This week in affordable housing news, Governor Newsom traveled to San Francisco for a roundtable with Mayor London Breed, public safety professionals, and teachers on housing affordability. As reported by the Sacramento Bee, the governor reiterated his support for legislation to prevent rent gouging, streamline zoning and permitting, and create a permanent fund for legal housing aid. Politico reports the governor also blasted “usurious” development fees and expressed concern at how long developments take to be built. The administration also released an updated housing “checklist” highlighting progress on the state’s response to the housing crisis this year, including $1.75 billion for affordable housing in this year’s budget.

The San Diego Union Tribune editorial board applauds the housing strides being made by Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the San Diego City Council—including recent actions to eliminate parking requirements in transit priority areas, streamline permitting for mixed-use projects, and waive impact fees and offer by-right approvals for supportive and transitional housing. The City Council recently voted unanimously to allow more than 9,000 homes to be built near a planned trolley extension, despite vocal opposition. Says the Tribune: “On the housing front, [the mayor is] having great success overcoming NIMBYism and building coalitions to boost density and build smartly.”

Lastly, with the Legislature back from summer recess, Capital Public Radio takes a look at the most pressing issues facing lawmakers—and, no surprise, affordable housing tops the list, including legislation to extend new protections to renters. The station also spoke with Speaker Anthony Rendon, who expressed similar views on the need for more housing action: “Have we done enough? No. We know we have a crisis in California.” There are four weeks remaining for the Legislature to act on affordable housing bills before the session ends on September 13.

STATE HOUSING POLICIES

As home construction sputters, Gavin Newsom calls for rent caps and less red tape
Sacramento Bee
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called for California lawmakers to send him bills to limit rent spikes and cut building regulations before their 2019 legislative session ends next month. He said capping rent increases is a “top priority” for him over the next month. He made the remarks during a Thursday discussion on housing affordability in San Francisco, where housing prices are famously high, but said he could have had the same discussion anywhere in the state.

‘Small ball’ housing aid in SF: It’s better than nothing, Gavin Newsom says
San Francisco Chronicle
Gov. Gavin Newsom was back in San Francisco on Thursday to call for immediate action on the state’s housing crisis, and he brought some people who agreed with him. Teachers and safety workers joined Newsom and Mayor London Breed at Francis Scott Key Elementary School in the Sunset District to talk about their desperate efforts to keep living in San Francisco.

Newsom says ‘usurious’ developer fees must be addressed
Politico California Pro
Gov. Gavin Newsom today called local development fees in California “usurious,” referring to charges that in some cities are beyond $100,000 per unit. “The impact fees are usurious, I’ll say it — and we’ve got to call that out,” Newsom said at a San Francisco event aimed at addressing the issue of housing affordability. He blamed “the way our property tax allocations work — and Prop. 13 is the principal source [of the problem],” he said. “You got Prop. 13, connect the dots.”

HOUSING CRISIS

California’s Assembly Speaker On The Big Debates Facing Lawmakers Over The Session’s Final Weeks
Capital Public Radio
As children head back to school, California lawmakers are back in session for five final weeks of work before adjourning next month. They’ve got more than 1,000 active bills on their plates — including some big issues like housing, charter schools and employee status. CapRadio’s Ben Adler discussed many of those issues and more Monday afternoon with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Los Angeles). 

Housing affordability at “historic low” in Bay Area
Curbed San Francisco
It’s technically, slightly more affordable to buy a home at prevailing prices in the Bay Area compared to this same time last year, per the most recent word from SF-based Compass real estate group. But the improvement year over year is so slight, and the scale of home prices across all nine counties so intimidating, that the marginal improvements reflected in Compass economist Patrick Carlisle’s paper “Housing Affordability in the San Francisco Bay Area” seem almost insulting.

Editorial: The high cost of split roll implementation
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin 
A proposed initiative that is headed for the November 2020 statewide ballot aims to raise at least $9 billion a year by increasing property taxes, but county tax assessors foresee major problems with implementing the measure if it is approved by voters. The initiative, titled the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act, would change the state constitution to mandate the reassessment of commercial and industrial properties to market value on a regular basis. 

TENANT PROTECTION

Amid housing crisis, Culver City is the latest town to cap rents
Los Angeles Times
Culver City approved a temporary rent control measure early Tuesday morning, joining a handful of other Southern California cities that have boosted tenant protections as the state grapples with an affordability crisis. In a 4 to 1 vote that followed a five-hour discussion, the City Council capped annual increases to 3% in buildings built on or before Feb. 1, 1995. Tenants in those properties will have just-cause evictions protections as well, meaning a landlord can’t remove them unless certain conditions are met, such as failure to pay rent.

Sacramento Passes New Rent Control Rules, Limits Increases At 10 Percent
Capital Public Radio
Sacramento City Council voted on Tuesday to approve a rent control compromise negotiated between officials and proponents of a ballot measure pushing for stronger tenant protections.  The new rules would put a 10 percent cap on yearly rent increases in the city, and also require property owners to give tenants 120 days notice for evictions without cause. Many landlords opposed language in the act, which passed by a 7-to-1 vote.

‘Put in a corner,’ El Cerrito scraps just-cause eviction law
Mercury News
The 25,000-person town of El Cerrito was the latest target for a deep-pocket California landlord interest group, which shelled out more than $30,000 to kill a just-cause for eviction ordinance that would have affected a little more than 100 landlords. The ordinance — which was adopted May 21 and was supposed to go into effect June 20 — limited the reasons why landlords could evict tenants, and prohibited landlords from harassing or retaliating against them; it also created a registry for rental properties.

HOMELESSNESS

Judge dismisses 4 of 5 cities from South Orange County homeless lawsuit
Orange County Register
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson dropped four of five south Orange County cities from a lawsuit filed earlier this year on behalf of homeless people and three advocacy groups assisting them. Anderson’s ruling, dated Monday, Aug. 12, also ordered lawyers for the homeless people to amend their complaint against San Clemente, which remains a defendant along with the county. It’s unclear how — or if — the ruling will change the broader question of creating adequate homeless services in south county.

‘They’re getting it done’: What SF can learn from Seattle on housing, homelessness
San Francisco Chronicle
When it comes to American cities, San Francisco and Seattle are remarkably similar. They’re both known for their stunningly beautiful waterfront locations, their liberal politics and the tech booms that have jolted them from quirky little “left coast” tourist destinations into global economic powerhouses. The might-as-well-be-twin cities also share some less attractive qualities: high costs of living, stark income inequality and big, in-your-face homeless populations.

 ‘It’s as bad, if not worse, than I anticipated’ — UN appointee gets a look at San Diego homelessness
San Diego Union Tribune
A United Nations appointee who has traveled the world to research housing affordability and homelessness turned her sights on San Diego this week during a visit that involved tours of homelessness encampments and meetings with local officials. “It’s as bad, if not worse, than I anticipated,” Leilani Farha, a U.N. special rapporteur on economic equality and adequate housing, said about homelessness in the city.

Opinion: A plan to address homelessness in Chico
Chico Enterprise Record
Last week as I walked my dog along Lindo Channel, as I have nearly every day for five years, I encountered a number of firsts in my path: a syringe, a tent, then an intentionally shattered bottle. My knee-jerk reaction was anger towards the presumed homeless individuals who’d defiled my route, but my secondary, more rational reaction was to look inside myself to better understand how my actions or lack thereof have contributed to the crisis we find ourselves in.

Opinion: California must not repeat old mistakes as it seeks new ways to end homelessness
CalMatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom is right when he says: “Shelter solves sleep. Housing solves homelessness.”  Shelters are short-term responses, not the long-term solution to California’s homelessness crises. That’s why our policies and resources should focus on the right to housing, not a right to shelter. A right to shelter is akin to treating symptoms without curing the disease.