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Clarifying the Realities of Downpayment Assistance in Davis

By Barbara Clutter

In their August 11 piece in The Davisite, Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser rely on a preliminary report from the City’s Fiscal Commission subcommittee on Downpayment Assistance to argue that Davis should align with existing state programs, such as CalHFA (CA Housing Finance Agency), which assisted 30,000 California homebuyers in 2025. Carson/Musser point out that only two of those recipients were from Davis, implying a missed opportunity for our city. However, what they do not acknowledge is the underlying reason so few Davis residents qualify for CalHFA is the high cost of housing. Families working under CalHFA's income limits generally find that qualifying housing is virtually nonexistent in Davis, making the program largely inaccessible in Davis.

Musser and Carson also highlight SB 417, a proposed $10 billion statewide housing bond measure which would primarily fund rehabilitation of infrastructure and existing housing. While it earmarks $1 billion for downpayment assistance, no community is guaranteed any of these prospective funds, even if the bond measure is passed in 2026.

While many had hoped for Measure Q funds to be directed toward downpayment assistance in Davis, we anticipate that the City Council may instead consider a modest contribution after reviewing its broader fiscal obligations.

Importantly, it’s worth clarifying that the ordinance the City Council approved in January was not a “blank check,” as some have claimed. It was a framework—a first step—tasked to the city’s fiscal and social services commissions to study and refine. A final, fully detailed version will return to the Council for a vote in the future.

Barbara Clutter is a Davis resident and co-chair of Interfaith Housing Justice Davis, a coalition of faith-based organizations whose mission is to educate and advocate for affordable housing in Davis. We seek just and equitable housing solutions for our community’s unhoused neighbors, renters, and first-time home buyers.

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Comments

14 responses to “Clarifying the Realities of Downpayment Assistance in Davis”

  1. South of Davis

    Barbara thanks for your work as co-chair of Interfaith Housing Justice Davis. Over the years me and my family have all donated time and money to the rotating interfaith shelter as well as donated time and money to Loaves & Fishes and Mercy Pedlers in Sacramento.
    I don’t know anyone that does not want to help our community’s unhoused neighbors, renters, and first-time home buyers. If someone is living in Davis and is making enought to own and maintain a home in town they are doing pretty well (better than everyone who is unhoused and almost all renters).
    As I mentioned in a previous post Davis homes on average cost more than double the average home in America. I think that while most people would love to help a hardworking family “buy” a home in Davis they would want to help the people living on the street or getting evicted “first” (just like they would make sure the poor guy got a bus pass or we helped to fix smeone’s broken car before paying the down payment on a BMW M5 (that like Davis homes cost more than double the median price of a new car in the US) so a first time car buyer could “own” a car.
    Another problem with “subsdised onwership” is that since the people have to actually “prove” to the government that they can’t buy the home on their own in many cases they can’t afford to pay the mortgage, taxes and upkeep on the homes and the government is forced to pay more money so the lender forclosure does not wipe out any low income deed restructions (this has happened in Davis and in Marin City and Menlo Park the cities were forced to pay off six figure 2nd TDs to keep the properties deed restricted).
    P.S. I’m fine if anyone wants to help someone “Buy” a home or car (I always wished I had a rich uncle so I would not have to buy beat up fixer upper homes and even more beat up fixer upper cars) but I think it is a bad idea if the government tells the people actually sleeping on the street that we can’t help them since we need to give a guy with a great job and a masters degree $75K so he does not have to tell his Stanford fraternity brothers that he is “still renting”…

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  2. Keith

    There’s too many other problems that need to be dealt with besides giving away taxpayer money so someone can buy a house.

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  3. Elaine Roberts Musser

    Barbara, I will ask you the same question I posed to Georgina Valencia. How is the city going to pay for a down payment assistance program? The city is underwater financially, and has no money to even fix its roads and bike paths. All the Measure Q funding is gone.
    But I do have a suggestion. I know someone who just purchased a quadriplex in Citrus Heights. She was able to obtain an FHA loan for first time homebuyers at a very favorable mortgage rate. If you go into the neighborhood, it looks like a street lined with beautiful large homes on small lots. But each house is actually 4 units. This woman’s unit has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining room, albeit small. We need the city to encourage more innovative housing like this. Down payment and mortgage assistance already exists with state and federal programs. The city does not need to reinvent the wheel.
    Another thing the city should do is encourage economic development with workforce housing. That will most likely mean expanding city limits, e.g. smart growth. The city needs diversification of its tax base and more tax revenue to pay for basic infrastructure maintenance and repairs.

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  4. Alan C. Miller

    ERM, what is at most the number of people and amount lent per person that the City might be able to do? I think it’s important for people to realize that it would be a ‘drop in the bucket’, ‘feel good program’ that would only inflate housing prices by adding cash to the system, push out the hard-working people who would have otherwise bought those houses and now can’t, and still have the problem, only worse. A few numbers at the possible numbers ‘helped’ (ignoring an equal number ‘hurt’) could be illustrative.

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  5. Elaine Roberts Musser

    Alan, I am opposed to a city funded downpayment assistance program. The city does not have the money nor the expertise to do it, nor does it know how many people it would actually help. It could very well end up as nothing more than a slush fund that doesn’t do much of anything. There are state programs already out there to help low income home buyers. The city should be encouraging tapping into those, rather than reinventing the wheel.

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  6. Ron O

    Truth be told, there is no problem to be solved here.
    There are some people who are ready to buy houses, and some people who are not. One’s financial condition usually changes over time.
    And some people would have more opportunity elsewhere, at this point.
    Not so long ago, Davis was a “cheap” alternative to the Bay Area. It’s still comparatively cheap, but probably not the deal it once was.
    Other places provide better opportunities for young people in particular – as Davis once did for those leaving the Bay Area. (Still true, if you have equity from selling a house in the Bay Area.)
    I would guess that about half the people in Davis (and the Sacramento region) came from the Bay Area.
    Stop trying to solve problems which don’t actually exist. And stop insisting that every place in America has a responsibility to those who can’t yet afford it. (That is, unless you can figure out some way to make housing prices the same everywhere.)
    In any case, it’s economic expansion which creates demand for housing. The same reason that housing prices are so high in the Silicon Valley.
    Maybe folks should think about THAT, before they propose never-ending business expansion, as well.

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  7. Elaine Roberts Musser

    Ron O: If the city of Davis doesn’t diversify its tax base to bring in more tax revenue, with some economic development, the only thing it can do to dig itself out of the fiscal mess it’s in is to ask for more taxes. And frankly, in light of what happened with Measure Q, I very much doubt taxpayers have any appetite for raising existing taxes or instituting new ones. If the city continues with no new taxes/tax increases and no new economic development, it is in a fiscal world of hurt. At that point, the roads and bike paths as well as other city infrastructure will be in horrible shape – much worse than it is now.

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  8. Ron O

    Elaine, you and I have a different opinion on this. I’d first question how it is that the city (and just about every other city in California) got themselves into this predicament. If that’s not examined and addressed, then the underlying problem isn’t being addressed.
    One thing I have observed (statewide, and in Davis) is an increasing tendency to convert existing commercial sites into housing.
    The world itself is also changing in regard to retail, at least.
    But for sure, if more economic development is pursued (and is actually successful), it’s going to increase demand for money-losing housing, from a city’s perspective.
    And even if the city successfully pursues more economic development, what’s to keep them from spending more money on “down payment programs”, homeless housing, salary increases for groups like firefighters, ladder trucks, etc.?
    I personally don’t mind if the city pursues economic development within city limits.
    The city already “tried its best” to ruin University Mall – good thing that they failed (though they caused a substantial delay in rebuilding).

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  9. South of Davis

    Elaine wrote:

    If the city of Davis doesn’t diversify its tax base to bring in more tax
    revenue, with some economic development, the only thing it can do
    to dig itself out of the fiscal mess it’s in is to ask for more taxes.
    I feel that the city of Davis has more of a spending problem than a revenue problem, we should cut spending before we ask people to pay more.
    Davis it one of the worst places in America (after SF and Berkeley) to run a business and unless the city does more to become “business friendly” we will end up with just a few big chains (like Safeway and InNOut that have the political power to push back on the BS from the city that tortures other small business out of business).
    I was just talking to a local contractor who has “lived” in Davis for over 20 years. He said a neighbor asked him about building an ADU and before he told the neighbor not to even think about doing it since the city BS will blow out the budget so it had negative cash flow for years he said that he stopped working in Davis ten years ago since the city makes it so hard (and expensive) to complete even small projects.
    The city has lots of staff (and police) that “work” with the homeless, but they just say “too bad so sad” to business owners when they point to the homeless guy that had been vandalizing their business (or taking a dump at their back door every night).

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  10. Elaine Roberts Musser

    Ron O: “But for sure, if more economic development is pursued (and is actually successful), it’s going to increase demand for money-losing housing, from a city’s perspective.”
    Please explain this statement.
    “And even if the city successfully pursues more economic development, what’s to keep them from spending more money on “down payment programs”, homeless housing, salary increases for groups like firefighters, ladder trucks, etc.?”
    As long as taxpayers continue to approve tax measures to bail the city out of financial trouble, the city will continue to overspend. Citizens should not approve new tax measures until the city shows some fiscal restraint.

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  11. Elaine Roberts Musser

    South of Davis: “I feel that the city of Davis has more of a spending problem than a revenue problem, we should cut spending before we ask people to pay more.”
    I couldn’t agree with you more! This is exactly the cruz of the city’s fiscal problems.

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  12. Ron O

    Elaine: In response to your question, jobs are the primary driver of housing demand. That’s why Silicon Valley is so expensive.
    If something like DISC is built, it will create more demand for housing than it accommodates onsite. (That projection was in the EIR itself.) (Assuming that the commercial component was even successful in the first place, which was highly questionable.)
    And housing is generally a money-loser for cities (as demonstrated by cities throughout the state).

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  13. Alan C. Miller

    ERM, I think you misunderstood my question, but understandably so. I thought that if the proposed amount the City may spend were flushed into a real-world ‘this is a typical downpayment amount for a city that does this’ and then ‘so we can “help” seven people’ would show what a colossal waste of taxpayer money this program is. Especially as it just pushes out others who saved for and would otherwise have bought those homes.

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  14. South of Davis

    Alan was hoping to get some numbers to show “colossal waste of taxpayer money this program is”. As the years go on an increasing numbers of government programs are a “colossal waste of taxpayer money” from the “taxpayer perspective but from the “government” perspective as more and more dollars go the politically connected the programs are a win, If I am a city council member that can get $50K for my Assembly seat race from a wealthy donor that does not have to give his kid (who on paper is poor since he “owns” none of his Dad’s $100mm) $75K it is a “win-win” just like when a (so called) “clean” energy company that (without affirmative consent) is able to pull cash from most people in town to give politically connected friends high paying jobs and buy overpriced land from other politically connected friends. The political class knows that we are all busy and few have time to pay attention and just read the headlines about “helping the poor buy homes” and “saving the planet with clean energy”…

    Reply

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