Wells Fargo Commits $400,000 To California Forward To Address Housing Affordability

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Nov. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wells Fargo has pledged $400,000 to bolster California Forward's (CA Fwd) work to address the state's housing supply and affordability crisis. Governor Gavin Newsom estimates that the state needs an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2025. CA Fwd and its vast network through the California Economic Summit has been working on ways to make it easier to build housing that Californians need and people of all incomes can afford.

"California Forward is working to ensure that communities in our state are growing, green and great for everyone, and that goal can't be met if we don't address our housing shortage," said Micah Weinberg, CEO of CA Fwd.  "We thank Wells Fargo for investing in this important work that can help all of us better understand and overcome the barriers to housing production in our state."

Wells Fargo will donate $1 billion through 2025 to address challenges of the U.S. housing affordability crisis, including homelessness, available and affordable rentals, transitional housing, and home ownership. The goal is to reduce the cost burden of housing, and get more people into safe, stable, and affordable homes.

"Addressing housing affordability is a highly complex challenge," said David Galasso, Wells Fargo lead region president for the Greater California region. "Collaborating with California Forward allows Wells Fargo, through its business and the Wells Fargo Foundation, to use its resources and expertise to develop and scale new ideas and activate solutions in communities of need in collaboration with public-private sector organizations."

This project will create a statewide snapshot analyzing housing needs in different markets as well as the regional capacity to pull together the necessary economic, policy and political components to catalyze greater housing affordability. The assessment will help Wells Fargo refine current philanthropic investments while identifying new strategies that can help connect institutional efforts to expand housing affordability.

In addition to the snapshot —expected to be completed by the end of June 2020— the first phase of the project will also rely on CA Fwd's strong regional network to identify best practices that can expedite making housing affordable for more Californians. The next phase of the project will be the engagement of cross-sector leaders to move housing action plans forward.

ABOUT CA FWD

California Forward (CA Fwd) is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization devoted to championing policies that will result in shared prosperity for all Californians and improving the performance of government at all levels. CA Fwd believes that every region in the state must have a voice to ensure their economic prosperity. In addition, we believe that increased emphasis on accountability and transparency will create a government that Californians deserve and expect. In 2019, CA Fwd announced an integration with the California Stewardship Network, further strengthening the organization's capacity and footprint in the diverse regions across California. 

Contact:  Ed Coghlan, CA Fwd
818.489.4774, [email protected]

SOURCE CA Fwd

Related Links

www.cafwd.org