Housing Element Annual Progress Reports

State planning law (Government Code Section 65400) requires cities and counties to provide an annual progress report (APR) on their housing element’s performance to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The APR reports the jurisdiction’s status and progress in applying its housing element using forms and definitions HCD provides. Through the required APR forms, jurisdictions must report annual data on the following:

Housing development applications received
Building/construction activity
Progress towards the RHNA
Sites identified or rezoned to accommodate a shortfall in housing need
Program implementation status
Projects with a commercial development bonus (pursuant to GC Section 65915.7)
Units rehabilitated or preserved
Locally owned lands included in the sites inventory that have been sold
Locally owned surplus sites
Project status and progress toward Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) goals

Each jurisdiction’s APR must be submitted annually to HCD and OPR by April 1 (covering the previous calendar year). APRs are submitted through HCD’s Online Annual Progress Reporting System.

Survey Results

A survey of APR submissions by cities and counties in the San Joaquin Valley between 2013 and 2020 shows that many jurisdictions struggled to complete their APR in 2013 and 2014. Since then, submission rates increased steadily to a height of 94 percent in 2018. Submission rates decreased, however, in 2019 and 2020, which may be due to increased APR requirements following AB 879 and SB 35 in 2017.

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
TOTAL NUMBER OF JURISDICTIONS	70	70	70	70	70	70	70	70
APRs SUBMITTED	29	29	34	42	53	66	63	59
PERCENT APRs SUBMITTED	41%	41%	49%	60%	76%	94%	90%	84%
JURISDICTIONS NOT SUBMITTING	41	41	36	28	17	4	7	11
PERCENT JURISDICTIONS NOT SUBMITTING	59%	59%	51%	40%	24%	6%	10%	16%
Source: HCD Annual Progress Report Dashboard.

Stakeholder Interviews

Challenges. Valley MPO Directors identified low staff capacity and limited budgets as challenges to housing production. Many Valley jurisdictions struggle to complete HCD requirements, including the APR. Further, the Fresno, Madera, and Kern directors stressed that housing planning is not a barrier to housing production and believe that more planning is not the solution. HCD’s expanding requirements for APR reporting add requirements that pose an issue for local planners already stretched thin.

Successes. Local stakeholders believe that housing production is more successful when local planners have the resources and capacity to understand the housing programs and State requirements, and to provide help with individual project applications.

Opportunities. With lacking staff capacity and funding on the local level, the MPO directors voiced support for technical assistance programs to assist jurisdictions update their housing elements, complete other planning projects, and meet HCD requirements, including the APR.

Relevant State Law

California Government Code Section 65400 requires cities and counties to submit an Annual Progress Report (APR) describing progress made in implementing the housing element. This section describes specific requirements for public review and adoption of the APR.

AB 879 and SB 35 of the 2017 Housing Package, as well as AB 1486 (2019), and AB 1233 (2020) added new data requirements for the Housing Element Annual Progress Reports (APRs).