There will be more affordable housing in California: Newsom signed several laws

California is suffering from one of the worst housing crises in the country, driven by a persistent housing shortage. California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a number of bills that should help overcome the crisis, reports Insider.

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The Golden State is now home to a third of the country's homeless population. Low- and moderate-income residents are struggling to afford housing across the state.

After repeated promises to tackle the crisis, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than 50 housing bills into law this month. Housing advocates say overall it's a strong step toward eliminating burdensome regulations that make construction unreasonably expensive or impossible.

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“The wind is in our sails right now,” said Ned Reznikoff, political director of the housing advocacy group California YIMBY. “Efforts to solve the housing crisis in California are really building momentum.”

Here are some of the highlights of historic housing laws.

Accelerating housing construction

One of the major successes of this legislative session is the passage of several laws designed to ease restrictions imposed by California's Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. CEQA is a broad set of regulations designed to protect environmental concerns, but in recent years have become more notorious for slowing down or killing development of all types of housing.

“Almost anything under the sun can be considered an environmental impact under CEQA,” said Chris Elmendorf, a professor at the UC Davis School of Law. And the unpredictability of CEQA enforcement increases development costs.

In one particularly notorious example, local opponents of a proposed student housing building on the UC Berkeley campus embroiled the school in a lengthy legal battle over the construction. They argued that students living in the building would violate CEQA by creating noise pollution. The state appeals court sided with the building's critics. But the governor signed a bill that was unanimously passed by the Legislature that specifically stated that residential noise does not violate environmental regulations.

One bill signed by the governor, Senate Bill 423, expands on a successful 2017 law. The law accelerated the construction of thousands of mostly affordable homes by requiring local governments to approve multifamily infill developments in existing residential neighborhoods. The new law, sponsored by one of California's most outspoken lawmakers, state Sen. Scott Wiener, singles out San Francisco, which has struggled to meet state housing requirements, in part due to a lengthy approval process. The bill would require the city to conduct annual reviews and speed up construction of both market-rate and affordable housing.

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Another bill, Assembly Bill 1633, is intended to make it more difficult for cities to abuse CEQA to slow or disrupt the construction of multifamily infill housing if it meets local requirements.

“For the first time, the Legislature is saying, 'We really want this environmental review to be about the environment and not about stopping projects,'” said Elmendorf, who helped legislators craft AB 1633. He said the law reaffirmed “the principle that if a project meets rules, is located on the site and has sufficient building density, then the city cannot use environmental review as an excuse to reject projects that they are not legally permitted to reject.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the law was a "game changer" for her city, which has long been a poster child for the housing crisis.

“This is going to be an exciting time for housing in San Francisco,” Breed said during a panel at the Bloomberg CityLab conference in Washington on Oct. 19. “CEQA cannot be abused as it has been in the past.”

Another bill that has received a lot of attention, SB 4, would make it easier for nonprofit colleges, universities and religious organizations to build affordable housing on land they already own. The bill, also known as Yes in God's Backyard, would allow organizations to bypass certain environmental regulations. It allows homes to be built on church parking lots and other underused or surplus land. The UC Berkeley Turner Center for Housing Innovation found that more than 4 hectares of land could be developed under SB 68.

Reznikoff said faith-based organizations are particularly well positioned to provide housing to low-income and even unhoused community members.

“We have a network of mission organizations across the state, many of which would be interested and willing to provide housing in their communities for vulnerable members of society. This is a way to provide that opportunity,” he said.

Some disappointments

While Elmendorf believes the overall progress made on housing policy this legislative session has been positive, he lamented the failure of a couple of bills. These bills would increase housing density in single-family neighborhoods by legalizing lot subdivisions. The bills were rejected by the Legislature, which Elmendorf said shows lawmakers' continued reticence to confront homeowners.

Many housing advocates are also disappointed that Newsom vetoed AB 309, a bill to create “social housing” on public land. The proposal, authored by South Bay Assemblymember Alex Lee, would have piloted mixed-income housing on public land.

“Just like roads, libraries and schools. No matter how rich or poor you are, you still have the right to go read a book or send your children to public school. It’s the same with housing,” Lee said.

Lee said he modeled the proposal on social housing programs in Vienna and Singapore that have long been praised by housing advocates in the U.S. and around the world.

“If a humble central European country and a modest trading commercial country in Southeast Asia can succeed with vast experience in building social housing, then why can't the most prosperous state and the most prosperous nation in the history of mankind do so too?” he said.

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The bill passed the Legislature, but Newsom vetoed it, saying the state did not have the budgetary capacity to carry out the project. Reznikoff, whose organization supported the effort, said the state's fiscal conditions make it very difficult to implement housing policies that require funding.

Advocates are quick to point out that California's housing policies have ramifications far beyond its borders. She has already inspired the whole country.

Reznikoff said he sees many similarities between California's reforms and New York Mayor Eric Adams' recently proposed housing reforms. How effectively California addresses housing affordability issues also directly impacts housing markets in other states. The migration of Californians to places like Texas and Oregon has put additional pressure on those states to provide even more housing.

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