Special to the Vanguard
Sacramento, CA – The Senate passed Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 423, legislation to extend Senator Wiener’s SB 35 (2017), one of the state’s most successful tools for accelerating development of affordable housing. The bill passed 29-5 with bipartisan support and heads next to the Assembly, where it must pass by September 14.
“Taking steps to strengthen and extend SB 35, one of our strongest tools to boost housing production, is an absolutely essential step to tackle the crisis of housing affordability,” said Senator Wiener. “Cities across California are relying on this legislation to meet their housing goals. I’m delighted by 
the growing support this bill has attracted from my colleagues, the labor movement, anti-poverty groups, and business leaders, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Assembly to advance the bill further.”
SB 35’s streamlined approvals have proved to be enormously successful at increasing affordable housing production in communities failing to keep pace with their housing goals—helping develop over 18,000 units of affordable housing and tens of thousands of high-wage jobs in the four years since it went into effect.
With the law sunsetting at the end of 2025, Sen. Wiener’s new bill, SB 423, would extend its provisions—and add strong new labor standards signed into law last year by Governor Newsom that will ensure it continues to produce both affordable housing and stable, high-wage jobs for California workers. The bill has drawn support from a wide range of construction unions, including the California Conference of Carpenters, the the District Council of Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ of Northern California, Northern California District Council of Laborers, the Southern California District Council of Laborers, and the California-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers. Together, these unions represent the majority of residential construction workers in California.
SB 423 is sponsored by the California Housing Consortium, California Conference of Carpenters, the Inner City Law Center, the Local Initiative Support Corporation, and California YIMBY.
More excellent news on the housing front with mustard and ketchup on top.
So now it heads to the Assembly.
What does Aguiar-Curry think of it?
Fortunately, the new “strong labor standards” might end up being a poison pill, if it’s enacted.
But you can clearly see the effects of lobbying, and “who” actually has power at the capitol. (At least, one of the interests.) This is also the reason for the “choices” presented to voters in the first place.