The largest chunk of this money — $7.2 billion — would be doled out as loans to builders who agree to rent some of the homes to low-income families; in Los Angeles County, a family of four earning about $133,000 a year qualifies as low-income.
Researchers recently found that the construction of nearly 40,000 low-income homes was in limbo because of a lack of funding.
The second-largest portion of these funds — $1.25 billion — would be set aside for housing for veterans, in the form of homeownership loans. Voters last approved this type of statewide bond for veteran home loans in 2018.
According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the remaining dollars would be spread across several other initiatives and could subsidize up to 40,000 rental apartments, 2,500 homes for farmworkers and 1,200 beds for university students:
- $1.1 billion to help low- and middle-income families buy homes through direct loans and funds to nonprofits
- $500 million for infrastructure related to new housing, such as road and water repairs
- $450 million in loans or grants to build or upkeep affordable housing for farmworkers
- $350 million to build affordable housing for students, split evenly among the University of California and California State University
- $200 million available for tribal members to use to build or repair housing
- $200 million available to city and county governments and other entities hoping to pilot programs to build low-cost housing
