To: Board of Supervisors
From: John Kopchik, Director, Conservation and Development
Report Title: Annual Housing Element Progress Report for Calendar Year 2024
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
ACCEPT the 2024 Annual Housing Element Progress Report, 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 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. The County's full 2024 Annual Housing Element Progress Report is included as Attachment A.
In 2024, the County issued 49 building permits for single-family attached units (townhomes), 107 building permits for single-family detached units, 102 building permits for accessory dwelling units, and eight building permits for manufactured homes (aggregate total of 266 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 through the two years of the 6th Cycle period is 802 units, which includes 31 very-low-income units, 71 low-income units, 228 moderate-income units, and 472 above-moderate income units. The County has issued building permits to meet 2% of the very low-income category, 6% 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.
The 6th cycle Housing Element includes 37 housing related programs, including programs designed to remove governmental constraints with maintaining, improving, and developing housing. A summary of the programs and recent accomplishments are included as Table D in the attached report. The State requires all jurisdictions to provide a greater volume of information regarding new housing projects as part of the annual progress report. This information includes the additional reporting requirements of recently adopted housing legislation.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
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.