Governor’s affordable housing effort fails to gain support

SACRAMENTO — A proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to speed up the development of housing that includes affordable units is dead after failing to garner enough support from the Legislature.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County), said Thursday that Brown’s unpopular proposal won’t be addressed before the Legislature wraps up its business Aug. 31.

Brown wanted legislation that would alow housing developments with affordable units to move more quickly through the permitting process, largely by bypassing the typically lengthy California Environmental Quality Act reviews — but only if the projects were consistent with local zoning. Lawmakers referred to the proposal as the “by-right” plan.

In exchange for the legislation, Brown had agreed to include $400 million in the 2016-17 budget for affordable housing, which Assembly Democrats wanted. But that money would not be released without the by-right legislation. Negotiations over the language began to fall apart this month.

Labor and environmental groups walked away from negotiations with Brown last week.

Rendon’s office told The Chronicle that the “speaker believes there will be no further negotiations on the by-right housing proposal.”

That caused immediate rebuke from housing advocates, who had hoped lawmakers would persuade Brown to untie the development issue from the affordable housing money.

“When vital programs that provide housing for vulnerable Californians are on the table, we count on having leaders in our corner,” said Ray Pearl, executive director of the California Housing Consortium.

“The time to invest $400 million in affordable housing is now; we can’t wait for the housing crisis to drive more Californians into poverty.”

A coalition of advocates for affordable housing and poor Californians sent a letter Tuesday to Brown and legislative leaders saying that if the state has budgeted $400 million in affordable housing, it should go for its intended purpose.

“The decision to link that $400 million to enactment of a controversial proposal to streamline market-rate housing development approvals has left the money stranded,” the groups wrote in the letter.

Tying the money to the by-right proposal was Brown’s best shot at getting wary Democrats to sign on to the idea.

Developers say the current process for public environmental reviews is too expensive and drawn out. But opponents, such as San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, called Brown’s proposal “a huge giveaway to developers.”

Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said the state still has to address its housing issues.

“The affordable housing crisis doesn’t go away,” Chiu said. “It is imperative we figure out how to solve it.”

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez