Vacaville Grapples with Affordable Housing Challenges

City leaders hear presentation on the complex, multi-year process of delivering affordable homes

Apr. 8, 2026 at 11:24pm

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

A bold, graphic illustration composed of a repeated icon of a simple apartment building in a grid, rendered in a vibrant color palette of greens, oranges, and blues, conceptually representing the challenges of affordable housing development.Affordable housing challenges in Vacaville highlight the complex patchwork of funding and approvals needed to deliver homes at scale.Vacaville Today

Vacaville's Housing and Community Services Director Tamara Colden detailed the slow, fragile, and layered process of developing affordable housing in California during a special city council meeting. Colden explained that affordable projects can take 3-6 years to complete and require navigating a lengthy approval process and securing multiple public and private funding sources that are increasingly scarce.

Why it matters

Affordable housing shortages can have wide-ranging impacts on local communities, including labor shortages, longer commutes, higher business costs, and slower economic growth. As demand continues to rise, Vacaville is working to understand the obstacles to delivering affordable homes at scale.

The details

Colden outlined an eight-step process for cities to enable affordable housing development, from site selection to leasing and compliance. She emphasized that cities play an enabling role, setting policy and zoning while helping reduce uncertainty for developers. Projects often use 'capital stacking' to layer equity, debt, and affordable housing tools, but the loss of a single funding source can cause the entire deal to collapse. Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are a crucial financing tool, but competition for these and other state funds is increasing as federal and state support is constrained.

  • Colden's presentation on Tuesday built on a previous briefing in February.
  • The Pony Express Apartments, a 60-unit senior affordable housing complex in Vacaville, took 6 years from entitlements to completion in 2023.

The players

Tamara Colden

Vacaville's Housing and Community Services Director, who presented on the challenges of delivering affordable housing in California.

Vacaville City Council

The local government body that heard Colden's presentation on affordable housing.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“Affordable housing is complex, and it takes years to build, requires multiple partners and depends on layered private and public funding. But when it all comes together, the result is housing that meets critical community needs while strengthening our local economy and quality of life.”

— Tamara Colden, Housing and Community Services Director

“If one funding source is delayed or reduced, or denied, the entire stack can collapse even if everything else is in place.”

— Tamara Colden, Housing and Community Services Director

What’s next

The Vacaville City Council will continue to explore policy options and partnerships to support affordable housing development in the city, as demand and funding challenges persist.

The takeaway

Affordable housing remains an elusive goal for many California cities, with Vacaville highlighting the complex, multi-year process and fragile financing that makes it difficult to deliver homes at the scale needed to meet growing demand. As federal and state support declines, local governments must get creative to enable more affordable development.