The Sacramento Area Council of Governments has released a draft plan for the 2025 Blueprint, which aims to accommodate 580,000 new residents, 278,000 new homes, and 263,000 jobs by 2050, while promoting equity, transportation efficiency, and climate resilience, and is open for public comment until August 8.
A new report from the Gender Equity Policy Institute found that women, especially Black women, single mothers, senior women, and women living alone, are disproportionately affected by California’s housing affordability crisis, and recommends increasing state investment in affordable housing, streamlining the permitting process, preserving existing affordable units, and integrating gender equality perspectives into housing policy.
SB 61, authored by Sen. Dave Cortese, aims to ease financial strain on contractors by reducing the amount of money withheld from construction contractors and subcontractors on private projects from 10 percent to 5 percent, bringing private-sector rules in line with public works standards.
Protests erupted in Los Angeles and across the country as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids intensified in California, a self-declared sanctuary state, while the federal government’s authority over state and local criminal justice systems was questioned.
Governor Gavin Newsom responded to Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ claims of California’s governance problems by pointing out that the highest murder rates in the country are in red states, and that California’s homicide rate is lower than Arkansas’ and other red states.
The Trump administration is actively undermining the Emergency Housing Voucher program, which helps thousands of vulnerable Californians secure housing, in order to push them back onto the streets, and is also using bureaucratic means to punish organizations that serve marginalized communities.
California lawmakers are focusing on increasing housing supply, but neglecting the people suffering most from the housing crisis, and the powerful landlord lobby is preventing meaningful tenant protections.
California’s joint budget plan for fiscal year 2025–26 does not include funding for the state’s primary program to address homelessness, HHAP, and instead only includes $50 million for the Department of Housing and Community Development’s operations.
The House reconciliation bill claims to promote affordable housing but is actually a massive assault on social services, Medicaid, SNAP, and immigration protections, ultimately exacerbating California’s housing crisis and pushing more people into homelessness.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a strong rebuke to President Trump’s unauthorized use of federal military power in Los Angeles, calling it authoritarianism and warning of the dangers of a country sliding into tyranny.
California’s housing crisis remains a major challenge, with cities struggling to meet production targets and state leaders failing to invest in solutions, despite promising local models and political will.
California is seeing a shift in the politics of housing, with new state legislation and a shift in the balance of power tilting towards reform, and while there are still challenges to overcome, the fight is no longer on the same old terrain.
California has launched the Statewide Mobile Monitoring Initiative, a program that will deploy vehicles to collect air pollution data in 64 communities to improve public health and air quality.
California is making progress in addressing its housing crisis with the passage of Senate Bill 79 and efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act, but the cost of building affordable housing remains a major obstacle.
SB 79, a bill authored by Senator Scott Wiener, aims to legalize mid-rise housing near transit stops and on land owned by local transit agencies, allowing for up to seven story buildings and permitting transit agencies to build housing at the same or greater density.
Rent control is a useful and underutilized tool in addressing California’s housing crisis, according to a study by USC, UCLA, and UC Berkeley, which finds that moderate rent stabilization can increase tenant housing stability and reduce gentrification-fueled displacement.
California State Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab is pushing a package of 13 bills to address the state’s affordability crisis, including measures to prevent digital discrimination, protect tenants from eviction, and streamline rebuilding processes in disaster-affected areas.
A panel of federal judges has ruled that President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on imports from around the world was unlawful, leading to the permanent injunction of the tariffs and the winding down of tariff enforcement.
SB 750, authored by Senator Dave Cortese, would allow California to use its own credit to finance stalled housing projects, potentially unlocking funds for hundreds of thousands of homes and addressing the state’s persistent housing shortage.
California’s housing crisis is causing middle-income families to be priced out of the state, with only 87,000 homes built annually and a shortage of “missing middle” housing, leading to increased commutes and displacement of households of color.