Housing Need Statewide

California Affordable Housing Needs Report

Published On: March 10, 2026By

The California Housing Partnership annually assesses the needs of California’s low-income renters for the purpose of informing state and local policy leaders. Key findings from this year’s California Affordable Housing Needs Report:

  • Although California has more than doubled production of new affordable homes in the past five years, the State is only funding 20% of what it needs to meet its goals.
  • California spends twice as much supporting homeowners than renters and only 20% of renter resources are permanent compared to 97% of the support for homeowners.
  • Renters need to earn 2.8 times the state minimum wage to afford average asking rent in California.

Past Reports:
2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020

2025

How is California Meeting the Housing Needs of Low-Income Renters?

The California Housing Partnership annually assesses the needs of California’s low-income renters for the purpose of informing state and local policies. Key findings from this year’s report include:

  • Renters need to earn 2.8 times the state minimum wage to afford average asking rent in California
  • Although California has more than doubled production of new affordable homes in the past five years, the state is only funding 15% of what is needed to meet its goals.
  • California spends more than twice as much supporting homeowners than renters and only 25% of renter resources are permanent

POLICY SOLUTIONS

To address the affordable housing needs of its low-income residents, the Governor and legislature should:

  • Develop an on-going revenue source to fund affordable housing production and preservation at the scale needed to meet state goals over 10 years.
  • Maintain/expand the current 20% allocation of cap and trade auction revenues for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program.
  • Expand and make permanent the enhanced state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
  • Make funding the Multifamily Housing Program part of the baseline state budget and increase the amount incrementally each year.
  • Reduce the cost of developing affordable homes by awarding all necessary state resources at one time using a single application.