Governor’s Plan To Fix California’s Housing Crisis Faces Big Challenges

Speaker 1: 00:00 When he was campaigning for governor Gavin Newsome promised a lot, specifically around the housing issue. The governor announced a number of plans to close the enormous housing gap. The state now faces, but a new report out today from the Los Angeles time shows that nine months into the governor's term, not everything is working out so well. Joining us now is author of that report, LA times reporter Liam Dillon. Liam, welcome. Thank you. So one of the things the governor campaigned hard on was the number of 3.5 million new homes, 500,000 a year to be built to get us out of the housing crisis. But right now the numbers are moving in the opposite direction. What does that have to say? Uh, what does he have to say rather about that? Speaker 2: 00:44 Right. And so just to put in context for, for folks, uh, the governor promised three and a half million homes to be built between now and 2025. So that's 500,000 a year, which would it be a pace that would more than quadruple sort of the state's current levels of production? So a huge, huge, huge boost. Something we haven't seen at least since the mid 1950s in California. Right. And certainly not at a sustained level. And so what we're seeing now is the numbers kind of trending in the opposite direction. Um, you know, per hit, potentially less houses built this year than last year. The governor's response, you know, is lucky, really can't snap your fingers and, uh, get, uh, you know, a bunch of hundreds of thousands of housing permits overnight. Um, and so that's kind of, uh, you know, that's kind of where we're at in, you know, that being said, however, um, the governor shouldn't, did not put forward, um, and did not ultimately advance and measure that would substantially increase housing production this year. Speaker 1: 01:38 Newsome does point to some successes with this. Notably getting the red cap legislation through that was a pretty big accomplishment. Right? Speaker 2: 01:45 Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, he can point to a number of things that got done, uh, you know, this year that were big struggles in, in years past. He, you know, added around $3 billion, uh, for housing and homelessness initiatives, which really helped ours really, you know, going to help, um, you know, finance new housing for low income residents. Also the rent cap to um, California can sort of credibly claim to have one of the strongest, if not the strongest, um, uh, provisions across the country to protect renters from being, uh, from uh, from facing sort of gigantic rent increases are being evicted. Speaker 1: 02:16 Part of the problem the governor is running up against is resistance from cities across the state to mandates on new housing construction. In the case of Huntington beach, there are lawsuits pending. How does he plan to deal with pushback from cities? Speaker 2: 02:30 Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, he's, he's promised that a intern next year will be the year. Like he's really going to take on some of the local goals that may prevent, may prevent a building. But yes, part of the problem is, you know, when you do that longstanding issue in California, politics were locals, cities and counties generally have the authority to decide what's going to be built in their communities. And so if you try to unwind that as the governor seems to be trying to do, trying to do, and you're going to face resistance, and that means lawsuits, that means those things may take a long time themselves to resolve. Speaker 1: 03:02 The governor is also running into resistance from his fellow Democrats in the legislature when he threatened to withhold state transportation dollars from cities that didn't approve new housing, the Democrats pushed back. Um, if he's facing that kind of resistance from his own party, what does that mean in terms of being able to work together on this issue? Speaker 2: 03:21 I think it really goes to show how hard this issue is and not necessarily, it's not necessarily as partisan as maybe some of the other issues say for instance, immigration or our ways to address the economy or even health care, things like that, which generally stands to fall under partisan lines and housing. You know, you have a number of folks, um, who think differently, think very differently about the role of local government, the role of the state, how much money should be, um, uh, uh, you know, advanced, uh, the role of local zoning laws. And so a number of the governor's housing initiatives have been opposed by Democrats and in fact, sort of the biggest hope, biggest profile, a housing bill of the year, one that would have allowed for, um, you know, more, uh, density and single family homes and, and your transit and, and your job centers that was, you know, shaped and ultimately held by prominent Democrats in the legislature. So, uh, ultimately this is an argument among Democrats as it is among anybody else in the state. Speaker 1: 04:16 And Newsome has called on the States rich tech companies to chip in to build affordable housing. How's that working out? Speaker 2: 04:23 So in January, he called on a, said he was planning to have $500 million from tech companies this year to, to, to, to help build a sort of housing for their employees. That didn't happen, um, throughout the budget process. Um, but however, uh, today, uh, Facebook announced that they were going to be contributing $250 million to the state. And so the governor, my interview with him, uh, hinted that something big was coming. This is certainly something big and sounds like he's now halfway towards his goal though it might be a year late, Speaker 1: 04:51 the former director of the state department of housing and community development under Newsome and former governor Jerry Brown, also a say Newsome sweeping agenda on not only housing but healthcare and criminal justice reform means he can't focus on any one issue. What is the governor's reaction to that criticism? Speaker 2: 05:11 Yeah, that's actually a common criticism of the governor. And his first year he had this sort of very broad portfolio promising a lot of things and a lot of different areas. And it sort of the argument being that if you do that, it's very, very hard to kind of go deep on a, on, on any one of them. Um, and so the governor firmly reject did that, uh, that idea he said he was very happy with what he did. And, and housing this year, I'm acknowledge that there were still obviously a lot more things to do, but it's again, did not, did not at all concede that he was not focused on housing this year. Speaker 1: 05:40 And your article, it seemed the governor got a bit defensive and answering some of your questions. Is that the way he came across in person? Speaker 2: 05:47 You know, it was a cordial conversation. Um, I think that he understands the extent to which that housing is central to his agenda central to which the, the, the sort of the state is evaluated. I mean, one really good point on that is California has the nation's highest poverty rate, uh, only when housing costs are taking into consideration. And so this is really central to kind of, you know, really everything that, that, that, that, that, that, that is getting done right now in California. And so he understands he will be judged on that, particularly with all the big promises he made. Obviously this is his first year of his tenure. But in order to kind of change the mechanics and, uh, and get the wheels to move in a different direction and housing really have to start early and you really have to start big. I've been speaking with Liam Dillon of the Los Angeles times. Liam, thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker 3: 06:41 [inaudible].