The City of Sacramento successfully renewed its Prohousing Designation with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), earning the highest score in the state for adopting policies that go above and beyond state housing law to help accelerate housing production.
The Prohousing Designation Program provides incentives to cities and counties in the form of additional points or other preference in the scoring of competitive housing, community development and infrastructure programs.
“Sacramento is committed to building more housing faster. This Prohousing Designation is an acknowledgement of the hard work we have put in to be a pro-housing leader with initiatives like Streamline Sacramento,” said Mayor McCarty. “Our dedication is paying off; Sacramento has consistently been one of the highest housing producers per capita among large California cities since 2020.”
To be eligible for a Prohousing Designation, a jurisdiction must earn a minimum score of 30 on its application. The City of Sacramento obtained a score of 108, the highest among the 74 jurisdictions currently holding the designation. Prohousing Designations are valid for three years and require jurisdictions to reapply for renewal.
The designation also makes jurisdictions eligible for additional state funding through the Prohousing Incentive Program, which supports affordable housing production and preservation.
Sacramento’s Prohousing Designation renewal reflects both a strong track record of housing-friendly policies and the City’s ongoing commitment to making housing development more streamlined, efficient and financially feasible.
Some of the policies and actions that contributed to the designation include:
- Allowing missing middle housing, such as duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, in areas previously limited to single-family homes
- Eliminating minimum parking requirements for residential development
- Establishing ministerial approval processes
- Demonstrating a consistent practice of streamlining housing development at the project level
- Reducing development impact fees for affordable housing units
- Establishing consolidated and streamlined permitting processes
The City was the first in the state to receive a Prohousing Designation in 2022 and the first jurisdiction to apply for renewal.
For more information on HCD’s Prohousing Designation Program, visit the HCD website.
