WEST HOLLYWOOD—On Thursday, May 23, the city of West Hollywood announced in a news release that it received a Prohousing Designation from the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for its efforts to increase development of housing at all income levels. The designation was announced by the Governor of California in April 2024. Prohousing Designation comes with funding incentives and additional resources that can help to speed housing production. West Hollywood is one of only 47 jurisdictions in the State of California to earn the designation.
With the Governor’s announcement, the Department of Housing and Community Development noted the following regarding West Hollywood’s Prohousing Designation: “The City of West Hollywood’s Prohousing application shows a solid commitment to developing housing, supporting affordable units, and increasing its housing supply. Within the R-1 zone, which is the most prevalent throughout the city, West Hollywood permits duplexes and triplexes by right in transit-priority, high-resource, and highest-resource areas. The city also has an Affordable Housing Trust Fund used to support nonprofit development projects, with a requirement that at least 60% of units be affordable to low- and moderate-income households and at least 20% dedicated to low-income households. Similarly, the city now waives fees for housing projects in high-resource areas when more than 25% of units are affordable, and for development projects owned or occupied by nonprofit organizations.”
According to a news release from the city of West Hollywood, it administers $2.9 million in FY 2023 General Fund monies to assist with the rent stabilization housing program of 17,175 units throughout the region.
By earning the HCD Prohousing Designation, West Hollywood joins California communities designated as Prohousing in being able to exclusively access Prohousing grants and additional points in the scoring of competitive housing, community development, and infrastructure funding programs administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development.
To meet the housing needs of all Californians, the State of California needs to plan for 2.5 million new homes over the next 8 years, with at least one million serving the needs of lower-income residents.
West Hollywood’s Long Range Planning Division works to advance housing as part of its efforts to manage policy development and strategic planning activities for Sustainability, Mobility, Housing, Land Use, and special strategic planning projects. For additional details about West Hollywood’s Long Range Planning efforts, visit www.weho.org/lrp.
For more details contact Francisco Contreras, West Hollywood Long Range Planning Manager, at (323) 848-6874 or at fcontreras@weho.org. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, call TTY (323) 848-6496.
By Trevor