Consultant Services for Cycle 7 Regional Housing Needs Allocation and Housing Element Technical Assistance

Sacramento Area Council of Governments is seeking consultant support services in preparation for the state-mandated Cycle 7 Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) and Housing Element Update process. The consultant will support SACOG in preparing the RHNA methodology and producing regional technical assistance products for use by SACOG's 28 member agencies in their Cycle 7 Housing Elements.

SACOG is seeking support services from the selected consultant to conduct housing policy research and technical analysis, with a focus on supporting the work of the RHNA Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). In addition, the consultant will assist SACOG in producing up to two technical assistance products for member agencies' inclusion in Cycle 7 Housing Elements, including the development of a regional Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) analysis.

SACOG may award one (1) or more contracts for the services needed.

SACOG serves as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) of city and county governments in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. As the only public agency with members from all 28 jurisdictions in the greater Sacramento region, SACOG plays a unique role as the place where local governments can come together to take on critical issues facing the region and to tackle problems that are too big for any one jurisdiction to solve on its own. SACOG is tasked by state and federal law with long-range planning for the region but also plays an important role in working with local partners to advance more immediate solutions to some of the region’s shared challenges of transportation, housing, air quality, climate change and the protection of the region’s agricultural and natural resources. Starting with the development of the 2024 Blueprint, SACOG has committed to three strategic goals of equity, economy, and environment. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.sacog.org .

The RHNA process starts with HCD (Department of Housing and Community Development) determining how much housing at a variety of affordability levels is needed for each region in the state. SACOG, as the Council of Government (COG) for the Greater Sacramento region, is then required to develop a methodology to distribute the housing need to jurisdictions within the region and prepare a RHNA Plan that determines housing allocations specific to jurisdictions and furthers the objectives of Government Code Section 65584. Each local jurisdiction must then update the Housing Element of its General Plan in accordance with their community's housing needs.

Numerous criteria must be taken into consideration when determining a jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need. These criteria include each jurisdiction’s existing and projected jobs and housing relationship, availability of land, public facilities, the distribution of household growth, existing households at each income level, and the rate of overcrowding.

SACOG will convene a RHNA Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprised of local government officials and regional stakeholders to advise SACOG in developing a methodology for allocating a share of the region’s total housing units to each local government. The TAC will serve in an advisory role for SACOG, including to the Board of Directors and various policy committees (i.e. Land Use and Natural Resources, Transportation, and Policy and Innovation) throughout the development of the Cycle 7 RHNA methodology.

Senate Bill 375 (SB 375; Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008) strengthened the coordination between housing and transportation planning and amended the RHNA schedule and methodology to align with the development of Regional Transportation Plans and Sustainable Communities Strategies (RTP/SCS). The development of SACOG’s Cycle 7 RHNA methodology and associated RHNA Plan will occur in tandem with the development of the update to the Metropolitan Transportation Plans and Sustainable Communities Strategies (MTP/SCS), also known as the Blueprint.