California's housing crisis is a long-term and systemic imbalance between supply and demand, rooted in decades of policy failures, exclusionary zoning, and political resistance to growth, and will not be solved by short-term market shifts or a few temporary price drops.
California's proposed budget for 2025-26 has cut funding for the state's main homelessness program, leaving cities and counties reliant on other sources to continue providing services and housing for homeless individuals.
Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild argues that the deep sense of loss and dislocation in working-class America is being ignored by both major political parties, fueling loyalty to former President Donald Trump, and suggests that Democrats need to build coalitions that can offer a competing vision to restore dignity to working-class voters.
Incarcerated individuals at Salinas Valley State Prison have launched a hunger strike to protest ongoing violations of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's reforms, including arbitrary lockdowns and denial of access to rehabilitative programming.