Board hears experts on using property-tax welfare exemption to speed affordable-housing financing

The California State Board of Equalization held an informational hearing on using the property tax welfare exemption to support affordable housing financing and to help streamline approval processes. Member Terence Vasquez opened the session and said the board would “consider options for how the property tax welfare exemption can contribute to California's new efforts to streamline the affordable housing financing approval process and increase affordability.”

The hearing assembled academic and industry speakers who described both how the exemption is already being used and where the process breaks down. Sarah Karlinsky, director of research and policy at the UC Berkeley Turner Center for Housing Innovation, summarized lessons from California programs and other states and warned that “the process of securing the exemption can be quite lengthy … it can take up to a year and a half.” Justin Yotta, associate director of housing finance at the California Housing Partnership, added that “the BOE is the group that certifies the organization, but it's the assessors who certify the properties,” and said that county-by-county variation creates delays and uncertainty for developers.

Why it matters: the welfare exemption reduces property-tax liabilities on units restricted to lower-income households, which can be a meaningful part of the financing stack for…