This week in affordable housing news…:

State Update:

• A lawsuit brought by the City of Millbrae could pose an “existential threat” to the state’s Homekey program, according to a story published this week in Politico, with a superior court judge in San Mateo County expected to rule next week on an initial injunction sought by the city to block the conversion of a La Quinta Inn into affordable housing. At the heart of the city’s argument is that the proposed Homekey conversion did not allow voters to weigh in on the project, as required by Article 34 of the state constitution, a 60-year-old law requiring local votes on all subsidized “low rent” housing. The state has approved broad exceptions to Article 34 in recent years, and a measure on the November ballot would repeal this provision from the constitution. But until then, the Millbrae court case remains a potential threat to the Homekey program: “If the courts rule for Millbrae, Homekey is unconstitutional,” said Keith Diggs, an attorney for YIMBY Law. “If people support any sort of subsidy for housing, Article 34 is a problem.”

• State Senate leader Toni Atkins announced this week that she is running for governor in 2026, joining the race to replace termed-out Governor Gavin Newsom. Atkins, 61, who served as both Assembly Speaker and Senate President Pro Tem during her more than a decade in the state Legislature—and who authored SB 2 (2017), the CHC-sponsored bill that created the state’s first permanent source of funding for affordable housing since redevelopment—would be the state’s first LGBTQ governor if she is elected. Atkins joins a field that includes several other high-ranking public officials, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and former state Controller Betty Yee. Attorney General Rob Bonta is expected to run as well. 

• In other campaign news, former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf has announced that she will be running for State Treasurer in 2026 in a bid to succeed Treasurer Fiona Ma, who is running for lieutenant governor. Schaaf led Oakland from 2015 to 2023 and spent the last year as interim executive director of Emerge California, an organization that trains women to run for elected office. The city built 20,000 housing units during her time as mayor, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, while homelessness also grew by 131%. Former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has also indicated that he will run for Treasurer after he terms out in 2024.

ICYMI – Top news stories: 

Bass says L.A. has put 21,000 homeless people into interim housing. Here’s what that means.
Los Angeles Times
Over the past year, Los Angeles city and county agencies have moved more than 21,000 unhoused Angelenos into interim housing—motel rooms, shelter beds, tiny home villages and an assortment of other sites, Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday. Bass, marking the end of her first year in citywide office, said the figure showed the strides that her administration, working closely with many other government officials, have been made in getting homeless residents off the street and under a roof. “We have shaken up the entire system, a system that was not driven by outcomes,” Bass said during a 90-minute press briefing. Last year, while campaigning for mayor, Bass said she would move 17,000 people indoors during her first year in office.

Migrant farmworkers want to live in California. There’s just no affordable housing for them.
Sacramento Bee
More than 80% of migrant farmworkers living in California-run housing would settle full time in their communities if they could find affordable housing—while 69% say their children struggle to keep up in school as a result of frequent moves. This is what The Sacramento Bee learned during a year-long investigation into the state’s 24 migrant farmworker housing centers, which provide subsidized units for seasonal workers. Reporters visited seven centers in Northern California, the San Joaquin Valley and on the Central Coast. They surveyed 150 families about their experiences living in the housing and moving every year when it closes for three to six months.

S.F. passes crucial housing reforms. Will it be enough to satisfy the state?
San Francisco Chronicle
Critical housing legislation was OK’d on Tuesday in San Francisco as the city tries to avoid losing control over approvals of residential projects. Key funding for housing and transportation was also at risk if officials didn’t reform the city’s cumbersome process. State officials gave the city 30 days from Oct. 25 to approve legislation from Mayor London Breed that would streamline the notoriously long and complicated process to get homes approved and built. The legislation now includes protections for rent-controlled units and historic buildings, but it’s unclear whether those changes will pass muster with state officials.  The board’s decision comes a week after San Francisco missed its first deadline to reform its residential development rules under a mandate laid out in an Oct. 25 letter from HCD.