On July 13, 2026, Governor Newsom signed a new affordable housing budget trailer bill, Assembly Bill (“AB”) 179. The stated purpose of the bill is to modernize the state’s affordable housing finance system and expand homeownership. The bill reorganizes the state agencies that finance affordable housing and changes the rules that govern how public financing reaches a project.
Effective July 1, 2026, California replaced the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency with a new California Housing and Homelessness Agency. The bill also creates a Housing Development and Finance Committee (“HDFC”) to centralize affordable housing finance decisions, and an Executive Committee within the HDFC. This Executive Committee has significant power, with limited oversight. It is made up of a panel of state officials chaired by the Secretary of the California Housing and Homelessness Agency, and includes the Director of Housing and Community Development, the Executive Director of the California Housing Finance Agency, the State Treasurer, and the State Controller as voting members, with nonvoting representatives from a county, a city, and the Department of Finance.
