Prop 1: Affordable Housing Bond

Bay Curious

This episode of Bay Curious explores Proposition 1, a proposed $11.25 billion California bond aimed at funding affordable housing and vetera

Key takeaways

• Proposition 1 proposes an $11.25 billion bond to fund various housing initiatives.
• Approximately $1.25 billion of the bond is earmarked for the CalVet home loan program.

Main topics

• Proposition 1 details
• CalVet program

Notable quotes

Every dollar we put into a bond is we're sort of borrowing from our future self.

Conclusion

The episode provides a comprehensive look at the financial and politic

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) From KQED. The internet can be strange, absurd, terrifying, even surprisingly human. Each week on Close All Tabs from KQED, we cover how the digital world is reshaping how we live and who we are. Speaker 8 (0:16) The agents seem to be having discussions that could be seen as quite concerning to the humans. How Speaker 3 (0:21) comfortable are we with this type of mass surveillance? If the internet went down for a while, we'd be out of luck. Listen to Close All Tabs wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:34) Right now, we are living through some of the most tumultuous political times our country has ever known. I'm David Remnick, and each week on The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'll try to make sense of what's happening alongside politicians and thinkers like Cory Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Tim Walz, Katonji Brown-Jackson, Newt Gingrich, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Charlemagne the God, and so many more. That's all on The New Yorker Radio Hour, wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 5 (1:03) Transgender and non-binary kids are often talked about in the news, but we rarely hear what these young people have to say for themselves. Thanks for letting me be who I am. Hey, it's Sasha Koka. And on the California Report magazine, we featured the voices of trans kids and the people in their lives who love and support them in an award-winning series called Love You For You. You can find those episodes by looking for the California Report magazine wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 6 (1:32) When asked in a recent statewide survey, what's the most important issue facing Californians today? The top responses were affordability, cost of living, housing costs and availability. Speaker 4 (1:45) In other words, nothing new to see here. These are issues that California has struggled with for a long time. On the November ballot this year are a few initiatives that legislators or interest groups think could help. Among them is Proposition 1, which would allow the state to borrow $11.25 billion for housing programs. Here's how it reads Speaker 3 (2:07) on your ballot. Prop 1 Speaker 4 (2:09) authorizes bonds for housing affordability programs. I'm Erika Cruz-Gavara, host of The Bay. And I'm Olivia Allen Price, host of Bay Curious. Welcome to PropFest. For the next few weeks, our teams at The Bay and Bay Curious are bringing you breakdowns of each statewide proposition on the California ballot so you can vote with confidence in the November election. There Speaker 6 (2:33) are 14 propositions on the ballot this year, and we'll be taking you through all of them between now and October 9th. We'll be looking at how they got on the ballot. The arguments for and against each one talk about how things could play out if they pass and the money fueling it all. Are you ready for this, Erika? Let's do this. Speaker 4 (2:54) Today, in our first installment, we're going through Proposition 1, a housing bond with KQED's housing reporter, Aditi Bandlamudi. Welcome, Aditi. Hey, thanks for having me. Let's start at the top level. What does Proposition 1 do? Speaker 2 (3:08) So Prop 1 issues an $11.25 billion bond, mostly for the construction and preservation of affordable housing. Included in that $11.25 billion, there's a $1.25 billion... portion that goes towards the CalVet home loan program, which helps veterans become homeowners. The Legislative Analyst's Office did a report on Prop 1, and it says the money from this bond could build up to 40,000 rental units, and it could help 40,000 households buy a home. So in total, it could help more than 80,000 families stay housed. Speaker 4 (3:45) All right, so we're at the beginning of PropFest. We're kind of getting our brains. in the right place for all this stuff. Can you remind us how bonds work? Speaker 2 (3:52) Yeah. So most of this bond, about $10 billion, is a general obligation bond, also called a go bond. A state-issued go bond means that the government will borrow money from investors or anyone who buys the bonds and will then pay it back with interest over the next 25 years out of California's general fund. It's kind of like a