Nearly $790 million will be distributed to 20 communities across California to help build sustainable housing and infrastructure, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday.
Seven of those designated communities include the Bay Area cities of Berkeley, El Cerrito, Healdslburg, San Francisco, San Jose and Walnut Creek. The other communities on the list are Hemet, Inglewood, King City, Livingston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oceanside, Oxnard, Red Bluff, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego and the county of Los Angeles.
The funding, which comes from grant awards for the Affordable Housing and Sustainability Communities program, will go toward 24 different projects, the governor’s office said.
In addition to the housing projects, some of the funding will go toward supporting new zero-emission transit vehicles, bus shelters, bikeways and sidewalk repairs, the governor’s office said.
“We cannot solve the homelessness crisis without creating new affordable homes,” Newsom said in a statement. “By creating livable communities with sustainable transportation options, we can meet both our state’s climate targets and our goal of providing affordable housing for every Californian.”
A total of 2,483 new, rent-restricted homes are part of the 24 projects, with more than two-thirds of the homes dedicated to lower-income communities, the governor’s office said.
It’s the eighth round of grant awards for the AHSC program, pushing the investment total to $3.8 billion.