Plan seeks cabinet-level California Housing and Homelessness Agency and a housing finance committee to speed and coordinate affordable housing funding

The administration told an Assembly joint informational hearing May 20 that the governor's 2025 reorganization plan would create a California Housing and Homelessness Agency (CHHA) and a Housing Development and Finance Committee (HDFC) intended to centralize state affordable-housing finance, shorten award timelines and reduce development costs.

Gustavo Velasquez, director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, told lawmakers HCD has funded roughly 60,000 affordable homes under his leadership and said the proposed CHHA would elevate housing and homelessness as an integrated, cabinet-level priority. "Creating this agency will provide dedicated leadership and focus on housing and homelessness at the cabinet level," Velasquez said.

Nut graf: administration and housing practitioners argued that aligning multiple state funding streams and creating a single decision-making committee for affordable multifamily awards will reduce delays and costs that now occur when developers apply sequentially to different agencies. Developers and advocates urged the administration and Legislature to ensure the housing finance committee coordinates formally with the tax-credit and bond allocating bodies (TCAC and CDLAC) and to fund the implementation work needed to make a true single application and unified award process.

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