San Leandro Awarded California Prohousing Designation

After years of hard work by policymakers and staff to reduce barriers to building new housing, the state has designated San Leandro as ‘Prohousing’! This designation is not only honorary, it comes with financial benefits: priority access to funding for housing and associated infrastructure. 

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has announced that the City of San Leandro (City) has been awarded the coveted Prohousing Designation, a distinction given to jurisdictions that have made a demonstrated commitment to dismantling barriers to housing development at all income levels.    

San Leandro tied for the fourth-highest score among the fifty California communities that have received this distinction. San Leandro earned 64 points in its Prohousing Designation application based on the strength of the City’s housing policies and programs, more than doubling HCD’s minimum scoring criteria of 30 points. In the official award letter, HCD highlighted several particularly impactful strategies, that San Leandro is taking to support housing and help make it more feasible to build including: 

• allowing greater densities,  
• increasing floor area ratios and building heights for infill housing near transit, and
• streamlining approval of housing development projects through a ministerial review process without public hearings

“We are honored that the State of California recognizes the City’s hard work and its commitment to housing production. We look forward to the benefits that will come from this designation.”

San Leandro Mayor Juan González

By earning the Prohousing Designation, the City receives priority access to Prohousing Incentive Program (PIP) grants and additional points in the scoring of competitive housing, community development, and infrastructure funding programs administered by HCD. 

The City’s strong commitment to housing production compliments the City’s economic development goals to attract new and innovative industries, recruit new quality retail, and support the creation and training for good jobs in the community. 

As the East Bay Economic Development Alliance (EDA) recently noted: “the continued economic success of the entire Bay Area region is inextricably connected not only to our ability to continue to support new and emerging innovation industries, but also to the extent that our region can find more affordable and sustainable ways of producing housing for those who live and work here.” 

In an August 19, 2024 article on the San Francisco Business Times website by, the East Bay EDA  The East Bay EDA recognized the Cities of San Leandro and Hayward for not taking an either/or approach to economic development and housing, and for responding to the needs of both the residential and commercial communities, stating.  that San Leandro and Hayward “deserve much credit and recognition for modeling how to concurrently balance and support a pro-business and pro-housing agenda.”