Community

California Needs Big, Bold Affordable Housing Investments Now

The following letter to California’s elected leadership was jointly authored last month by Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, and Miguel Santana, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. There are nearly 50,000 shovel-ready affordable homes across California waiting for funds to begin construction and provide housing to low-income families and individuals.

Published

2 years ago

July 8, 2024

Oakland Post

Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Foundation. Miguel Santana is the president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. Photo courtesy of the California Community Foundation.

Special to The Post

There are nearly 50,000 shovel-ready affordable homes across California waiting for funds to begin construction and provide housing to low-income families and individuals.

Yet, during the latest budget negotiations unfolding in Sacramento, the May Revise proposal nearly zeroed out General Fund resources for affordable housing and homelessness solutions, apart from the state low-income housing tax credit, and proposed slashing of almost $2 billion in critical resources committed in previous budgets.

At a time of record level homelessness rates and rising housing unaffordability our state cannot afford, nor can our communities accept in good conscience, these cuts. We must finish the work. California has made great progress advancing affordable housing solutions, and we must continue to drive that momentum forward by using all the tools and resources available to us.

As philanthropists working across California, our institutions are committed to creating thriving communities and central to that mission is access to fair, equitable and affordable housing. As our legislators and the Governor move through final budget negotiations, they must make big choices on how to invest our state budget dollars to sustain and increase Californians’ well-being. Housing must be a top priority.

Legislators and the Governor must work together to move forward on a final budget that restores funding for housing investments. This includes resourcing the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP), the state’s largest and most flexible program for affordable housing production and core to the California Department of Housing & Community Development’s (HCD) ability to advance housing solutions for Californians.

And doubling down on a commitment to prioritize bold investments and structural change that can help us achieve housing justice and reduce racial disparities caused by decades of systemic racism and underinvestment.

Housing is deeply integral to our communities’ ability to live well and thrive. Without it, people face unemployment, limited opportunities, and poor health. When housing improves, everyone benefits.

Children do better in school, people live longer and it’s easier to find and keep a job. The California Community Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation have deepened our commitment to ensure everyone has a place to live – because the evidence is clear that housing is a prerequisite to establishing stable and thriving communities.

Yet, the level of funding required to ensure all people have a safe place to call home is beyond the capacity of philanthropies and nonprofits alone. Research confirms our daily experience – we have both the dire need and the deep public will to take action.

This is why we are seeing more donors funding housing, nonprofits shifting their focus, and local governments pursuing revenue and taking bold action. In both the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County, for example, regional agencies and civic leaders are looking to advance local funding streams designed to invest in affordable housing solutions.

We need our state to do its part by investing boldly in affordable housing and homelessness solutions during the current state budget cycle.

We are at a key decision point where our ability to make a deep and lasting impact for our communities is on the table. In this moment, lawmakers must actively choose to prioritize solutions, progress, and our future.

California’s housing crisis is often framed in the numbers of people experiencing homelessness or tenants behind on rent, but these are more than just numbers. These are people. They are – and we are – all Californians. We are families, children, veterans, and seniors. We are neighbors.

We urge the Legislature and Governor, as they work to finalize a budget for Californians, to put our communities first– the people who are counting on them to do the right thing. Affordable housing solutions are what California’s residents need now, more than ever.

The need for housing investment is clear and the choice is yours.

Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The San Francisco Foundation works hand-in-hand with donors, community leaders, and both public and private partners to create thriving communities throughout the Bay Area.

Miguel A. Santana is the president and CEO of the California Community Foundation (CCF), serving the Southern California region since 1915. CCF is committed to leading positive systemic change that strengthens communities, stewarding more than $2 billion in assets and delivering an estimated $300 million in grantmaking a year to hundreds of non-profits.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Young Voters Have Growing Power, But Broken Politics Leave Them ‘Fatalistic,’ Studies Find

Don't Miss

State Controller Malia Cohen “Cautiously Optimistic” After Gov. Newsom Signs 2024-25 Budget

Oakland Post

Click to comment

#NNPA BlackPress

Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

2 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

3 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

5 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke