Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA)

WHAT IS RHNA?

Since 1969, the State of California has required that all local governments adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in their communities. To meet this requirement, each city or county must develop a Housing Element as part of its General Plan (the local government’s long-range blueprint for growth) that shows how it will meet its community’s housing needs. There are many laws that govern this process, and collectively they are known as Housing Element Law.

The Regional Housing Need Allocation (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. This process is repeated every eight years, and for this cycle the Bay Area is planning for the period from 2023 to 2031.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) identifies the total number of homes for which each region in California must plan in order to meet the housing needs of people at all income levels. The four income categories included in the Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND) are:

• Very Low Income: 0-50% of Area Median Income (includes acutely low, <15% of Area Median Income and extremely low, <30% of Area Median Income) 

• Low Income: 50-80% of Area Median Income 

• Moderate Income: 80-120% of Area Median Income 

• Above Moderate Income: 120% or more of Area Median Income 

FOSTER CITY’S CURRENT AND PAST RHNA TARGETS

RHNA PROGRESS FOR 2015-2023 PLANNING PERIOD PERMITS ISSUED BY AFFORDABILITY

RHNA PROCESS

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. HCD provides a Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND) to each region and each region develops a methodology to distribute the needs to the jurisdictions in the region. This process is repeated every eight years, and for this cycle (6th cycle), the Bay Area is planning for the period from 2023 to 2031.

The final RHNA for Bay Area jurisdictions was approved by the Association of Bay Area Governments in the Final RHNA Allocation Report on December 16, 2021 and approved by HCD, as stated in its approval letter dated January 12, 2022. More information is available on ABAG’s RHNA webpage.

HOW IS THE 6TH CYCLE OF RHNA DIFFERENT?

Recent legislation has resulted in the following key changes for this RHNA cycle:

• There is a higher total regional housing need. HCD’s identification of the region’s total housing needs has changed to account for unmet existing need, rather than only projected housing need. HCD now must consider overcrowded households, cost burdened households (those paying more than 30% of their income for housing), and a target vacancy rate for a healthy housing market (with a minimum of 5%).
• RHNA and local Housing Elements must affirmatively further fair housing. According to HCD, achieving this objective includes preventing segregation and poverty concentration as well as increasing access to areas of opportunity. HCD has mapped Opportunity Areas and has developed guidance for jurisdictions about how to address affirmatively furthering fair housing in Housing Elements. As required by Housing Element Law, ABAG has surveyed local governments to understand fair housing issues, strategies, and actions across the region.
• There will be greater HCD oversight of RHNA. ABAG and subregions must now submit the draft allocation methodology to HCD for review and comment. HCD can also appeal a jurisdiction’s draft allocation.
• Identifying Housing Element sites for affordable units will be more challenging. There are new limits on the extent to which jurisdictions can reuse sites included in previous Housing Elements and increased scrutiny of small, large, and non-vacant sites when these sites are proposed to accommodate units for very low- and low-income households.

WHAT IS FOSTER CITY'S RHNA FOR THE 6TH CYCLE: 2023-2031?

RHNA for Foster City: 2023-2031  

*AMI is Area Median Income; Foster City uses the AMI for San Mateo County.  

WHAT IS PLAN BAY AREA 2050 AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO RHNA?

Plan Bay Area 2050 is the Bay Area’s next long-range regional plan for transportation, housing, the economy, and the environment, focused on resilient and equitable strategies for the next 30 years. Anticipated to be adopted in fall 2021, Plan Bay Area 2050 will establish a blueprint for future growth and infrastructure. Plan Bay Area 2050 must meet or exceed a wide range of federal and state requirements, including a per-capita greenhouse gas reduction target of 19 percent by 2035. Upon adoption by MTC and ABAG, it will serve as the Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS) for the San Francisco Bay Area.

By law, the RHNA Plan is required to be consistent with the development pattern from Plan Bay Area 2050. These two planning processes seek to address the Bay Area’s housing needs over different time horizons: Plan Bay Area 2050 has a planning horizon of 2050, while the 6th cycle of RHNA addresses the need to address short-term housing needs, from 2023 to 2031. To achieve the required consistency, both the overall housing growth for the region, as well as housing growth for each jurisdiction, must be greater in the long-range plan than over the eight-year RHNA cycle.  To learn more about Plan Bay Area, click here.

The following table distinguishes between the narrow scope of RHNA and the broader requirements for jurisdictions’ Housing Elements: