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An estimated 39,880 affordable units across California are stuck in financial purgatory, according to a new report by Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that funds, consults and advocates for affordable housing.
That’s 461 “shovel-ready developments” that are fully designed, legally green-lit and backed with a significant — but still insufficient — amount of money.For many developers and affordable housing advocates, that bottleneck represents an especially frustrating inconsistency of California public policy. Lawmakers are desperate to see the state build more homes. State housing regulators have ordered local governments to plan for the construction of an additional 2.5 million units by the end of the decade. To fill that gap, non-profit low-income housing developers typically turn to taxpayer-funded support. At the moment, according to the report, there isn’t enough of that to go around.A 2025 study estimated that tax credit-financed projects in California cost two- to four-times the amount of comparable projects in Colorado and Texas. Each additional funding source delays the start of construction by an average of four months, adding an extra $20,460 per unit.The apartment building planned on East Morris Avenue in Modesto is exactly the kind of thing that California’s political leaders want to see a whole lot more of: The project promises 44 units of affordable housing — half reserved for people without homes. It’s received zoning approval, weathered public feedback, earned the support of local elected officials and sits beside a busy bus line. Once built, the project promises on-site mental health services, job training and Zumba classes.Having quilted together a financial patchwork of local government and corporate grants, private debt, and a plot of land donated by a foundation, it remains just shy of the total needed to break ground. Six years and 13 funding applications after it was first proposed, the Morris Village project sits ready, but waiting.by Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that funds, consults and advocates for affordable housing. That’s 461 “shovel-ready developments” that, like the one on East Morris, are fully designed, legally green-lit and backed with a significant — but still insufficient — amount of money. Many have “been sitting for a year or two waiting for funding,” said Justine Marcus, policy director for Enterprise’s Northern California office and one of the report’s co-authors. “There’s no exit route right now. It’s a bottleneck.” For many developers and affordable housing advocates, that bottleneck represents an especially frustrating inconsistency of California public policy. Lawmakers are desperate to see the state build more homes — of all kinds, but especially for people with the least ability to pay the state’s exorbitant rents. State housing regulators have ordered local governments to plan for the construction of anby the end of the decade. One million of those are supposed to be for people making less than 80% of each region’s median income. As a general rule, that’s a population of hard-up renters that the private market has been unable to profitably serve at scale. To fill that gap, non-profit low-income housing developers typically turn to taxpayer-funded support. At the moment, according to the report, there isn’t enough of that to go around. Enterprise took publicly available but hard-to-parse applicant lists from seven subsidy programs administered by various wings of California’s state government going back three years. With a combination of number crunching and a little inference, the report estimates that clearing the current backlog would require an extra $4.1 billion, split between state administered grants, low-cost loans and tax write-offs. Once awarded, this final layer of state subsidy has to be spent in relatively short order. That means this list of 39,880 units comprise a group of affordable housing projects that are all but ready to go, said Marcus. “They kinda have to have their together.” Case in point: Two-thirds of the projects on the list have already received support from at least one other state program. Those dollars aren't awarded to just any developer, said Betsy McGovern-Garcia, vice president of Self-Help Enterprises, one of two non-profits behind Morris Village. “These are all projects that are close to amenities,” she said. “These are all projects providing resident services. These are all projects that are financially feasible...They are all meeting the bar for what we want to see as a state out of our affordable housing community.” In February, McGovern-Garcia and her colleagues applied for a final round of financial support from the state “to close the gap” and finally start construction.California has seen gridlock in affordable housing production before, but the precise location of the traffic jam has changed over time. When Nevada Merriman was leading a team of affordable developers in Silicon Valley a decade ago, she said local approval was the major hold-up. Getting the legal okay to build low-income housing on a particular site in a particular town required developers to run a gauntlet of planning department and city council meetings, win over hostile neighbors with costly concessions, community meetings and design revisions and to fend off the ever-present possibility of litigation. Because relatively few projects survived that ordeal, the competition for funding on the other side wasn’t especially stiff, said Merriman, who is now policy advocate for MidPen Housing, an affordable developer in San Mateo County.. All of a sudden more projects were clearing those early regulatory hurdles and competing for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, the federal government’s signature affordable housing construction subsidy. The bottleneck moved further up the road. But then that too began to change late last year. Buried in President Donald Trump’s signature tax bill from 2025 was ato the tax credit program. .Now projects can get through local approval. They can more easily acquire the final and most important layer of federal financing. But project sponsors typically can’t apply for that until all other financial holes are plugged. “We’re looking for state sources to fill that gap,” said Merriman. “We want to make sure we don’t leave those federal sources on the table.” MidPen currently has 1,198 units spread across seven developments waiting for that last bit of funding, she said. “Should there be a source…there’s a pipeline that is ready to go.” “There’s no exit route right now. It’s a bottleneck.”Justine Marcus, Northern California policy director, Enterprise Community PartnersCalifornia’s last major infusion of public affordable housing dollars came in the form of aAdding together funding that has already been approved by legislators but not yet spent and a variety of other state and federal sources, California’s Housing and Community Development department says at least $1.8 billion should be available for affordable developer applicants this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year doesn’t include any new discretionary spending beyond that. Boosters of more funding have reasons to be optimistic. Newsom has taken such an austere posture in early budget negotiations before only to have the Legislature successfully pourfor the 2026 ballot. If a majority of voters go for that, “we’d be off to the races,” said Merriman.One way to get more affordable housing built is by spending more money. The other is trying to make the existing money go further by cutting costs. The cost of affordable housing construction is notoriously high in California: A 2025 study estimated that tax credit-financed projects here costof comparable projects in Colorado and Texas. There is no single reason for this disparity. Land costs in California are significantly higher. So too, often, is the cost of labor. Regulatory barriers likeA typical affordable development in California will have two or three public funding sources, with some drawing on six or more. Many of these sources are awarded on their own timelines. Each has its own program-specific requirements that can take time to meet. Some are conditional on the receipt of another. As time goes by, developers still have to make payroll, pay interest on pre-construction loans and watch as inflation drives construction costs up further. As delays compound, funding sources that have already been secured might expire, setting things back further. Each additional funding source delays the start of construction on a project by an average of four months, adding an extra $20,460 per unit, according to an analysis by the The Newsom administration is currently tinkering under the hood of California’s affordable housing finance system in an effort to speed things up.. The California Housing and Homelessness Agency is scheduled to take over the state’s disparate housing loan and grant programs. The governor’s office alsothat would force the new agency and the Treasurer’s Office to operate in tandem, giving affordable housing developers a single place to apply for the state’s various funding programs — and to cut out some of the time they spend stuck in line.President Donald Trump threatened to withhold his signature on all bills until Congress passes stricter federal voting requirements — a move that escalates his efforts to change election rules ahead of the 2026 midterms.Sunday, Trump said he won't sign any bills into law until Congress passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act."I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed," Trump wrote.If passed and made law, the measure would transform voter registration and voting in the U.S. It would require eligible voters to prove their citizenship with documents like a valid U.S. passport or a birth certificate and a valid photo ID. It's already illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections.President Donald Trump threatened to withhold his signature on all bills until Congress passes stricter federal voting requirements — a move that escalates his efforts to change election rules ahead of the 2026 midterms.Sunday, Trump said he won't sign any bills into law until Congress passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act.If passed and made law, the measure would transform voter registration and voting in the U.S. It would require eligible voters to prove their citizenship with documents like a valid U.S. passport or a birth certificate and a valid photo ID. It's already illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections. Trump said the legislation should"go to the front of the line." He also praised a guest on Fox News who pressed for changes to Senate rules that require 60 votes to advance most legislation. Trump has previously asked senators to abandon the filibuster in order to avoid the need for Democrats to back bills he favors. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has consistently pushed back on that pressure, saying any plans to change the filibuster do not have support in the GOP conference. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reiterated that Democrats will not support the SAVE America Act. "If Trump is saying he won't sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then so be it: there will be total gridlock in the Senate," SchumerThe GOP-controlled House has passed a few versions of the legislation, but Democrats and some voting rights activists have argued the measure would make voting harder for eligible voters. The impact of Trump's threat to withhold his signature on all bills remains unclear. If the House and Senate advance a bill and Congress remains in session, any bill would become law The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump would sign a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security or a supplemental military package paying for the Iran war.Live Nation has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over a federal antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of monopolizing the live entertainment industry, according to a report from the Associated Press. The trial, which began a week ago in a New York City courtroom, aimed to break up Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster.A lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, the District of Columbia and 39 states in 2024 accused Live Nation and Ticketmaster of unfairly wielding their power over concert promotion, artist management, venue operations and ticketing services to shut out competitors. In previous comments shared with NPR,Live Nation has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over a federal antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of monopolizing the live entertainment industry, according to a report from. NPR has not independently confirmed the settlement. The trial, which began a week ago in a New York City courtroom, aimed to break up Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster.filed by the Justice Department, the District of Columbia and 39 states in 2024 accused Live Nation and Ticketmaster of unfairly wielding their power over concert promotion, artist management, venue operations and ticketing services to shut out competitors. The Biden-era Justice Department complaint was moved forward under the Trump administration. In previous comments shared with NPR,If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.Eighty-eight condos could be coming to Windsor Hills after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors overruled an appeal last week from a local residents’ advocacy group.Eighty-eight condos could be coming to Windsor Hills after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors overruled an appeal last week from a local residents’ advocacy group.The five-story project, dubbed The View, would nest into the hillside between Overhill Drive and La Brea Avenue, south of Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. The Bedford Group plans to set aside 10 of the condos for sale to moderate-income families, according to planning documents. The state defines a moderate annual income for a LA family of four as more than $127,000.Developers have battled Windsor Hills residents for nearly a decade over building housing on the empty hilltop parcel. The View’s fiercest opposition has come from locals organized in the United Homeowner’s Association II, a nonprofit that represents any dues-paying resident of Windsor Hills, View Park and surrounding communities. The group is “extremely concerned” about the project’s effects on the local water system and its proximity to the Inglewood Oil Field and nearby earthquake fault lines, according to Angela Sherick-Bright, the nonprofit’s land use chairperson.The board’s vote sends the project back to a county judge, according to the LA County Department of Regional Planning. Sherick-Bright said the nonprofit is weighing next steps but still is concerned about the project. Eighty-eight condos could be coming to Windsor Hills after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors overruled an appeal last week from a local residents’ advocacy group.The five-story project, dubbed The View, would nest into the hillside between Overhill Drive and La Brea Avenue, south of Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. Developers have battled Windsor Hills residents for nearly a decade over building housing on the empty hilltop parcel. The board’s vote sends the project back to a county judge, according to the LA County Department of Regional Planning. The View’s fiercest opposition has come from locals organized in the United Homeowner’s Association II, a nonprofit that represents any dues-paying resident of Windsor Hills, View Park and surrounding communities. The group is “extremely concerned” about the project’s effects on the local water system and its proximity to the Inglewood Oil Field and nearby earthquake fault lines, according to Angela Sherick-Bright, the nonprofit’s land use chairperson. “We’re not against development,” Sherick-Bright said. “If you’re going to approve a project of this magnitude, why not make sure it’s going to work for us?” Project developer The Bedford Group did not return a request for comment, but promotional materials for the project said it was designed to “reflect the legacy of the Windsor Hills community by offering upscale workforce housing opportunities to young professionals, couples and empty nesters.” The Bedford Group plans to set aside 10 of the condos for sale to moderate-income families, according to planning documents. The state definesSusan Tae, a Planning Department assistant deputy director, said that after years of court and planning hearings, planners believe the project has taken community concerns into account.“We feel confident we’ve addressed any of the outstanding issues,” Tae said. The county first approved the project to go ahead in 2017, according to county documents, but the residents’ group sued and a court ordered The Bedford Group to do a deeper environmental review. Bedford made attempts throughout the process to rally community support for the project, including with aWhen the project landed back in front of supervisors on Feb. 25, it came with a fresh environmental review, but also with a renewed appeal from United Homeowner’s Association II.There’s concern over the project affecting fire hydrant water pressure Sherick-Bright said homes in the area have struggled with weak water pressure. The nonprofit is concerned the new project could hurt the local water system, including fire hydrants, even further. Brian Barreto, a California American Water spokesperson, said computer models show 96% of hydrants in the area pump 1,000 gallons or more, above the. Barreto also said the water company won’t give The View access to water unless The Bedford Group makes a set of mandatory system upgrades.against four oil companies for allegedly failing to plug old wells. It’s also near the Newport-Inglewood earthquake fault line. Sherick-Bright said locals are worried that digging down for a subterranean parking lot, as the project plans, could set off issues — either because of underground drilling or the fault line.“We just don’t know,” Sherick-Bright said. The county said in planning documents that the development will require a new geotechnical review to move forward. The last such review was in 2014.The planned project is situated just a stone’s throw away from the high-traffic Overhill-La Brea-Stocker intersection. The residents’ group argued in its written appeal that one of the project driveways that spits vehicles out onto the steep Overhill Drive was dangerously situated. Tae said that the public works department reviewed signage and striping plans for the driveway in 2024 and found they met county requirements.Sherick-Bright said the nonprofit is weighing next steps but still is concerned about the project. The timeline for the environmental review to go before the court is not yet clear, according to Tae, the county planner. Tae said the county is actively working to address some of the resident concerns that go beyond the scope of The View project, including with the recent kickoff of its The plan is targeted at water, sewer, electrical and other infrastructure issues in some of the county’s unincorporated communities.More than 5,000 black soldier fly larvae are lurking just beneath the surface of this kitchen waste dumped inside of a black tote.If you’re a gardener and you’ve found composting difficult or frustrating, you’re not alone. LAist science reporter Jacob Margolis feels that way too. So, he’s been on a mission to figure out the easiest way to deal with his family’s food waste. The catch: maggots.Black soldier fly larvae are used around the world to process food waste quickly. And most importantly for gardeners, they leave behind frass: bits and pieces of their exoskeletons and poop. The material has fertilizer profile that's similar to chicken manure.Margolis has set up a home for the larvae in his yard, but there are simpler solutions that involve a bucket and patience.Even though I know it has benefits for both my garden and the environment, I hate turning the pile and worrying about the right ratio of greens to browns and whether it’s too wet or too dry. And it’s always dispiriting to check for loamy, wonderful compost at the bottom only to pull up chunks of vegetables from two months ago. And before you ask about worm farms, I’ve tried them too. Let’s just say that at some point, I expect to be held accountable for my crimes against worm-kind. But for the compost- and time-challenged like me, I think I may have found a solution that allows me to simply toss my kitchen scraps into a bin and have it turned into fertilizer in about a month.Black soldier flies are dark blue and shiny, less than an inch long and don’t buzz around your head or bother you like a house fly might. They also live a handful of days, with their entire existence oriented around laying hundreds of eggs on organic waste so their larvae can go to town and start the cycle of reproduction all over again.Adult black soldier flies live only a few days. Their job is to mate and lay eggs and keep the composting process moving.“Unlike earthworms, much more tolerant of a wider range of conditions and food sources. It will eat any organic waste in the larval form,” said Kerry Mauk, associate professor of entomology at UC Riverside.that describes a food waste processing system driven by black soldier fly larvae that was largely self-sustaining for about two years. Similar systems have been used to process food waste The larvae will eat paper, vegetables and fruits, as well as meats and animal fats , breaking them down into smaller bits that can be further processed by microbes in the soil. Adding organic matter like frass to the soil can help improve soil health. Importantly, the insect frass that’s left behind — maggot poop, as well as the bits and pieces of exoskeleton they shed as they grow — is an organic fertilizer that has a nutrient profile similar to chicken manure, she said. The exoskeletons contain chitin — a type of sugar molecule found in the shells of crabs and lobsters that breaks down into tiny pieces over time. When detected by plants, it can prompt them to boost their immune systems in anticipation of insect attacks, making them more resilient, Mauk said.You’ve got a lot of flexibility, depending on the size of your space and how much food waste you create. “You don't have to make it complicated at all. It can be set-it-and-forget-it if you want it to be,” said Laura Ingwell, an associate professor of entomology at Purdue University who’s been working with black soldier flies for about a decade.She fills a 50-gallon barrel with food waste, lets the soldier flies continuously go through their life cycles over the course of a year and harvests their frass when they die during the winter. Here in Southern California, we don’t need to worry about extreme cold killing off our larvae, so we can keep our systems rolling year-round.Your system can be as simple as a bucket or black plastic tote that you toss food waste into. Unlike a traditional compost bin, the containers need only be about a foot deep or so, as the larvae don’t travel far.If you don’t want to spend money on black soldier flies, you can also attract your own. Dump citrus and coffee grounds in a bucket, cover it with a screen and place a stack of cardboard pieces on top. Every few days, check the fluting on the cardboard for tiny soldier fly eggs. Once you’ve got a few, drop the cardboard into the food waste and let them eat.My system’s going to be a bit more complicated, as I want to harvest frass repeatedly throughout the year. I’ll have three totes inside a screened-in platform. That should keep the black soldier flies in and other bugs and critters out. My screened black soldier fly house prevents other bugs from getting in and keeps the black soldier flies from escaping. This should encourage them to keep laying eggs in the containers I'll place inside.As they close in on three weeks of life, I should see the pupae turn from creamy white to dark gray, and their eating will slow down. At that stage, I’ll start dropping food waste into a new container, so when the first black soldier flies emerge, they’ll mate and lay eggs on the fresh food, keeping the cycle going.Follow along I'll be documenting my experiment composting with black soldier fly larvae here at LAist and on our social channels. Join me! Ingwell said they’ll eat pretty much any type of organic waste, including manure, pizza crusts and noodles or even those questionably compostable cardboard takeout containers and light green produce bags. It may take the maggots a bit longer to get through those, Ingwell said. It’s also worth experimenting on your own to see what they consume. “ I've put a whole pack of hot dogs in there once,” Ingwell said. “ They ate it, and they got really big, but it smelled so bad. My students forbid me from ever putting hot dogs in there again because they hated dealing with the colony when they were on their hot dog diet.” More than 5,000 black soldier fly larvae are lurking just beneath the surface of this kitchen waste dumped inside of a black tote., which has ramps for the larvae to march up before they pupate. Ingwell said these systems often don’t work well, and she wouldn’t bother. If the system is too wet, it may smell rancid and the larvae may try to leave. In that case, throw in some dry wood chips or paper or drain the liquid. When I first started my bin, it took the larvae a bit to get adjusted, and some fled in the process. If you’re considering using the frass in your garden but you’re disposing of meats, you may be concerned about E. coli. To reduce the presence of microbes in the frass, you can age it for a few weeks, though contamination is an area that needs more research, Mauk said.If you decide to give black soldier flies a try, let us know. Send me an e-mail or comment on one of our videos.Methane, the second-most-abundant greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, supercharges global warming, as it’s 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat. In the U.S., our landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. In California, they’re the second-largest source, according to the state Air Resources Board, and food waste is a big part of that.As organic matter breaks down in oxygen-free environments — the anaerobic, stinky smell swampy waste can generate — the gas gets released. Methane emissions can be mitigated through an aerobic composting process, which is what we’re trying to do when we turn organic matter in a compost pile to make the environment more friendly to oxygen-loving microbes.So you can throw your green waste into your city's approved bin and have it hauled away every week. But composting effectively in your backyard has environmental benefits: The scraps don’t need to be hauled away and processed.
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