCD guidance and submitted the report to HCD by the April 1, 2025 deadline. The County's modified 2024 Annual Housing Element Progress Report is included as Attachment A.
The following includes the modifications to the number and affordability levels of the units constructed in the County.
In 2024, the County issued 49 building permits for single-family attached units (townhomes), 107 building permits for single-family detached units, 108 building permits for accessory dwelling units, and four building permits for manufactured homes (aggregate total of 268 units).
Table B of Attachment A shows a summary of the prior permitting activity in the current planning cycle, including the permitting activity for the calendar year being reported. The second year of the 6th cycle only contains units with permits that occurred on or after the beginning of the cycle. Units permitted since the start of the 6th cycle RHNA projection period is also displayed on Table B. To assist jurisdictions in completing the form, HCD has pre-filled permit data as reported to HCD on prior APRs.
The following is a summary of the County's progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs. The calendar year 2024 is the second year of the eight-year Housing Element cycle. Through this 6th Cycle period, the County has issued building permits for 11% of its total aggregate share of the region's allocated housing units. The total number of units for which the County has issued building permits throughout the first two years of the 6th Cycle period is 804 units. For the 2024 calendar year, the County issued building permits for 268 units, which includes 22 very-low-income units, 21 low-income units, 60 moderate-income units, and 165 above-moderate income units. The County has issued building permits to meet 2% of the very low-income category, 8% of the low-income category, and 23% of the moderate-income housing units indicated in the County’s Housing Element and RHNA for Contra Costa County. The issuance of a building permit is what the State considers a "unit" for the purposes of this report. The State also defines very low-income as a household earning less than 50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), low-income as a household earning between 51 percent and 80 percent of the AMI, and moderate-income as a household earning between 81 percent and 120 percent of the AMI.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
The report has already been submitted to HCD and OPR prior to the deadline of April 1, 2025. The Annual Housing Element Progress Report must be submitted no later than April 1, 2025, in accordance with Government Code Section 65400. The County is required to provide the Annual Housing Element Progress Report to the Board of Supervisors in a public meeting to allow the public an opportunity to review and comment on the report. Non-submittal of the report may result in disqualification from applying for or receiving certain state grants.