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RHNA/Housing Production

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What is a Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)?

California and most of the country is experiencing a crisis in housing affordability and supply. Since 1969, the State of California has required all local governments to adequately plan to meet the housing needs across all income levels. To meet this requirement, each city or county must develop a Housing Element as part of its General Plan. The RHNA process is the part of Housing Element Law used to determine how many new homes, and the affordability of those homes, each local government must plan for in its Housing Element. RHNA allocations are generated by the state, and then passed down to regional governments (such as the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments) to distribute to the local jurisdictions. The process repeats every eight years and currently, we are in the 6th Cycle (2023-2031).

Each year, the County tracks the number of building permits issued against the RHNA. Progress toward the County’s 6th Cycle RHNA is shown in this table:

Table showing Santa Cruz County’s 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) progress, including permitted units issued by affordability level from June 30, 2023 through 2026, projected 2027–2031 units, total units to date, and remaining RHNA. The table reports Very Low, Low, Moderate, and Above Moderate income levels, with deed-restricted and non-deed-restricted units. Total RHNA allocation is 4,634 units, with 3,944 units remaining. 2026 progress is reported through June 30, 2026.

How many housing units are in the County’s pipeline?

Although the number of permits issued is down for the beginning of the 6th Cycle, the County also tracks the developments that are proposed in the unincorporated county. We call proposed housing developments that are in pre-development stages or have made some level of permit application (but don’t have issued permits yet) the “housing pipeline.” Projects in the housing pipeline are expected to be issued permits and included in the RHNA in the future.

The residential project pipeline includes 29 projects with approximately 1,960 proposed housing units. More than half (57.3%) of the proposed units are identified as affordable, while 37.4% are market-rate or other units and 5.3% have affordability yet to be determined.

Learn more about these projects here: Major Project Applications.

More detail on affordable housing projects

You can also learn more about current and completed affordable housing projects that the County as supported.

Annual Progress Report

Every year, jurisdictions in California must submit an Annual Progress Report on housing production and meeting RHNA goals to the State Department of Housing and Community Development by April 1st. The State tracks all jurisdictions RHNA progress on their APR Dashboard.

Other resources

Growth Goal Report

Housing units vs. population over time

 

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