Housing Element

The housing goal for the State of California is for every Californian to have access to a decent home and suitable living environment.  The City's Housing Element outlines Gilroy’s goals, policies, and implementation programs for the preservation, conservation, improvement, and production of housing. The Housing Element also identifies the specific actions the City will take to address existing and future housing needs. 

Housing Element Planning Period: The current Housing Element covers the planning period from 2015-2023. The Housing Element has a shorter planning period than the other General Plan elements and is the only General Plan element that requires review and certification by the State of California. The Housing Element is reviewed annually and updated every eight years in order to remain relevant and useful and reflect the community’s changing housing needs.  

Annual Report: The 2021 Annual Report describes notable activities in 2021 that made progress towards implementing 2040 General Plan goals, policies and action items. 

Starting on page 13, this report also provides a summary of the City’s progress towards meeting Gilroy’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) and efforts to remove governmental constraints to the maintenance, improvement and development of housing. 

What is RHNA? Since 1969, the State of California has required that all local governments (cities, towns and counties) adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in our communities. The Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) process is used to determine how many new homes, and the affordability of those homes, each local government must plan for in its Housing Element. The RHNA program establishes an eight-year cycle within which the city must work to achieve the allocated amounts of new housing in each income category. The current RHNA cycle is for the period from January 31, 2015 – January 31, 2023 (2015-2023).

2023 - 2031 Update: The City has begun the process of drafting the 2023 - 2031 Housing Element. More details will be shared here: Housing Element Update.