Advocacy Successes
By combining the strength of our statewide network with the local expertise and trusted voices of Habitat affiliates, we’ve helped shape policy, secure critical investments, and advance solutions that make affordable homeownership possible for more Californians. These advocacy successes show what we can accomplish when we work together.
Securing Critical Funding for CalHome
Habitat California and our statewide network helped secure a historic $250 million investment in CalHome, California’s only state program dedicated to supporting affordable homeownership production.
Habitat affiliates across California mobilized to make the case for CalHome, engaging in social media and letter-writing campaigns, meeting with lawmakers during Advocacy Day and throughout the year, and sharing the real-world impact of affordable homeownership in their communities. Habitat California amplified those local voices at the Capitol and worked alongside a broad coalition of affordable housing partners to advocate for meaningful investment in the program.
The result: $250 million in funding for CalHome in the 2023-24 state budget.
This investment has helped more Californians become first-time homeowners and gain the housing stability, improved health and educational outcomes, and opportunity to build generational wealth that homeownership can provide.
This victory demonstrated what’s possible when Habitat speaks with one strong, statewide voice.
Changing a Housing Bond for the Better
Sometimes effective advocacy means taking a difficult position and standing firm until meaningful change happens.
When California leaders introduced AB 736 (Wicks) and SB 417 (Cabaldon) to place a major affordable housing bond before voters, Habitat California strongly supported the goal. But the proposed bond did not include a specific, meaningful funding commitment for CalHome, the state’s primary program supporting the production and preservation of affordable homes for lower-income Californians to purchase.
Habitat California made the difficult decision to take an oppose unless amended position. Together with Habitat affiliates across the state, we advocated for affordable homeownership to have a defined place in California’s housing investment strategy. Our network called for a dedicated CalHome allocation, engaged lawmakers and housing partners, and made the case that California cannot adequately address its housing crisis without investing in the supply of homes working families can afford to own.
That persistence paid off.
The final Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act will go before California voters in November, 2026 and includes a dedicated $600 million allocation for CalHome, providing certainty that affordable homeownership production would be part of the state’s long-term housing strategy should the measure pass. With that commitment secured, Habitat California proudly changed its position to support.
If approved by voters, the $600 million investment is expected to support the creation of more than 4,000 affordable homeownership opportunities for California families.
This victory demonstrates the power of principled advocacy: knowing when to say “not yet,” standing together as a network, and staying at the table until affordable homeownership receives the meaningful investment it deserves.
Keeping Affordable Homeownership Affordable
In 2024, Habitat California successfully sponsored AB 1868 (Friedman), creating greater statewide consistency in how deed-restricted affordable homes are valued for property tax purposes.
Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofit homebuilders make homeownership possible for lower-income families by ensuring that total monthly housing costs—including mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance and HOA assessments—remain affordable. These homes are subject to recorded restrictions that limit their resale value and require them to remain affordable to future income-qualified homebuyers.
Yet county assessors across California were taking different approaches to valuing these homes. In some jurisdictions, deed-restricted affordable homes were assessed using fair-market values that did not adequately reflect the restrictions placed on the property.
Higher assessments meant higher property taxes for homeowners and could require nonprofit developers to reduce loan recapture in order to keep the homeowner’s total monthly payment affordable.
This impeded the developer’s ability to cover development and construction costs, requiring financial resources that could otherwise build more homes.
Habitat California sponsored AB 1868, authored by former Assemblymember Laura Friedman, to address this inconsistency. The legislation established a rebuttable presumption that the value of a qualifying deed-restricted property at the time of purchase is no greater than the first mortgage plus any applicable down payment.
Habitat California and our affiliates advocated all session for AB 1868, which passed the Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.
This win helped ensure that homes built to be affordable are also taxed in a way that recognizes and preserves that affordability.
Putting Affordable Homeownership in the Spotlight
In November 2025, Habitat California brought advocates, homeowners, housing partners and state legislators together at the State Capitol with one clear message: affordable homeownership must be part of California’s housing strategy.
With CalHome funding exhausted and hundreds of Habitat homes across California awaiting critical resources, Habitat California organized the We Are CalHome Rally in Sacramento to call for renewed state investment in affordable homeownership production.
The rally put CalHome, and the families it serves, front and center just ahead of the 2026 legislative and budget session. Habitat homeowners and affordable housing advocates joined state lawmakers to highlight why building homes that lower-income Californians can afford to purchase is essential to addressing the state’s housing crisis.
The effort also helped build important momentum at the Capitol. Legislators from communities across California publicly voiced their support for CalHome, including several who emerged as new champions for affordable homeownership.
More than a single day of advocacy, the rally helped elevate the conversation about what a comprehensive housing strategy should look like - one that includes not only rental housing and homelessness programs, but meaningful investment in creating opportunities for Californians to own a home.
By bringing our message directly to the Capitol, Habitat helped make affordable homeownership harder to overlook and built a stronger foundation of support for the advocacy ahead.
