This week in affordable housing news, the governor signed all three of the CHC sponsored bills on his desk at a signing ceremony in Los Angeles—including bills to boost production of affordable housing (AB 1763, Chiu), reduce the cost of development (AB 1743, Bloom), and increase transparency around local fees (AB 1483, Grayson). Governor Newsom noted the potential of AB 1763, in particular, calling the bill “an important one” and saying new density bonuses for affordable developments “makes perfect sense.” Assemblymember Chiu, the bill’s author, said the legislation would help “turbocharge” affordable production—adding in a statement that it would also “make our scarce affordable housing funding stretch farther.”

The Associated Press quoted CHC’s Ray Pearl in its legislative roundup saying AB 1763 “will dramatically boost the production of affordable housing and ensure tens of thousands of lower-income Californians struggling to keep up with rising housing costs will have a safe, affordable place to call home.” Sharing similar views on Twitter were Anya Lawler of the Western Center on Law & Poverty: “No more limits on density for affordable housing projects near transit,” Lawler wrote, “This is such a big step forward.” Among other plaudits on social media, the Mayor of Los Angeles’s chief housing officer also called the legislation a “great move”—especially “now that Props 1 and 2 are starting to pump out some cash for affordable housing.”

In addition to CHC’s sponsored bills, several other bills of interest were signed this week—including a major new renter protection bill supported by CHC (AB 1482, Chiu), two bills that will increase development of affordable housing on surplus public land (AB 1486, Ting)/(SB 6, Beall), and sweeping legislation that will speed up permitting in high-cost areas (SB 330, Skinner). All told, the governor signed 18 bills to promote the production of housing, in addition to the $2 billion in this year’s budget devoted to affordable housing and homelessness.

STATE HOUSING POLICIES

New California Laws Aim to Speed Housing Construction
Associated Press
A new California law aims to stop communities from delaying construction of new housing projects. It’s one of 18 housing bills signed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. California is in the midst of a housing crisis with far fewer homes and apartments than necessary to house its nearly 40 million people. Lawmakers have passed dozens of bills aimed at boosting funding for affordable housing, easing development restrictions and helping renters facing rising costs.

Newsom signs SB 330, ‘Housing Crisis Act of 2019’ aimed at speeding up homebuilding
Orange County Register
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Wednesday, Oct. 9 aimed at boosting homebuilding in California by capping fees, slashing the time to get new developments approved and banning local governments from imposing population and housing caps. “We are removing some key local barriers to housing production,” Newsom said in a statement referring to Senate Bill 330, dubbed the “Housing Crisis Act of 2019.”

California will limit rent increases under bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom
Los Angeles Times
Californians will for the first time have new safeguards against large rent increases after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Tuesday capping annual rent hikes for the next decade. The new protections come as high rents burden nearly 10 million tenants in California and major metropolitan regions have seen double-digit increases in their homeless populations.

How lawmakers are upending the California lifestyle to fight a housing shortage
Los Angeles Times
When California lawmakers tried earlier this year to force local governments to allow four or more homes on land zoned for single-family residences, fierce pushback from suburban communities stopped the plan in its tracks. For many, the long-standing neighborhood template of a home, backyard and garage on a lot was too intrinsic to the California lifestyle to upend.

California landlords can’t discriminate against renters with housing vouchers, new law says
Sacramento Bee
During his first stop on a statewide housing affordability tour on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law to prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants who use housing vouchers to pay their rent. Current law already bans landlords from discriminating against a tenant based on his or her source of income. But landlords have to be willing to rent a unit to a family or individual using a voucher. If accepted, the tenant’s program directly pays the landlord what the voucher covers, and the renter pays the rest.

California housing: New laws aim to make it easier to build
San Francisco Chronicle
California will try to boost housing production by freezing local regulations and lowering the barriers to build backyard cottages and other secondary units on properties. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of legislation Wednesday that aims to jump-start construction rates and ease the state’s housing shortage.

Gavin Newsom to sign granny flat, housing density laws that target California cities
Sacramento Bee
California cities will soon find it harder to block new housing construction under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to sign alongside several other housing bills Wednesday afternoon. From 2020 until 2025, the law will limit “downzoning” or reducing the number of units that can be built in a particular space, such as only allowing a single-family home on a lot previously zoned for an apartment building. It would also limit cities’ ability to impose new building standards that drive up construction costs.

California ignores the science as it OKs more homes in wildfire zones, researchers say
Los Angeles Times
California’s top firefighting authorities want to use chainsaws and flames to thin out forests and mow down brush on at least half a million acres a year from Redding to San Diego. The plan — which aims to roughly double the current pace of so-called vegetation management within five years — comes at the behest of Gov. Gavin Newsom and is the state’s primary response to the massive blazes that have ravaged communities across the state.

Opinion: Gov. Newsom, veto bill to use school money for housing
Mercury News
Budgets are statements of values.  I have seen the truth of this in my own family and as an elected official in state and local government. If we want to hold true to our stated values, Gov. Newsom should veto Senate Bill 5. The bill is well-intentioned and written by my good friend Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, who is passionate about affordable housing. 

HOUSING CRISIS

Finding Affordable Senior Housing Is A Challenge For Many Americans. Here’s Why
NPR
About half of private sector employers don’t offer a retirement plan. That means about a quarter of Americans retire on not much more than social security, even those who’ve worked all their lives. You can spend your life working and still not have enough to retire. About half of private sector employers do not offer a retirement plan, so for about a quarter of older Americans, Social Security is not just an important part of their retirement income. It’s virtually all of it. This week, NPR’s Ina Jaffe is reporting on the finances of older Americans. She introduces us to two women who have meager incomes but who are building rich lives.

How Cities Address the Housing Crisis, and Why It’s Not Enough
City Lab
It’s a simple idea: Everyone should have a place to live. But we are failing badly at this most basic of goals, in every part of the country. In Brooklyn and Minneapolis, where we are city council members, skyrocketing prices push families out of the neighborhoods where they’ve lived for years. It’s impossible for young people to find a place to rent, much less own. 

TENANT PROTECTION

Landlords say state rent caps may force them to raise rents more frequently
Los Angeles Times
Prominent landlord attorney Dennis Block stood before a crowd of more than 200 at an apartment owners trade show in Pasadena and, to laughs, boasted of having evicted “more tenants than anybody else on the planet Earth.” Block said he was proud to enforce what he said America was built on: property rights. He then talked about the “scourge of this new statewide rent control that is coming up” and offered some ways that landlords could evade rules that as of Jan. 1 would cap annual increases for tenants at 5% plus inflation and require “just cause” to evict.

California’s housing crisis is displacing renters. What can be done to protect them?
Sacramento Bee
The brutal combination of a widespread housing shortage, skyrocketing rents, increased income inequality and rapidly spreading homelessness has created a crisis that touches the lives of every Californian, but most harshly impacts the state’s most vulnerable residents. “Tenant protections are essential in a state with poverty rates above the national average, three hour commutes and teachers sleeping in their cars,” said Bay Area political consultant Catherine Lew.

California Passes Rent-Control Law in Bid to Address Housing Problems
Wall Street Journal
California will cap rent increases under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would sign Tuesday, the most significant piece of housing-related legislation in a year that also saw the shelving of a measure to relax zoning and spur more construction. Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said he would sign the bill into law at a ceremony in Oakland, Calif. The governor has said the rent caps and tenant protections are necessary to help people being squeezed out of their homes.

FEDERAL HOUSING POLICIES

Will the Supreme Court Strike Down Inclusionary Zoning?
City Lab
Marin County is committed to building affordable housing. Indeed, the most exclusive county in California doesn’t have much choice. Back in May, authorities in Marin entered into a new voluntary compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build new low-income housing outside areas where black or brown residents make up the majority. 

Rep. Scott Peters announces the ‘Build More Housing Near Transit Act’
KUSI
52nd District Congressman Scott Peters called local housing, transportation and environmental leaders together today to announce proposed national legislation that address what “our” region is trying to do:  Tie housing to ready access mass transit.

HOMELESSNESS

California Voters May Be Asked To Steer Homeless To Services
Associated Press
California voters could decide next year whether to create new county courts to steer homeless people to mental health and drug addiction treatment programs. Former Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Democrat, proposed a ballot measure on Thursday aimed at providing services to people who commit crimes like defecating in public or using drugs.

$600,000 for homeless housing? Audit suggests spending money on shelters instead
Los Angeles Times
With the costs of building housing on the rise, Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin is recommending that some projects be reevaluated to see if their budgets can be cut to use less of the city’s $1.2-billion homeless housing bond. In an audit that will be released Tuesday, Galperin found that more than 1,000 units of housing approved for funding through Proposition HHH could top $600,000 apiece.

Editorial: A new audit says housing for L.A.’s homeless costs too much and isn’t ready. Yeah, we knew that
Los Angeles Times
At the heart of the strategy to combat homelessness in the city of Los Angeles is Proposition HHH, the $1.2-billion bond measure that was passed in 2016 to help finance the construction of 10,000 units of housing, mostly for the chronically homeless. Next month will mark three years since voters passed that measure.