NEWS FROM ANTONIO VAZQUEZ

Chairman, Board of Equalization, 3^rd District

A Blueprint to Advance Low-Income Housing is Coming

October 20: State Board of Equalization Chairman Antonio Vazquez and the Board Members hosted the Board of Equalization Affordable Housing Work Group hearing on October 19, 2023, at the Santa Monica City Hall Council Chambers and received testimony and input from State Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood), along with mayors, assessors, nonprofits, experts, and advocates on tackling the California Housing Crisis.

“Activating the right incentives, streamlining property tax exemptions, and accelerating other approval processes will dramatically accelerate affordable housing production to meet the demands of a growing population and decrease homelessness in Southern California,” said Chairman Vazquez. “The leaders and experts who testified at the hearing recommended solutions related to ADUs, adaptive reuse, tax credits, exemptions, financing, state funding sources, and other strategies that will constitute the Blueprint for fast-tracking the housing so desperately needed, especially by the homeless.”

The Board received testimony from more than 15 speakers on an array of topics that included addressing some of the obstacles to affordable housing production, navigating state and local building permitting and construction standards, ensuring properties comply with the criteria under state law to qualify for the appropriate property tax welfare exemption, and addressing local concerns about affordable housing being introduced into established, high-resource neighborhoods.

Other topics discussed included recently enacted legislation addressing the extreme and urgent need to not only produce more affordable housing and expand tax exemptions to entities who manage affordable housing projects, but also to prevent vulnerable groups from losing their current affordable housing entitlements: SB 469 (Allen), AB 529 (Gabriel), AB 1386 (Gabriel), AB 1528 (Gipson), AB 1620 (Zbur).

Speakers also discussed current barriers to accessing affordable housing, such as the low availability of affordable housing stock, the complex application and qualification process to access housing, and the role mental and behavioral health issues play in hindering unhoused individuals from seeking housing in the first place.

With the recommendations received, the Board will prepare a blueprint of property tax incentives and other initiatives to increase low-income housing production in California.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Chairman Vazquez was first elected to the California State Board of Equalization in 2018 and re-elected in 2022 to represent nearly 10 million residents in the Third District, which encompasses all of Los Angeles County. He is the first Latino ever elected to the BOE since its inception and brings to the Board over two decades of experience and leadership in business and government, including serving as Mayor of the City of Santa Monica.

The five-member California State Board of Equalization (BOE) is the nation’s only statewide publicly elected tax board that serves a significant role in the assessment and administration of property taxes.