Audit: California too slow in offering affordable housing

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has not effectively used surplus properties owned by the state to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis, according to an audit that recommends agencies hire more staff and accelerate the rate at which parcels are offered for development.

Michael Tilden, the acting state auditor, reviewed California's compliance with a 2019 executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom that prioritizes the use of state-owned land to support the creation of affordable housing.

“The rapid creation of affordable housing is critical because more than 1.4 million low-income California renter households lack access to affordable housing,” Tilden wrote in a letter Tuesday to the governor and other state leaders.

While it's estimated more than 30,000 units of affordable housing could be provided to renters under the executive order, the state Department of General Services needs to speed up the process of offering properties for development, the audit concluded.

Of the 92 properties the department plans to develop, it has made only 19 available, the report found. In addition, the department anticipates that it will take seven years to make the remaining parcels available, “but the addition of just one staff member could reduce that time by more than two years,” Tilden wrote.

Newsom’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. The Department of General Services and the Department of Housing and Community Development generally agreed with the report’s assessments and noted that they would implement the recommendations, the auditor’s office said.

The audit recommends the California Legislature enact state laws that require agencies to comply with the executive order. The Department of General Services should be required by law to...