Pursuant to the Town's Housing Element goal D-2, Los Altos Hills will allocate funding in a competitive process for affordable housing development and/or support services in the future. With the Town's desire to offer more diverse and affordable housing options, offering additional funding information to developers seeking to construct or support affordable housing projects will help supplement these efforts.

Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA)

Municipalities or county agencies, like Santa Clara's, may announce Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA) to support the construction of new housing or remodels of existing housing services to better support low-income tenants and promote local affordability. NOFAs are administered through a competitive, annual application process to applicants from development companies or other organizations. NOFAs are funded through federal dollars or local tax initiatives, and may be dispersed as loans, grants, or bonds.

Currently, the main funding source available to local developers looking to build in Los Altos Hills is through the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) through the Santa Clara County Housing Authority's Supportive Housing Development Fund. Santa Clara County's NOFA encapsulates development capital funding, project-based vouchers, and supportive services. Santa Clara County's NOFA accepts applications from developers seeking funds for one of the following six types of projects:

Type 1: Projects that commit at least 50% of the units within the project as Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), Rapid Rehousing (RRH), or a combination of PSH and RRH units.

Type 2: Projects that have an affordability structure resulting in an average affordability of 45% of the Area's Median Income (AMI) and commit a minimum of 25% of the affordable units as a combination of PSH and RRH, 25% of the affordable units for ELI households, and the remaining affordable units for households earning up to 80% AMI.

Type 3: Projects that commit 10-25% of the restricted units within the project for individuals with disabilities and their families.

Type 4: Projects that commit at least 20 of the restricted units within the project for individuals enrolled in a rapid rehousing program. The balance of the remaining affordable units may not exceed 60% AMI.

Type 5: Limited Equity Housing Cooperative projects as defined under the California Business and Professions Code.

Type 6: Homeownership projects which commit a minimum of 33% of the units for very low income (VLI) households, a maximum of 33% of the units for moderate-income households, and the balance of the units for Low-Income households

Different municipalities have different funding sources. For example, Santa Clara County uses a local tax initiated in 2016 for the Measure A Affordable Housing Bond, No Place Like Home bond, the Affordable Housing Fund, the Stanford Affordable Housing Fund, the HOME Investment Partnership, and the Community Development Block Grant Program, but these funding sources may differ for NOFAs from another city or county agency.

Distributing agencies of NOFA open annual cycles based on a rubric of eligibility and equity access. To view the most-recent accessible rubric, eligibility requirements, and priorities of the Santa Clara County NOFA, please visit the Santa Clara County Housing Authority's NOFA packet here.

Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA)

In September 2017, the California Legislature approved Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), known as the Building Homes and Jobs Act (Act), which establishes the Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA) program administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The PLHA program provides a permanent source of funding to counties and cities to help meet the unmet need for affordable housing and increase the supply of affordable housing units. Under the PLHA program, funding is provided through formula grants to entitlement jurisdictions based on the formula prescribed under federal law for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program over a five-year funding period, as well as through a competitive grant program to non-entitlement jurisdictions. The County of Santa Clara, like the Cities of Cupertino, Gilroy, and Santa Clara, are entitlement jurisdictions. The State requires entitlement jurisdictions to use PLHA funds to increase the supply of affordable housing.
To access the most-recent accessible rubric, eligibility requirements, funding availability, and online application, please visit the California Department of Housing and Community Development Grants and Funding.

Measure A - Affordable Housing Bond

In November 2016, Santa Clara County voters approved Measure A – the $950 million affordable housing bond. The housing bond provides the County with an unprecedented opportunity to partner with cities, residents, and the affordable and supportive housing community to significantly address the housing needs of the community’s poorest and most vulnerable residents. It will provide affordable housing for vulnerable populations including veterans, seniors, the disabled, low and moderate-income individuals or families, foster youth, victims of abuse, the homeless and individuals suffering from mental health or substance abuse illnesses. The bond proceeds would contribute to the creation and/or preservation of approximately 4,800 affordable housing units.
Additional information for housing developers can be found on Santa Clara County Supportive Housing Website.

Priority Sites Pre-development Funding

Plan Bay Area 2050, the region’s long-range plan for transportation, housing, the economy and the environment, identifies the Priorty Sites Program to provide technical assistance and funding for sites nominated by local governments and affordable housing developers. Nominated sites will also be included in the update to Plan Bay Area 2050 – Plan Bay Area 2050+ – and will be considered for additional funding for infrastructure, housing and planning. Projects on nominated sites will be eligible for $28 million in pre-development funding pending final approval by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

Recent Legislation

AB 571 (2017) – Qualifies farmworker housing for California Tax Credit Allocation Committee projects.

AB 829 (2018) -- Prohibits local authorities from requiring a letter of acknowledgement before approving projects that use state financing.

AB 1487 (2019) -- Establishes the Bay Area Housing Finance Agency to administer and allocate funding for affordable housing in the Bay.

AB 1743 (2019) -- Prevents local agencies from rejecting housing projects because they qualify for an exemption from Community Facilities District (CFD) taxes, which fund infrastructural projects.

AB 434 (2020) -- Streamlines the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Housing for a Healthy California Program loans with Multifamily Housing Program Loans; administers Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program loans consistent with the loan terms of the aforementioned programs; requires housing programs that are aimed at helping veterans at risk for homelessness to include support services.

AB 447 (2021) -- Expands eligible projects for low-income housing tax credit programs under the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee.

AB 491 (2021) -- Prevents developers of mixed-income multifamily buildings from concentrating all low-income housing units in the same area of the building.

AB 571 (2021) -- Exempts affordable housing developments with low-income units from housing impact fees.

AB 602 (2021) -- Requires fee schedules to be calculated in proportion to the square footage of proposed units to be built; authorizes any civilian to submit evidence that the local agency is not in compliance with the existing Mitigation Fee Act.

AB 634 (2021) – Permits local agencies to extend beyond the previous 55-year window of verifying that developers funding homes using low-income housing tax credits allocate those units to low-income, moderately low-income, or extremely low-income families.

AB 816 (2021) -- Requires the existing US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Housing Trust Fund grants, in collaboration with the California Housing Finance Agency, to prioritize projects serving houseless individuals.

AB 1095 (2021) -- Specifies that NOFA funds for low-income development projects includes both rental and owner-occupied units.

AB 1297 (2021) -- Authorizes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to fund certain housing developments.

AB 1933 (2022) -- Exempts fully-constructed low-income homes from property taxes.

AB 2295 (2022) -- Permits the development of housing for employees of educational institutions on land owned by local school districts.

AB 2536 (2022) -- Requires local agencies to justify the addition of any new development fees to its fee schedule.

AB 2873 (2022) -- Requires developers of affordable housing that received either state funding for housing or annual low-income housing tax credits to report on their long-term diversity goals and timetables for completing them.

SB 649 (2022) -- Affordable units built under low-income housing tax credit programs and tax-exempt bonds must prioritize residents at-risk of displacement.

SB 948 (2022) -- Establishes the Pooled Transition Reserve Fund for affordable housing developments funded through the HOME Investment Partnership Program or State Community Development Block Grant Program to safeguard against the loss of funds.

SB 971 (2022) -- Permits residents of affordable housing developments funded through the Zenovich-Moscone-Chacon Housing and Home Finance Act or the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) to have pets in their dwellings, and prohibits the imposition of a monthly fee for having a pet in the development.