Senate panel advances housing bill after debate over CHIP affordability definition and program scope

The Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee on an extended floor review refined and moved forward a committee housing bill that includes a newly framed Community Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIP) and a set of related housing, code and financing provisions.

Committee members concentrated on Section 16, which embeds an affordability definition for the CHIP program tied to the committee’s middle-income framework and uses a 50% figure as the program’s metric for that component. Staff said the definition is program‑specific and is not intended to replace existing Title 24 definitions used elsewhere in state law. Office of Legislative Council attorney Cameron Lloyd said the committee was “looking at draft 4.1 for your committee bill” and that subsequent drafting produced draft 5.1, which the committee circulated on its website.

The bill, as revised, does not impose a single mandatory percentage of affordable units for every project under CHIP. Instead, the draft sets criteria for reviewing whether a…