For more than three decades, I’ve been in the trenches of California’s affordable housing system, helping develop more than 700 units of affordable senior housing. But I’ll be honest: every one of those units came with scars. Not from construction challenges or community opposition — those are solvable — but from a fragmented, slow and often contradictory state system that makes building affordable housing feel like pushing a boulder uphill.
As I often tell anyone who will listen, the norm in California is seven to eight years to bring a typical affordable housing project from concept to completion. In a state where tens of thousands of people sleep outside each night and hundreds of thousands more struggle to afford rent, that timeline is not just inefficient. It’s immoral.
But for the first time in my career, I see a real opportunity to change that.
Last month, the state launched the California Housing and Homelessness Agency (CHHA) — a new structure designed to bring coherence, urgency and accountability to the full spectrum of housing needs. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reorganization plan split the old Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency into two parts, finally allowing housing to stand on its own as a core state priority rather than one division buried among unrelated regulatory functions.
That may sound like inside baseball. It isn’t. If the new CHHA works the way it should, it could be one of the most important housing changes California has made in years. It targets the thing that has quietly killed too many projects: delay.
Each delay means higher costs, fewer units and more people waiting for a safe place to live. It also means public dollars are lost to bureaucracy. That is why CHHA matters. If the state uses it well, more affordable housing projects can get out of limbo and into construction sooner.
So, what should this look like in practice?
- Developers complete one streamlined application that aligns funding timelines, eligibility rules, and review requirements instead of juggling separate applications with conflicting deadlines.
- Funding decisions are made in months, not years.
- Environmental reviews are coordinated instead of duplicated.
- Homelessness programs and housing production strategies are designed together.
- Civil rights enforcement ensures communities build equitably and inclusively.
- Local governments receive one clear set of guidance instead of a patchwork of directives.
That is a big deal. CHHA will not pour the concrete or frame the buildings. But it can clear the path so affordable housing developers spend less time waiting on disconnected state processes and more time getting homes built.
In affordable housing, time is not neutral. A delayed approval can mean a higher interest rate, a missed funding cycle, a redesigned project, or a gap that local philanthropy or public dollars must somehow fill. Sometimes it means a project that looked feasible on paper no longer pencils out at all. That is why implementation matters so much on the ground.
If the new agency can align funding, reviews, guidance and accountability, it can help keep good projects alive long enough to become real homes. For developers, that means less time chasing agencies and more time solving problems. For communities, it means fewer stalled plans. For older adults, working families, veterans and people experiencing homelessness, it means the possibility of a front door opening years sooner.
San Diego has long been a proving ground for innovative housing solutions — from supportive housing developments to adaptive reuse conversions to regional collaborations that bring cities together rather than pit them against one another. With CHHA now in place, our region can move even faster.
Local leaders should seize this moment by:
- Partnering early with CHHA to accelerate project timelines.
- Identifying developments that can move quickly with streamlined state support.
- Aligning homelessness response systems with new state level coordination.
- Advocating regulatory reforms that cut years — not months —from the development process.
California has taken the first step. Now it’s up to all of us to make sure the promise of CHHA becomes the progress our communities deserve.
Paul Downey is the chief advocacy officer for the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation. He has over 30 years’ experience as a national leader on aging policy and program services, including serving as the chair of the California Commission on Aging.
