Photo by Gabriel Dillard

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer announced during Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting that the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has officially revoked the City of Fresno’s prohousing designation, citing the city’s failure to implement key housing policies by a November 2024 deadline.

The HCD wrote in a letter that Fresno did not enact several proposed reforms, including permitting “missing middle” housing types and reducing parking requirements near transit.

Fresno first received the designation in 2023.

The Prohousing Designation Program recognizes cities that exceed state housing requirements by promoting faster housing development. It also provides avenues of funding not available without the designation.

“We’ve not done enough to accelerate housing within our city, and in fact, we’re the only city awarded the designation that missed the deadline, and I’m ashamed of that as the mayor of the city,” Dyer said. 

Dyer said the Prohousing Designation has 33 criteria and Fresno met 26 of those. When asked by councilmember Miguel Arias, Dyer said that five of the seven failed criteria will be brought up before city council in June, with the other two by this fall.

Dyer said a key factor in losing the designation was the city council shutting down a housing project in 2023 that would’ve transformed the Quality Inn Hotel on Bullard Avenue and Highway 41 into 59 units of studio rooms, GVWire reported.

In 2023, Fresno received $43.7 million through the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program – Catalytic Qualifying Infill Area (IIGC). The funding depended on the city maintaining its prohousing status.

Council President Mike Karbassi compared Fresno getting revoked to being a good kid in a family of 10 and not getting any credit. 

“(Fresno) was the one city that was a shining example of being effective at taking the unhoused off the streets and committing to putting them in housing with services,” Karbassi said. “We’re getting no credit whatsoever for that and they’re pouncing on us, that’s very frustrating for me.”

Despite this setback, Dyer is still confident that Fresno is still headed in the right direction and very likely to receive the designation in the near future once the city takes care of a few changes.

One project Dyer said could be impacted is a 464-unit housing complex in Downtown Fresno off of Fulton Street. Half are planned to be affordable and the other half would be market rate. 

Dyer concluded his remarks by mentioning the importance of having the designation back in place for that project to succeed as planned.