Governor Jerry Brown delivered his annual State of the State address Tuesday morning, promising to defend California’s laws and values. Brown touched on key topics from immigration and jobs to healthcare and climate change, and offered a laundry list of the state’s recent accomplishments in his speech. Unfortunately, in the 1570 words used in his speech, not once did he mention the affordable housing crisis affecting California. In fact, there was zero focus on housing issues in this years’ State of the State address.
The California Housing Consortium released the following statement from Executive Director Ray Pearl on Governor Jerry Brown’s 2017 State of the State address: “Ensuring that Californians have safe, affordable homes must be a top priority if we are going to live up to the promise to preserve California values. Today, one in three Californians struggle to keep a roof over their heads, often giving up food or medicine to pay the rent. These Californians were not acknowledged in today’s address – but must be a priority if California is to live up to the ideals of that committed to inclusion and opportunity.
Vibrant communities and a strong economy start at home with a bold commitment and investment to jump-start affordable home construction and improve our worst-in-the-nation poverty ranking. We challenge policymakers and elected leaders to roll up their sleeves and get to work to ensure families, children, seniors, veterans and vulnerable residents have a place to call home.”