California Agencies Team Up to House Veterans

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California Agencies Team Up to House Veterans

CalVet and HCD respond to Governor’s call for greater collaboration through the new California Interagency Council on Veterans

San Diego – Today the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) met in San Diego to present their new collaboration to address homelessness among California’s veterans.

CalVet and HCD presented their collaboration at a meeting hosted by Veterans Village of San Diego with the San Diego Housing Commission, the San Diego Housing Federation, and other local organizations with a focus on housing and veteran issues. Veterans Village is the region’s leading service provider for homeless veterans, serving more than 2,000 military veterans throughout the County of San Diego.

“CalVet, through its Farm and Home Purchase Program, offers low interest rate home loans to California’s veterans,” said Peter J. Gravett, CalVet Secretary. “It is CalVet’s goal to make government more efficient, effective and accountable for all of California's veterans.”

On August 23, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown created the California Interagency Council on Veterans to improve how veterans’ services are coordinated across local, state, and federal government. The collaboration between HCD and Cal-Vet is the first outcome of the Governor’s action on veterans.

“HCD provides leadership, policies, and programs to preserve and expand safe and affordable housing opportunities and promote strong communities for all Californians,” said Cathy Creswell, HCD Acting Director. “The Department also supports increasing the supply of housing, especially affordable housing, and works to improve the state’s housing conditions and the health and safety of its residents.”

Proposed Collaboration Between Departments:

CalVet and HCD have begun discussions on two proposed programs to house veterans. In both programs, CalVet will provide the resources, and HCD will provide its staff expertise for funding and overseeing affordable housing programs.

Program 1: Land for Veteran Housing

CalVet has proposed making available State lands that it controls for the development of affordable housing, reserved for California veterans. HCD, which already administers a number of affordable housing programs, would administer the application to develop those properties, and to monitor projects after they have been constructed.

This change in law will allow CalVet to use $1 billion of available bond authority for these projects. Affordable housing developers ordinarily develop properties with a mixture of public and private funds. The availability of near-free land will significantly reduce project costs, and increase the number of affordable units that can be built with the State’s limited housing dollars.

CalVet is currently identifying properties for a pilot version of the program in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Ventura Counties.

Program 2: Funding Cooperative Housing for Veterans

Governor Brown recently signed AB 1084 (Assemblymember Mike Davis), which expands the definition of “home” in the existing Cal-Vet Farm and Home Loan Program to include cooperative housing corporations for veterans. This change in the law will make available potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for cooperative veteran housing.

Today, an increasing number of California veterans are in need of affordable rental housing, instead of single-family homes. The cooperative housing model will allow CalVet to use its existing Farm and Home Loan Program to meet the evolving needs of California’s veterans, while maintaining the program’s focus on building veteran equity where they live.

The proposed collaboration between the two departments will have HCD administer the application for affordable housing developers, and for HCD to monitor those projects after they are constructed. Developers will be able to access CalVet funds, with existing public and private funding, to build and operate cooperative housing units for veterans.

For more information, please contact: cparent@hcd.ca.gov or Anthony.Zamarron@calvet.ca.gov