This week in housing news, the Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a report on “relatively weak” California home sales in the first half of 2019 compared to the last five years—a potential indicator of economic troubles ahead. “Is it an early warning sign of recession?” asked the Sacramento Bee. Not necessarily, says the LAO, which notes that while sales have been on a downward trend, the current dip is “not as weak as is typically seen before economic downturns.” Another Sac Bee story, meanwhile, finds that with demand sagging—as prices remain out of many Californians’ reach and construction costs go up—residential building permits have also slowed 12 percent this year.

With uncertainty clouding the market, the Modesto Bee visited the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter to cover the impact homelessness is having on the city’s growing numbers of unhoused young children and teens. The Bee finds homeless students staying in the shelter can be targets of bullying due to their lack school supplies, clothes, and regular access to running water or electricity. The average income of families living the shelter is under $1,000 a month, while the average rent in Modesto has climbed to $1,215. Nearly 4,000 students in Stanislaus County public schools are homeless—more than 3 percent of total enrollment—and many suffer from food insecurity, limited access to healthcare, and poor educational outcomes. Another reminder the only solution for homelessness is a safe, affordable home.

STATE HOUSING POLICIES

Can Vacancy Taxes Bring Down Housing Prices?
Capital & Main
The shortage of affordable housing in urban California is by now well known, and high-profile bills to deal with the crisis have repeatedly been shot down in Sacramento this year. With only three smaller statewide measures dealing with the issue left on the table in this legislative session, some municipal lawmakers in California are looking for new ways to attack unaffordability.

HOUSING CRISIS

Bad news for Gavin Newsom’s housing goals: New home permits are down in California
Sacramento Bee
California communities are approving residential building permits at a slower rate than they did last year, a sign Gov. Gavin Newsom faces an even bigger hurdle to reach his housing goals than when he took office in January. In the first five months of 2019, cities and counties issued permits for an average of 111,000 residential building units per month, according to data released Friday by the California Department of Finance.

Timeline of how Bay Area companies have responded to the housing crisis
San Francisco Times
The homelessness crisis in the Bay Area is getting worse. The preliminary numbers coming from the 2019 point-in-time homeless counts in Bay Area counties show a worrying trend: significant spikes in homeless populations. In particular, the three major counties — Alameda, Santa Clara and San Francisco — all saw the number of homeless residents rise, with Alameda’s nearly doubling to over 8,000 and Santa Clara’s growing by 31 percent compared to 2017. 

Editorial: City-by-city NIMBYism isn’t the answer to Peninsula housing crisis
San Francisco Business Times
Officials in cities around the Bay Area often share a great sense of responsibility when it comes to housing: That is to say, many of them greatly share a sense that housing should be somebody else’s responsibility. Even as the Bay Area undershoots its housing needs year after year, these officials maintain their conviction that the best place for new housing remains nowhere near them or their constituents. 

LOCAL HOUSING INITIATIVES

Developer threatens to sue Pasadena after council fails to approve apartment complex
Pasadena Star News
A contentious housing development that included an affordable housing component is dead in the water after the Pasadena City Council failed to agree Tuesday morning during a marathon meeting; now some are anticipating a lawsuit. Council members arrived at their first impasse just after midnight, following more than five hours of deliberation and discussion about a new apartment building, planned for 253 S. Los Robles Ave.

San Bruno seeks housing, then rejects it: ‘I don’t know what you can get passed’
San Francisco Chronicle
Over the past three years, developer Mike Ghielmetti did everything he was supposed to do to get a 425-unit housing project approved on El Camino Real in San Bruno. It seemed the city of 43,000, home to BART and Caltrain stations, was ready to welcome housing. Some other Peninsula cities have fought residential development for decades. 

Is banning single-family zoning possible in San Jose?
San Jose Spotlight
As more cities across the country are scrapping single-family zoning laws to address a nationwide affordable housing crunch, San Jose says it’s not ready to take the plunge. Owning a home — the legacy that defined American postwar democracy — is an ideal that is being challenged today as many cities opt for alternative solutions to provide easier access to housing.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

Woodland’s Mutual Housing again honored for farmworker community
Woodland Daily Democrat
The U.S. Green Building Council, which established the LEED rating system for environmental construction and design, has honored Mutual Housing California for its Zero Net Energy-designed affordable housing community for farmworkers in Woodland. Mutual Housing accepted the USGBC Pacific Region Leadership Award for Decarbonization on Thursday at the council’s “GreenerBuilder” conference at the San Francisco Marriot Marquis.

HOUSING MARKET

California housing market officially now ‘weak.’ Is it an early warning of recession?
Sacramento Bee
The once red-hot California housing sales market is officially now “weak,” state analysts say, but the year-long flattening does not necessarily suggest the state is headed toward an economic downturn. In a brief report issued Monday, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office weighed in on the latest California home sales trends, noting that homes sales statewide in June were down from the same month last year, and notably lower than historic norms.

HOMELESSNESS

Nearly entire Bay Area sees homelessness surge
Curbed San Francisco
San Francisco recently released the results of its 2019 point-in-time homeless census conducted in January, and the news appeared nothing less than disastrous, as SF’s homeless headcount increased by the hundreds despite the city’s seemingly ceaseless efforts to provide relief. However, the San Francisco count alone does not provide the whole story. The 2019 homelessness spike in SF came amid a tide of similar baleful results across the Bay Area.

Desperate to ease homelessness, California officials look to New York ‘right to shelter’ policy
Los Angeles Times
Much about California’s homelessness crisis has confounded state and local officials. But what to do about the tens of thousands of people living outdoors has perhaps done so more than anything else. Searching for a solution, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, co-chairs of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Homeless and Supportive Housing Advisory Task Force, are looking to New York.

It’s hard for homeless kids to prepare for school. Kindness as important as supplies.
Modesto Bee
Last Monday, the temperature was in the mid-90s and the sun was pounding down on the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter. Eight children, ranging from a rowdy 10-year-old girl to a timid 14-year-old boy, were sitting in a circle in a shady spot under the Ninth Street Bridge, chatting about their favorite music. Their lives are hidden, yet overexposed. They know each others’ vulnerabilities and tease one another about them.

Can Orange County end homelessness for local veterans?
Orange County Register
Somewhere out there right now in Orange County, about 80 homeless men and women who once served their country in the military are searching for housing, hoping to use government-issued vouchers to help pay the rent. But they aren’t having any luck, and time is running out. Those vouchers come with an expiration date of 120 days from the time they are issued.