1. What is California Housing Partnership?

The California Housing Partnership (CHP), formally known as the California Housing Partnership Corporation, stands as one of California’s most influential and effective nonprofit organizations dedicated to affordable housing. Founded with the explicit mission of helping preserve and expand the supply of homes affordable to low-income households, CHP has become an indispensable resource for the entire affordable housing sector in California.

What makes CHP unique is its comprehensive approach that combines multiple critical functions within a single organization. Rather than focusing exclusively on development, advocacy, or research, CHP integrates all these elements into a cohesive strategy that addresses affordable housing challenges from multiple angles simultaneously.

The CHP Model: Integration of Services

CHP’s effectiveness stems from its integrated service model that recognizes affordable housing development and preservation require simultaneous support in several key areas. The organization provides financial consulting and technical assistance to help developers and government agencies structure complex affordable housing transactions, navigate financing programs, and ensure project feasibility. This hands-on support is crucial because affordable housing finance involves intricate layering of multiple funding sources, each with its own requirements and compliance obligations.

Through comprehensive training programs, CHP builds sector capacity by educating thousands of professionals each year on affordable housing finance, development, and management. These training programs have become nationally recognized standards in the field, ensuring that California’s affordable housing workforce has the skills and knowledge necessary to execute increasingly complex projects.

CHP’s preservation database and services represent the most comprehensive tracking system for subsidized affordable housing at risk of conversion to market-rate housing in California. This work is critical because preserving existing affordable housing is typically far more cost-effective than building new units, yet without systematic tracking and intervention, thousands of affordable homes are lost to market conversion each year.

The organization’s policy research and advocacy work ensures that state and local housing policies are informed by data, evidence, and the practical realities of housing development and operations. CHP’s annual housing needs reports have become essential resources for policymakers, advocates, and the media seeking to understand the scale and nature of California’s affordable housing crisis.

CHP’s Position in California’s Housing Ecosystem

Within California’s complex affordable housing landscape, CHP occupies a distinctive niche. Unlike organizations that directly develop housing, CHP functions as a capacity-building and support organization that makes other entities more effective at their work. This intermediary role allows CHP to serve the entire field rather than competing for resources or development opportunities with the nonprofits and government agencies it supports.

CHP collaborates extensively with other housing organizations throughout California. While Housing California focuses on statewide coalition-building and advocacy, and regional organizations like the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and Non-Profit Housing Association of Southern California provide regional support and networking, CHP brings specialized expertise in housing finance, preservation, and data analysis that complements these efforts.

Measurable Impact and Track Record

CHP’s impact can be quantified through several impressive metrics. The organization has helped leverage over $35 billion in public and private financing for affordable housing projects throughout California. This leveraging effect means that CHP’s work as a consultant and advisor has facilitated financing many times larger than its own organizational budget, creating significant multiplier effects.

Through its training programs, CHP has educated more than 41,000 housing professionals, ranging from entry-level staff to executive directors and senior government officials. This investment in human capital strengthens the entire affordable housing sector by ensuring that decision-makers and practitioners have current knowledge of best practices, innovative financing strategies, and regulatory compliance requirements.

Most significantly, CHP has contributed to the creation or preservation of over 93,000 affordable homes across California. These are homes where low-income families can live with stable, affordable rent, rather than facing displacement or housing instability that would disrupt employment, education, and family wellbeing.

2. Mission, History, and Organizational Values

The California Housing Partnership’s mission statement is both clear and comprehensive: “The California Housing Partnership creates and preserves affordable and sustainable homes for Californians with low incomes.” This mission reflects several important commitments that guide all of CHP’s work.

Core Mission Components

The emphasis on both creation and preservation reflects CHP’s recognition that California needs both new affordable housing production and aggressive preservation of existing affordable units. Many affordable housing properties have time-limited affordability restrictions, and without proactive preservation efforts, these homes can convert to market-rate housing when restrictions expire. CHP’s work ensures that preservation receives appropriate attention alongside new construction.

The inclusion of sustainability in the mission statement demonstrates CHP’s commitment to environmental responsibility and long-term viability. Sustainable affordable housing means developments that are environmentally responsible, financially viable over the long term, and integrated into community life in ways that support resident wellbeing. CHP has been a leader in promoting green building practices and energy efficiency in affordable housing.

The focus on Californians with low incomes specifies CHP’s target population and reflects the organization’s equity-centered approach. CHP recognizes that low-income Californians—particularly those earning below 50% of area median income—face the most severe housing cost burdens and have the fewest housing options without subsidy. The organization’s work prioritizes serving those with the greatest needs.

Organizational History and Evolution

CHP was established as a private nonprofit organization specifically to support government and nonprofit housing agencies in creating and preserving affordable housing. The organization emerged during a period when California was grappling with how to maintain the affordable housing stock created during earlier decades of federal investment, while also addressing growing affordability challenges from rising housing costs.

From its inception, CHP recognized that many government agencies and nonprofit developers lacked the specialized financial expertise required to navigate increasingly complex affordable housing transactions. As federal housing programs shifted from direct development to tax credit financing and other indirect subsidy mechanisms, the technical knowledge required to successfully execute projects increased dramatically. CHP filled this gap by providing expert financial consulting that smaller organizations couldn’t afford to maintain in-house.

Over time, CHP expanded its services beyond individual transaction consulting to include systematic preservation work, comprehensive training programs, and policy research and advocacy. This evolution reflected the organization’s growing understanding that addressing California’s affordable housing challenges required interventions at multiple levels—from individual projects to sector-wide capacity building to state policy reform.

Core Values and Operating Principles

Several core values guide CHP’s work and distinguish its approach to affordable housing challenges. The organization is committed to equity and inclusion, recognizing that housing inequity disproportionately affects communities of color and other marginalized populations. CHP works intentionally to ensure that its services reach organizations serving these communities and that its policy advocacy prioritizes racial equity in housing.

CHP maintains a commitment to excellence and expertise, continually investing in staff development and staying at the forefront of housing finance innovation. The organization’s reputation for technical excellence has made it a trusted advisor to developers, government agencies, and policymakers throughout California.

The organization operates with a spirit of collaboration rather than competition, recognizing that California’s affordable housing challenges are too large for any single organization to address. CHP actively shares knowledge, coordinates with other housing organizations, and works to strengthen the entire field rather than building its own organizational empire.

Data-driven decision making underlies all of CHP’s work. The organization believes that effective policy and practice must be grounded in accurate data and rigorous analysis. This commitment to evidence-based approaches has made CHP’s research and publications highly credible and influential in policy debates.

3. Housing Finance Technical Assistance Services

CHP’s technical assistance services represent the organization’s core offering and the foundation upon which its reputation has been built. These services provide expert financial consulting to help developers and government agencies navigate the complex world of affordable housing finance.

The Complexity of Affordable Housing Finance

Affordable housing development in California typically requires assembling multiple financing sources, each with its own application process, eligibility requirements, compliance obligations, and timing constraints. A typical affordable housing project might combine Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, tax-exempt bonds, local housing trust funds, state grants, federal HOME funds, seller financing, and conventional debt—all carefully structured to work together while meeting the requirements of each funding source.

This complexity creates significant barriers for smaller nonprofit developers and local government agencies that lack specialized financial expertise. Projects can fail not because they aren’t needed or feasible, but because the sponsoring organization lacks the technical knowledge to structure financing properly or navigate application processes effectively. CHP’s technical assistance addresses this capacity gap directly.

Types of Technical Assistance Provided

Project Feasibility Analysis helps organizations determine whether proposed projects are financially viable before investing significant time and resources in development. CHP staff analyze development costs, potential revenue streams, available financing sources, and operating economics to assess whether a project can be successfully developed and sustained over time.

Financing Strategy and Structuring assistance helps developers identify the optimal combination of funding sources for their projects and structure transactions to maximize feasibility while meeting all compliance requirements. This includes advice on timing of funding applications, strategies for leveraging different subsidy sources, and creative approaches to filling financing gaps.

Application Support provides hands-on assistance with preparing competitive applications for funding programs. CHP’s deep knowledge of what funding agencies look for in applications helps clients submit stronger, more competitive proposals. This support is particularly valuable for smaller organizations competing against larger, more experienced developers.

Underwriting Review services help organizations understand and respond to lender and investor underwriting requirements. CHP can review underwriting analyses, identify issues that need to be addressed, and help developers prepare materials that satisfy lender and investor criteria.

Asset Management Consulting assists property owners with financial planning for existing affordable housing developments, including preparing for recapitalizations, refinancings, and extended use agreement negotiations. This work is particularly important for preserving long-term affordability of existing properties.

Who Can Access CHP Technical Assistance?

CHP’s technical assistance services are available to nonprofit housing developers throughout California, local government housing agencies and authorities, tribal housing entities, community development corporations, and in some cases, for-profit affordable housing developers working on projects that serve very low-income households.

Some of CHP’s technical assistance is provided through specific programs funded by state agencies or foundations, which may target particular geographic regions, populations, or types of projects. Other technical assistance is available on a fee-for-service basis, with fees scaled based on organizational capacity and project complexity.

CHP prioritizes serving organizations that might otherwise lack access to high-quality financial consulting, including smaller nonprofit developers, rural housing organizations, tribal housing authorities, and emerging community development corporations. This targeting ensures that technical assistance resources reach organizations with the greatest need for capacity building support.

Geographic Coverage

While CHP’s main office is in San Francisco, the organization serves clients throughout California. CHP staff work in multiple regions of the state, and many consulting services can be provided remotely through phone and video conferencing. This statewide reach ensures that organizations in all parts of California—from major metropolitan areas to small rural communities—can access CHP’s expertise.

4. Preservation Services and Database

One of CHP’s most distinctive and valuable contributions to California’s affordable housing sector is its comprehensive preservation work, centered around the Preservation Database—the state’s most complete source of information on subsidized affordable housing at risk of converting to market-rate housing.

Why Preservation Matters

Preserving existing affordable housing is critically important for several reasons. From a cost perspective, preservation typically costs 30-50% less per unit than new construction, making it one of the most cost-effective ways to maintain affordable housing supply. From a community perspective, preserving existing affordable housing prevents resident displacement and maintains neighborhood stability, whereas loss of affordable housing forces low-income families to move, disrupting employment, school attendance, and community connections.

Many subsidized affordable housing properties have time-limited affordability restrictions. When these restrictions expire, property owners can convert to market-rate housing if preservation interventions don’t occur. Without systematic tracking and proactive preservation efforts, California loses thousands of affordable homes each year to market conversion—a loss that is difficult and expensive to replace through new construction.

The CHP Preservation Database

CHP maintains the most comprehensive database of subsidized affordable housing properties in California. The database tracks properties with HUD subsidized mortgages, properties developed with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, properties with other federal or state subsidy programs, and properties with expiring affordability restrictions.

For each property, the database includes detailed information about the property’s location and physical characteristics, number of units and bedroom mix, subsidy programs and affordability restrictions, dates when affordability restrictions expire or are eligible for prepayment, ownership and management information, and risk factors that might affect preservation potential.

CHP continuously updates the database as new information becomes available from federal and state agencies, local government sources, and direct contact with property owners. This ongoing maintenance ensures that the database remains the most current and accurate preservation resource available.

Preservation Clearinghouse Services

CHP operates a Preservation Clearinghouse that provides access to preservation data and information. Through the clearinghouse, nonprofit developers can identify properties that may be at risk and suitable for acquisition and preservation, local governments can monitor the affordable housing stock in their jurisdictions and target preservation resources strategically, tenant advocates can identify properties where residents may need organizing and advocacy support, and researchers and policymakers can analyze preservation trends and needs.

Access to preservation database information is governed by CHP’s data access policy, which balances the public interest in transparency with property owner privacy concerns and the need to prevent speculative activity that could undermine preservation efforts.

Preservation Technical Assistance

Beyond maintaining the preservation database, CHP provides specialized technical assistance to support preservation transactions. This includes identifying at-risk properties that should be targeted for preservation, analyzing the financial feasibility of preservation acquisitions, structuring financing for preservation transactions, navigating regulatory requirements for preservation projects, and working with existing owners to encourage preservation rather than conversion to market-rate housing.

CHP has been providing preservation technical assistance continuously since 2001, making the organization one of the most experienced preservation consultants in the state. This long track record means CHP staff have deep expertise in the unique challenges of preservation transactions.

Annual At-Risk Report

Each year, CHP uses data from the Preservation Database to produce an annual summary of affordable homes at risk of conversion in California. This “At-Risk Report” quantifies the number of affordable units with expiring affordability restrictions, identifies geographic concentrations of at-risk properties, analyzes trends in preservation risk over time, and provides recommendations for policy and program interventions to prevent loss of affordable housing.

These annual reports have become important advocacy tools, providing concrete data that demonstrates the urgency of preservation efforts and the need for adequate preservation funding and policies.

5. Training Programs and Professional Development

CHP is nationally recognized as a leading trainer in multifamily affordable housing finance. Through comprehensive training programs, CHP has educated over 41,000 housing professionals, building the capacity of California’s affordable housing sector and establishing industry standards for professional development.

Types of Training Programs Offered

Standard Trainings are CHP’s regularly scheduled training courses that cover core topics in affordable housing finance and development. These trainings have pre-set curricula developed by CHP’s expert staff and take place several times per year at locations throughout California. Standard trainings cover topics like affordable housing finance fundamentals, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) basics and advanced topics, project development from concept to completion, asset management and property operations, affordable housing preservation strategies, and compliance requirements for affordable housing programs.

Custom Trainings can be tailored to meet the specific needs of individual organizations or groups. CHP works with clients to design training content that addresses their particular learning objectives, staff experience levels, and organizational contexts. Custom trainings might focus on specific funding programs, particular development challenges, or specialized topics relevant to the client’s work.

Webinars and Online Learning provide remote access to training on timely topics and emerging issues. CHP regularly offers webinars that allow participants from anywhere in California to access expert instruction without travel costs. These online learning opportunities make professional development accessible to organizations with limited training budgets.

Technical Briefings provide updates on new programs, policy changes, and emerging issues affecting affordable housing development and operations. These shorter, more focused sessions help housing professionals stay current with rapidly changing regulations and program requirements.

Training Philosophy and Approach

CHP’s training programs are distinguished by several key characteristics that make them particularly effective. All training content is developed and delivered by practitioners with extensive hands-on experience in affordable housing development and finance. Instructors aren’t just academics teaching theory—they’re professionals who have structured countless affordable housing transactions and understand the practical realities of bringing projects from concept to completion.

Training materials use real-world examples and case studies drawn from actual California affordable housing projects. This grounding in concrete examples helps participants understand how abstract concepts apply in practice and prepares them to handle situations they’ll encounter in their work.

CHP training emphasizes practical application rather than passive learning. Participants work through exercises, analyze case studies, and practice skills during training sessions. This active learning approach ensures that participants leave training with capabilities they can immediately apply in their jobs.

Training content is regularly updated to reflect changes in programs, regulations, and industry best practices. The affordable housing finance landscape evolves continuously, and CHP ensures its training reflects current realities rather than outdated information.

Who Should Attend CHP Trainings?

CHP trainings serve a diverse audience of affordable housing professionals at various career stages and from different types of organizations. Participants typically include nonprofit affordable housing developers and CDCs, local government housing agency staff, public housing authority personnel, property management companies serving affordable housing, affordable housing consultants and syndicators, financial institutions involved in affordable housing lending, and students and early-career professionals entering the affordable housing field.

CHP offers different levels of training to accommodate participants with varying experience levels, from introductory courses for newcomers to the field to advanced courses for experienced professionals seeking to deepen expertise in specialized areas.

Annual Electrification Training Series

As an example of CHP’s responsiveness to emerging issues, the organization offers an Annual Electrification Training Series focused on building electrification and clean energy in affordable housing developments. This specialized training series helps developers understand the requirements, incentives, and best practices for eliminating fossil fuel use in new construction and rehabilitation projects—a growing priority given California’s climate goals and building code changes.

Accessing Training Opportunities

Information about upcoming CHP trainings is available on the organization’s website at chpc.net/events. The site includes training descriptions, schedules, locations, registration information, and pricing. Many trainings fill quickly, so early registration is recommended.

CHP offers scholarship support for some trainings to make professional development accessible to individuals and organizations with limited resources. Inquiries about scholarship availability should be directed to CHP staff.

6. Policy Research and Legislative Advocacy

CHP’s policy and advocacy work ensures that California’s housing policies are informed by data, evidence, and the practical realities of housing development and operations. The organization leads and coordinates regulatory and legislative housing advocacy efforts to increase funding for sustainability and housing production and preservation.

Policy Research and Analysis

CHP’s policy research function produces rigorous, data-driven analyses of affordable housing needs, trends, and policy options. This research serves multiple purposes: it provides factual foundations for advocacy efforts, educates policymakers and the public about housing challenges, informs strategic planning by housing developers and government agencies, and documents outcomes and impacts of housing policies and programs.

CHP’s research methodology emphasizes using vetted, reliable data sources and transparent analytical methods. The organization’s reputation for producing credible, non-partisan research makes its reports influential in policy debates where advocates, opponents, and neutral observers all reference CHP data as authoritative.

Legislative and Regulatory Advocacy

CHP actively engages in advocacy at both state and federal levels to advance policies that support affordable housing creation and preservation. This advocacy work includes monitoring proposed legislation and regulations affecting affordable housing, providing expert testimony before legislative committees and regulatory agencies, developing policy recommendations and legislative proposals, building coalitions with other housing organizations to amplify advocacy impact, and educating legislators and staff about affordable housing issues and solutions.

CHP’s advocacy priorities typically focus on several key areas. The organization consistently advocates for increased funding for affordable housing production and preservation programs at both state and federal levels. Adequate, consistent funding is fundamental to maintaining and expanding affordable housing supply, yet housing programs often face budget uncertainty that makes long-term planning difficult.

CHP champions policies that support sustainability in affordable housing, including incentives and requirements for energy efficiency, building electrification, water conservation, and climate resilience. The organization recognizes that sustainable design reduces long-term operating costs for residents while advancing environmental goals.

The organization advocates for streamlined approval processes and reduced regulatory barriers that increase housing development costs without providing commensurate public benefits. While supporting important protections like environmental review and community input, CHP works to identify and eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles that delay projects and increase costs.

CHP supports policies that prioritize housing preservation, including dedicated preservation funding, right of first refusal for nonprofit purchasers, and extended affordability requirements. These policies help prevent loss of existing affordable housing stock.

Coalition Leadership and Coordination

CHP plays a leadership role in coordinating advocacy efforts among California’s diverse affordable housing stakeholders. The organization brings together nonprofit developers, local government agencies, tenant advocates, labor unions, and other housing interests to speak with a unified voice on key policy issues.

This coalition-building work is essential because California’s housing challenges require policy solutions at a scale that demands broad political support. By facilitating coordination among housing stakeholders who might otherwise work in isolation, CHP helps build the political coalitions necessary to pass significant housing legislation and secure substantial funding commitments.

CHP works closely with other statewide housing organizations, including Housing California, which coordinates the statewide housing advocacy coalition, as well as regional organizations like the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and Non-Profit Housing Association of Southern California. Each organization brings distinct strengths to collective advocacy efforts.

Recent Policy Victories

CHP’s advocacy work has contributed to significant policy achievements in recent years. The organization played key roles in securing increased state budget allocations for affordable housing programs, passing legislation that prioritizes preservation as a housing strategy, advancing policies that support sustainable and resilient affordable housing, and improving regulatory processes to reduce unnecessary barriers to housing development.

These victories demonstrate how CHP’s combination of rigorous research, technical credibility, and strategic advocacy creates influence in policy processes. Legislators and agency staff take CHP’s positions seriously because the organization has established itself as a reliable source of expertise and data-driven recommendations.

7. Data Tools and Housing Needs Reports

CHP’s data tools and housing needs reports have become essential resources for anyone seeking to understand affordable housing needs and conditions in California. These tools translate complex housing data into accessible formats that inform policy, planning, and advocacy.

California Affordable Housing Needs Reports

CHP’s most widely used data product is the annual California Affordable Housing Needs Report series. Each year, CHP produces comprehensive housing needs assessments for all 58 California counties, plus two statewide summary reports. These reports quantify the gap between housing supply and demand for low-income households using data from vetted sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, HUD, California Department of Housing and Community Development, and other authoritative sources.

The reports analyze several key measures of housing need including the number and percentage of renter households experiencing housing cost burden (paying more than 30% of income for housing) and severe cost burden (paying more than 50% of income for housing), overcrowding rates and the number of households living in overcrowded conditions, the gap between the number of affordable units available and the number of low-income households needing affordable housing, and demographic characteristics of households facing housing challenges, including age, race/ethnicity, and household composition.

These reports make clear that California faces an enormous affordable housing shortage. Statewide, there are simply not enough homes affordable to the lowest-income households, and a significant majority of extremely low-income renter households pay more than half their income for housing—a level of cost burden that leaves families with insufficient resources for other basic needs like food, healthcare, and transportation.

Housing Needs Dashboard

CHP maintains an interactive Housing Needs Dashboard that allows users to explore housing data through customizable charts and visualizations. The dashboard provides data at state, county, and in some cases, city levels, allowing users to drill down into specific geographic areas of interest.

Users can analyze housing cost burden by income level, age group, race/ethnicity, and household type; compare housing conditions across different counties or regions; track trends over time to see whether housing affordability is improving or worsening; and generate custom charts and tables for use in reports, presentations, or advocacy materials.

The dashboard makes complex housing data accessible to non-technical users, democratizing access to information that was previously difficult to obtain or analyze without specialized statistical skills.

How Data Tools Are Used

CHP’s data tools serve multiple audiences and purposes. Local governments use housing needs reports to inform housing element updates, comprehensive plans, and affordable housing strategies. State policymakers reference the data when making budget allocations, developing housing programs, and considering housing legislation. Affordable housing developers use the data to identify communities with the greatest needs and to make the case for funding in competitive applications.

Advocates use CHP data to demonstrate the scale and urgency of housing challenges and to build support for housing policies and funding. Journalists and media outlets regularly cite CHP reports when covering housing issues, giving the data broad public reach. Researchers and academics use CHP’s datasets for scholarly analysis of housing markets and policies.

Data Quality and Methodology

CHP’s commitment to data quality and transparent methodology underpins the credibility of its reports and tools. All data sources are clearly documented, analytical methods are explained in accessible language, limitations and caveats are explicitly stated, and updates incorporate the most recent data as it becomes available.

This rigorous approach means that CHP data can withstand scrutiny from skeptics and is accepted as authoritative by people across the political spectrum. Even those who might disagree with CHP’s policy recommendations rarely dispute the underlying data and analysis.

Accessing CHP Data Tools

Most of CHP’s data tools and reports are freely available to the public through the organization’s website at chpc.net. The Housing Needs Dashboard can be accessed at chpc.net/housingneeds, and annual needs reports are available in the publications section of the website. CHP encourages widespread use of its data and allows users to reproduce charts and data tables with appropriate attribution.

8. Clean Energy Services for Affordable Housing

CHP has developed specialized expertise in clean energy and sustainability for affordable housing, recognizing that energy efficiency and renewable energy are essential components of truly affordable and sustainable housing.

Why Clean Energy Matters for Affordable Housing

Energy costs represent a significant portion of housing expenses for low-income households. For families already stretching every dollar to afford rent, high utility bills can push total housing costs into unaffordable territory. Energy-efficient design and renewable energy systems reduce utility bills, making housing more genuinely affordable over the long term.

California has ambitious climate goals that require dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. Affordable housing developments represent a significant portion of the state’s residential building stock, so achieving climate goals requires that affordable housing be built to high environmental performance standards.

Many low-income communities experience disproportionate impacts from air pollution and climate change. Clean energy in affordable housing contributes to environmental justice by reducing pollution exposure and climate vulnerability for populations that have historically borne disproportionate environmental burdens.

Clean Energy Services Provided

CHP works closely with industry partners to expand clean energy programs and support nonprofit developers and public agencies in implementing sustainable design strategies. Services include technical assistance on building electrification (eliminating fossil fuel use in buildings), guidance on solar energy systems and battery storage, support for energy efficiency upgrades and deep energy retrofits, assistance accessing clean energy financing and incentive programs, and training on sustainable design and construction practices.

CHP’s clean energy work helps developers navigate the increasingly complex landscape of environmental regulations, incentive programs, and sustainable design standards. California’s building codes have evolved rapidly to require higher levels of energy performance and eliminate fossil fuel use in new construction, and CHP helps affordable housing developers understand and comply with these evolving requirements.

Electrification Training and Support

Building electrification—replacing gas appliances and systems with high-efficiency electric alternatives—has become a major focus area for CHP’s clean energy work. The organization offers specialized training on electrification for both new construction and rehabilitation projects, helping developers understand technical requirements, cost implications, available incentives, and best practices for all-electric design.

The Annual Electrification Training Series provides in-depth education on this rapidly evolving topic, ensuring that affordable housing developers stay current with the latest technologies, programs, and regulatory requirements.

Solar and Renewable Energy Programs

CHP helps affordable housing developers access solar energy programs and financing mechanisms. California offers various programs that provide funding and incentives for solar installations on affordable housing, but navigating these programs requires specialized knowledge. CHP assists developers in identifying appropriate programs, preparing applications, structuring financing, and implementing successful solar projects.

Solar installations can dramatically reduce utility costs for affordable housing residents, and in some cases, can generate revenue that helps support property operations. CHP helps developers analyze whether solar makes financial sense for their projects and how to structure installations for maximum benefit.

Climate Resilience and Adaptation

Beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions, CHP’s sustainability work increasingly addresses climate resilience—ensuring that affordable housing developments can withstand and adapt to climate change impacts like extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and drought. This includes design strategies for passive cooling to reduce heat-related health risks, air filtration systems to protect indoor air quality during wildfire smoke events, water conservation and drought-resistant landscaping, and flood-resistant design in vulnerable areas.

Climate resilience is particularly important for affordable housing because low-income residents often lack resources to cope with climate impacts and because affordable housing developments must remain viable and livable for decades into an uncertain climate future.

9. Working with CHP: Partnerships and Engagement

CHP works with a diverse network of partners throughout California to achieve its mission of creating and preserving affordable housing. Understanding how different entities can engage with CHP helps organizations and individuals determine whether and how to work with the organization.

For Nonprofit Housing Developers

Nonprofit affordable housing developers are CHP’s primary client base for technical assistance and training services. Developers can access CHP support for individual projects through financial consulting and transaction structuring services, attend CHP training programs to build staff capacity, access the preservation database to identify acquisition opportunities, and participate in CHP’s policy advocacy efforts.

Many of California’s most successful nonprofit developers have long-standing relationships with CHP and rely on the organization as a trusted advisor for their most complex projects. Even large, sophisticated developers value CHP’s expertise for particularly challenging transactions or when dealing with unfamiliar financing programs.

For Government Housing Agencies

Local and state government housing agencies partner with CHP for technical assistance with housing programs and projects, training for staff on affordable housing finance and development, research and data analysis to inform policy and program design, and strategic planning for affordable housing initiatives.

Government agencies particularly value CHP’s independent, objective perspective. As a nonprofit organization without development interests of its own, CHP can provide advice that prioritizes public policy goals rather than organizational self-interest.

For Affordable Housing Advocates and Coalitions

Housing advocacy organizations work with CHP to access data and research for advocacy campaigns, coordinate legislative and regulatory advocacy efforts, and build coalitions around shared policy priorities. CHP’s data and analysis provide evidence-based foundations for advocacy that help persuade policymakers and educate the public.

Organizations like Housing California, the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, Non-Profit Housing Association of Southern California, and the California Coalition for Rural Housing all collaborate with CHP on various initiatives while maintaining their distinct organizational missions and strategies.

For Funders and Investors

Foundations, financial institutions, and government agencies that fund affordable housing work with CHP to design effective programs and initiatives, identify capacity-building needs in the affordable housing sector, evaluate program outcomes and impacts, and connect with qualified affordable housing developers and projects.

Funders value CHP’s comprehensive view of California’s affordable housing landscape and its relationships with developers and government agencies throughout the state. CHP can help funders identify strategic investment opportunities and understand where resources can have greatest impact.

For Students and Early-Career Professionals

Individuals interested in affordable housing careers can engage with CHP through training programs that provide foundational knowledge, CHP publications and data tools for learning about housing issues, potential employment opportunities at CHP itself, and networking with CHP staff and training participants.

Many affordable housing professionals in California attended CHP training early in their careers and credit those experiences with launching them into the field. CHP training provides both technical knowledge and professional connections that are valuable throughout one’s career.

Contacting CHP

Organizations or individuals interested in working with CHP can reach out through several channels. The main phone number is (415) 433-6804, and the website at chpc.net includes contact forms for different types of inquiries. CHP staff are responsive to inquiries and can help determine the most appropriate services or resources for particular needs.

For media inquiries, policy questions, data requests, technical assistance, or training information, initial contact through the general number or website will be directed to the appropriate staff person.

10. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)