Final Guidelines Released for Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities Program

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The Strategic Growth Council recently released their final guidelines for the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. The new guidelines reflect the feedback received during the program’s first year from its first round of applicants and its stakeholders. The changes were put into place to strengthen the AHSC and cover a range of topics including revising scoring criteria, projects in rural areas, and community benefits and engagement.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership worked with Sustainable Communities for All (SC4A), and the Coalition for Active Transportation Leadership (CATL), three of the program’s main stakeholders, to promote improvements for active transportation and to increase funding for walking and bicycling in communities in California.

The Strategic Growth Council’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program was established to provide funds for land-use, housing, transportation, and land preservation projects to facilitate the reduction greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This has been done by improving mobility options and increasing infill development and decreasing the miles that a vehicle has to travel.

Projects also related to the ASHC program include:

• Reducing air pollution
• Improving conditions in disadvantaged communities
• Supporting or improving public health
• Improving connectivity and accessibility to jobs, housing and services
• Increasing options for mobility, including active transportation
• Protecting agricultural lands to support infill development

Funding for the AHSC Program is provided from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).