Solving the Housing and Homelessness Crisis
Housing touches everything
...from family life, health outcomes and climate emissions to education, infrastructure, workforce and poverty. The high cost of housing in California weighs on our state in so many ways. To build more affordable multi-family and single-family housing in metropolitan regions without increasing sprawl, we need to reduce or eliminate the myriad regulatory and process-related roadblocks that exist today.
California's housing problem is at its core a problem of supply and demand. We are building 100K homes annually when the state's Dept. of Housing & Community Development estimates we should be building at least 180K. McKinsey has estimated the overall housing gap to be ~3.5M. Supply constraints mean high prices and limited access, with low income Californians bearing the weight of the crisis.
Supply constraints drive the housing crisis
Policies for building more homes
Reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)...
...to prohibit anonymously-filed or duplicative lawsuits.
Streamline the Post-Entitlement Permitting Process...
...to make it easier and faster to build much-needed new housing.
Legalize multi-family housing...
...and make it legal to build affordable, multi-family homes in wealthy neighborhoods, and in areas with abundant resources like schools, transit, jobs, and health care services.
Provide more public funding for subsidized and social/public housing...
...to ensure low-, very-low, and unemployed Californians have safe, secure housing without rent burden.
Make it faster, cheaper, and easier to build homes ...
...by eliminating excessive fees, arbitrary regulatory hurdles, and other roadblocks local governments establish to delay or deny housing.
Reform the Regional Housing Needs Assessment...
...by tying regional and state funding mechanisms to compliance with RHNA allocations and basing RHNA compliance on the number of housing units approved and actually built.
Enforce existing law...
...including issuance of Certificates of Occupancy, partial release of subdivision bonds as required by the Map Act, and authorizing the CA Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) enforcement of existing Housing Law.
