California could vote to borrow $35B to tackle housing in November, how it could help locally

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) - Multiple measures are looking to address the housing crisis, but some people are worried about how much they​ will have to pay to keep these projects alive.

California could borrow a record-breaking $35 billion dollars to tackle the housing crisis.

California voters regularly call out the housing costs and homelessness as among the top issues the state faces according to a public policy institute of California survey.

"There is a lot of cost to us as a society by not prioritizing housing," says Dana Cleary, the Director of Real Estate Development for CHISPA.

Next March, voters will have a say on three of the largest housing bonds in state history: A $10 billion proposal would replenish some state affordable housing projects.

Another proposal worth over $4 billion would help with homeless housing and psychiatric or substance abuse services.

All are much smaller than a proposal worth as much as $20 billion that could help with housing in the Bay Brea.

"It would help CHISPA. Of course, I would like the whole $10 million, but it's going to be distributed around the state. and then individual organizations like CHISPA would apply for the funding," said Cleary.

CHISPA is an organization on the central coast that develops affordable housing.
Cleary says bonds like these have helped house developments in the past.

"An example of that is our project in the east garrison subdivision. Before that bond was issued in 2018. We were stuck for five years. We couldn't borrow enough money that was affordable to build that building," said Cleary.

However, some people I talked to want to see a change in the housing crisis, but not at their expense.

"I would vote against it just because. Just because I feel that the government should do a better job at balancing their budget instead of just getting more money out of people," said Betty Martinez who lives in Soledad.

"Housing should be a priority, but it should go ahead of some of the other things, not just keep adding more and more and more taxes to pay for things," said Dave Merritt who lives in Salinas.

CHISPA is helping construct an apartment building in the East Garrison subdivision right now that could be finished in a couple of months but that is just a drop in the bucket to help with the housing crisis.

The buildings will have 66 units, but CHISPA says they received about 2,000 applications in just three weeks.

CHISPA is also in the early stages of developing a 40-unit building in King City.