This week in housing news, Governor Newsom touted Assemblymember Chiu’s CHC-sponsored bill, AB 1763, as one of the biggest steps the state has taken this year to address California’s expanding affordable housing crisis. In an interview, the Los Angeles Times says the governor highlighted “new laws that permit more affordable housing to be developed near transit” as one of this year’s examples of state action will “put a dent” in the state’s housing problems—along with new protections for renters and billions of dollars for affordable housing in the budget. Facing tough questioning about progress toward his overall goal of building 3.5 million housing units, Governor Newsom acknowledged that housing is “a stubborn issue. You can’t snap your fingers and build hundreds of thousands, millions of housing units overnight.” The governor said he would continue to prioritize affordable housing production in the coming year.

A new study by the California Housing Partnership show how important this effort will be—finding “low-income households need more help from Gov. Gavin Newsom to make ends meet,” as reported by the Sacramento Bee. The Bee notes that “extremely low-income households earning less than a third of their community’s median income can’t afford median rent in any part of California.” While those earning half of their area’s median can only afford to live in one county—Modoc County, with a population of only 10,000 people. “In more than half the state, people need to make at least 80 percent of their community’s median income to afford median rent,” says the Bee.

Finally, State Controller Betty Yee introduced a novel approach to addressing the housing crisis in a Sacramento Bee op-ed: “As California’s chief financial officer, I see the lack of affordable housing as a real and immediate crisis affecting the state’s economy, as well as millions of individual livelihoods. It is time for aggressive action, and that includes getting our government’s own house in order. The first step: Gov. Gavin Newsom should create one unified housing agency.” Confronted by what she calls “the state’s burdensome and duplicative bureaucracy,” Yee is pushing for a “one-stop shop” for affordable housing developers, including a single agency that would coordinate applications and funding cycles and simplify project reviews and monitoring. “If we want different outcomes for housing development,” writes Yee, “then we need a very different approach from the ground up.”

STATE HOUSING POLICIES

Facing a deepening housing crisis, Gov. Newsom says he’s still ‘pleased’ with his work on it
Los Angeles Times
On the campaign trail and during his first months in office, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for an unprecedented response to California’s housing crisis. He pledged that his administration would help spur the biggest wave of homebuilding in modern history. And he promised to launch a statewide affordable housing program on par with the nation’s effort to rebuild Europe after World War II.

Q&A: Gov. Newsom claims success in first year of addressing California’s housing crisis
Los Angeles Times
Nearly one in five Californians live in poverty — the highest rate in the nation — when factoring in the cost of housing. Gov. Gavin Newsom has made addressing the state’s housing affordability crisis central to his platform as governor. Interviewed for a story on his promises and accomplishments on housing after the state Legislature adjourned for the year, this is what he told The Times.

California bill to boost housing in suburbs gets new life. Newsom may back it
San Francisco Chronicle
When state Sen. Scott Wiener revives his contentious bid to allow more small to medium-size apartment buildings around public transit and in wealthy suburbs, the San Francisco Democrat could have some hefty additional muscle behind his effort. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins of San Diego have both affirmed in recent weeks their commitment to advancing some form of SB50 next year.

Op-Ed: To fix its housing crisis, California needs to get its own house in order. Here’s how
Sacramento Bee
As California’s chief financial officer, I see the lack of affordable housing as a real and immediate crisis affecting the state’s economy, as well as millions of individual livelihoods. It is time for aggressive action, and that includes getting our government’s own house in order. The first step: Gov. Gavin Newsom should create one unified housing agency.

HOUSING CRISIS

Who suffers the most from California’s high rents? It’s not the middle class
Sacramento Bee
California’s middle-class families are facing a rising rent crisis, a reality that prompted a flurry of new state laws to make housing more affordable. But that problem isn’t nearly as pervasive in the state as the challenges low-income families face in finding housing, according to a new study published Wednesday. The study’s authors argue most median rents in the state are affordable on a median salary, but low-income households need more help from Gov. Gavin Newsom to make ends meet.

California Housing Crisis Podcast: The case for cities to control what gets built
Los Angeles Times
At the center of the many debates over California’s housing problems has been a tug of war between local governments and the state over the power to control decisions about home building. The fight reached a climax this year when cities and counties were among the strongest opponents of Senate Bill 50, a measure that would have allowed four-plexes in neighborhoods of single-family homes and mid-rise apartments near transit stops and job centers across the state.

Who’s really leaving California, and why does that matter?
Curbed
Idaho’s capital—from the city of Boise itself to the surrounding towns that have shifted from farmers’ fields to subdivisions over the past few years—is in the midst of a building boom. While Boise’s economy has been attracting new residents, much of the boom is fueled by migration from others trying to escape expensive coastal cities out west.

‘A big deal’: Facebook matches Google’s $1B pledge to fight housing crisis
San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook says it will invest $1 billion over the next decade to help fund 20,000 new homes in California, becoming the latest big employer to ramp up its financial commitment amid a crippling housing shortage. Facebook’s plans follow a similar, unrelated $1 billion plan from Google that includes subsidies and land for market-rate and affordable homes. 

Op-Ed: Facebook’s strategy to address housing and transportation
Mercury News
A recent poll identified homelessness as well as housing costs and availability as two of the most important issues facing California today. In fact, these issues are two sides of the same coin — we cannot address homelessness without also addressing the housing shortage across the income spectrum. This recognition should drive a common agenda for building the Bay Area’s future.

Op-Ed: Affordable Housing: California’s State of Emergency
Inland Empire Community News
A state of emergency. Four daunting words that should catch the attention of our state. On Wednesday, September 25, 2019, the Los Angeles City Council proposed a state of emergency on homelessness. Los Angeles declared a state of emergency four years ago on the same issue – there were 25,000 homeless then. Today, an estimated number of 130,000 people are homeless in California with 36,000 of the population in Los Angeles. That is an increase of 11,000 homeless people in Los Angeles the past four years.

TENANT PROTECTION

New L.A. ordinance slaps moratorium on evictions ahead of Jan. 1
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles City Council approved an emergency moratorium on evictions Tuesday to stop landlords from quickly booting tenants before new statewide rental rules take effect in January. In a 14-0 vote, council members passed a ban on “no-fault” evictions. The ban would prevent property owners from removing residential tenants unless there’s just cause, such as not paying rent or using a unit for criminal activity.

Ahead of renter protection law, reports of an eviction rush
CalMatters
Alex Espinoza isn’t sure what next month will look like for his family — where he’ll find work, if his wife will find a seasonal job like the one she has with a local taco truck, where they’ll buy groceries for their 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son. All he knows is that in the next three weeks, they’re moving out of their two-bed, one bathroom Los Banos apartment that he’s lived in for the last five years, and moving in with his mother-in-law in Utah.  

Tenants say they are being mass evicted. Will Sacramento County help them?
Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors may have a chance to save residents from becoming homeless for the holidays — but it must act quickly. Tenants of Bell Oaks Apartments say their landlord has sent dozens of them eviction notices. They’re asking the board to approve a moratorium on “no-fault” evictions, where landlords throw out tenants who have done nothing wrong.

LOCAL HOUSING INITIATIVES

Housing is coming soon to BART’s Millbrae Station. The price? 600 parking spots
San Francisco Chronicle
Of all the stations on the BART line, Millbrae is perhaps the most ripe for development. It’s a bustling transit hub wedged in the middle of a suburb, with parallel tracks where BART riders can cross the platform and catch Caltrain, walk to a bus on El Camino Real, or ride one stop to the San Francisco International Airport.

San Jose school district asks voters to fund employee housing
EdSource
The East Side Union High School District in San Jose is banking on a proposed teacher housing project to make staff rent more affordable and to solve the district’s fiscal crisis. The school board unanimously voted last week to put a $60 million general obligation bond on the March 3 ballot to pay for a 100-unit apartment complex for teachers and staff.

Encinitas Is Suing the Residents Behind Controversial Housing Measure
Voice of San Diego
After years of defying California law, Encinitas is getting serious about housing. So serious, in fact, that local officials are suing as many as 100 residents behind a measure that’s prevented the city from implementing a new housing plan. Encinitas is trying to clarify a conflict between state law and its own local measure — a citizen-led initiative that allows voters to veto major land use changes. In effect, the city is dragging the most prominent backers of that measure, Proposition A, into court.

Vallco Battle Highlights Barriers To Building In The Bay Area
CBS SF Bay Area
The Bay Area earned a new title this year: the region is officially the most expensive place to build in the world. A new survey shows developers also claim they’re afraid to build in the Bay Area. Developer Candice Gonzalez knows why. While working as an affordable housing developer for Palo Alto Housing, she says she was harassed by community members for trying to build affordable housing for seniors several years ago.

San Gabriel Valley cities to band together to seek affordable housing funding
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
San Gabriel Valley cities will soon be able to band together to seek local, state and federal funding to build housing and fund services to reduce homelessness across the region. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 751, authored by state Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, which creates a trust for communities in the jurisdiction of the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments to fund and assist the homeless and people of extremely low, very low and low incomes.

Editorial: Marin’s higher building fees raise questions
Marin Independent Journal
Was Marin Supervisor Dennis Rodoni kidding when he commented that the overall 50% hike in county building fees he and his colleagues approved last week would be easier to swallow if it delivered improved customer service? Rodoni, a general contractor, knows the drill of getting building plans, permits and sign-offs through the county’s bureaucracy. Neither he nor his fellow builders expect such a commensurate response from the county.

HOMELESSNESS

As Homelessness Surges in California, So Does a Backlash
New York Times
Insults like “financial parasites” and “bums” have been directed at them, not to mention rocks and pepper spray. Fences, potted plants and other barriers have been erected to keep them off sidewalks. Citizen patrols have been organized, vigilante style, to walk the streets and push them out.

Housing The Homeless Is Actually Saving LA Money
LAist
The reality of California’s homeless crisis is that there is little social safety net to catch the very poorest residents before they fall to the streets. As more than 100,000 people find homes on California’s sidewalks, roadways and parks, the costs mount for local and state governments. Nowhere is this more acute than the state’s public health care system. Medi-Cal covers many homeless people’s escalating health needs as they become sicker while living outside.

Homelessness is declining in America
The Economist
Fifteen-hundred rubbish bins fill a room that stretches the length of an entire city block. Each one of the 60-gallon containers is neatly labelled and arrayed in a perfect line. Each holds the possessions of a homeless person or family. The facility, fittingly called The Bin, was set up by Chrysalis, a charity, to provide free storage for those living on the streets of Skid Row in Los Angeles.

Editorial: Californians say homelessness is the state’s top issue. The Bay Area shows why they’re right
San Francisco Chronicle
Californians have named homelessness as the most important issue facing the state today, according to a recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California. Their two other top issues — jobs and the economy, followed by housing costs — are closely related to homelessness.

Op-Ed: Death, homelessness and despair — all part of the job
San Francisco Chronicle
Death never gets any easier to stomach. At this point in my career, several decades in, I’ve seen it in many ways — witnessing executions, watching people burn to death in disasters, shot to death in gutters and war zones, torn apart by animals. But most of all, as I have specialized for many years now in homelessness, I’ve seen the poorest of the poor die. Penniless. Lost.