HOUSING GRADES
Every city and county in California has state-mandated targets for how much additional housing it needs across a range of affordability levels. Many are failing to meet those targets, especially for lower-income housing. This is the Southern California News Group's third annual housing permit report card, which grades each jurisdiction in the state. Making the grade
Cities and counties are given goals for how much housing they need to add that would be affordable to residents in four categories:
• Very low income (0-50% of area median income)
• Low income (51-80% of area median income)
• Moderate income (81-120% of area median income)
• Above moderate income (120+% - of area median income)
New goals are assigned every four to eight years in a process called the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA. Jurisdictions are supposed to send annual progress reports to California's housing department. This report card uses data that jurisdictions submitted this year on housing permits through the end of 2020.
The grades are based on how close each jurisdiction is to being on track to meet those goals, depending on how far it is into its current RHNA cycle. For example, the Bay Area is in a RHNA cycle that runs from early 2015 to early 2023. A city that is supposed to permit 80 low-income units by the end of this cycle would need to have issued at least 60 through 2020 to be fully on track and earn an A grade in that category on SCNG's report card.
Grades for each category
• 100% or better on track = A / 4 points
• 75-99% on track = B / 3 points
• 50-74% on track = C / 2 points
• 1-49% on track = D / 1 point
• 0 units permitted = F / 0 points
• Not required to permit any in that category = Won't be included in overall grade
Extra credit points
Jurisdictions could get bonus points:
• If they weren't fully on track in a category but showed significant improvement from the previous year
• If they were at least 90% on track in the lower and moderate-income categories
• If they have more difficult RHNA goals