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Researchers, housing advocates urge rules, guardrails and faster review to use welfare tax exemption for affordable housing
Summary
An informational BOE hearing explored how California’s property‑tax welfare exemption could be used to expand affordable housing, with recommendations for clearer guidance, a BOE liaison, processing time targets and regulatory guardrails for projects using the exemption.
An Aug. 20 informational hearing at the State Board of Equalization examined whether and how the property‑tax “welfare” exemption can be used to reduce the cost of affordable housing and speed approvals for construction or acquisition of affordable units.
“There are 2 ways, 2 main ways that the welfare exemption supports affordable housing,” said Sarah Karlinsky, director of research and policy at the UC Berkeley Turner Center for Housing Innovation, opening the session. She described programs in California and other states that pair a limited public finance investment with a property‑tax exemption to generate deed‑restricted affordable units.
Karlinsky told board members the exemption has been applied in several California pilot programs: the California Municipal Finance Agency…
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