How California's Cap-and-Trade Will Fund Affordable Housing

"Yesterday the Strategic Growth Council adopted guidelines for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program and scheduled workshops for early February to provide technical assistance to potential applicants," reports Melanie Curry.

The AHSC program is especially notable for its use of revenue generated by California's cap-and-trade program, designed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the state's economy.

Curry describes the initial benefits of that revenue source to the efforts of the AHSC program: "There is $130 million in AHSC’s first round, and staff estimate it will be able to provide partial support for between 15 and 25 projects. The second round of funding is slated to receive $200 million, pending how much revenue cap-and-trade raises this year as well as final budget decisions in June."

In addition to detailing some of the outreach and political process that crafted the AHSC guidelines, Curry also provides details about how the program will work. Specifically, the program "will allocate money to two types of projects: Transit Oriented Development and Integrated Connectivity Projects." Curry also provides more detail on each of those two types of projects.