California lawmakers made an effort in 2023 to remove red tape around building new houses.

More than 100 developers backing 240 projects with approximately 20,000 proposed affordable housing units applied to the state's Housing and Community Development Department for more than $3.5 billion, but the state only has $576 million to award. 

Why did the homelessness crisis become more dire in 2023, even as the Legislature passed more affordable housing laws? Home prices and rents are still increasing.

Speaker Robert Rivas seems to be laying the institutional groundwork for an aggressively pro-housing legislature next year.

I am concerned about how we, as a city and county, are spending our taxpayers’ funds to address the homelessness crisis.

Housing developments will now be more streamlined with less red tape, density laws can be overruled in the interest of housing, and institutions like colleges or religious organizations can now use portions of their property to build housing.

A patchwork of bills is giving housing developers and local governments more options to reduce red tape for housing projects.

The definition of "adequate shelter" is at the heart of debates raging across California in the five years since a federal appeals court ruled that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to evict homeless people from public spaces when they have no other options.

Instead of the two-thirds supermajority required for local bond measures, legislators are considering a proposed threshold of  55%. Had that standard been in place in 2018, San Jose, Santa Cruz County, Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Rosa would have been granted the power to borrow a total of $2.26 billion.

Three of the biggest housing bonds in state history are bound for the 2024 ballot. But with no shortage of crises facing the state, California can only borrow so much and voters may succumb to bond fatigue.

San Jose’s homelessness response team visited Houston earlier this year. They came away jealous of some advantages Houston has over California cities.

People who fail to grasp the big picture, or choose to ignore the combined impacts of poor planning, discriminatory zoning practices and the complexities required to fund affordable housing projects are among the first to argue passionately how much they feel sorry for the homeless – but just as passionately argue that they shouldn’t be allowed to live in their neighborhoods.

A bill to tax Airbnb and other short-term rentals to fund affordable housing projects could be voted on by the Senate as soon as today. The proposal has revived the debate over Airbnb and its role in the housing crisis.

When will the law of supply and demand cool California’s housing market? The state is losing population as it builds homes at its fastest clip in a decade.

Atlanta-based Pulte Group contends its Quito Village project doesn’t need to abide by the original developer’s first-of-its-kind union-hiring standard set by a new housing law.

California cities of every size lack shelter beds for the state’s growing homeless population. A new bill would force local governments to do more, and punish cities that don’t plan housing for unhoused residents.