Learn how housing policy is climate policy and what you can do to bring about positive change.

The 2023 legislative session in Sacramento was a landmark moment for pro-housing advocates. From reforming CEQA to addressing the post-entitlement process, California legislators passed a number of significant housing bills that will undoubtedly help accelerate housing production across our state.

With the overwhelming success of the latest legislative session, getting multifamily housing entitled and permitted will soon be faster and easier than ever. HAC is proud to be one of the driving forces behind these recent wins as our ongoing efforts to collaborate with state and local elected officials to break down critical barriers to housing production are starting to pay off.

As the California Legislative Session concludes today, it’s safe to say that pro-housing advocates came out on top. 

In terms of the bills HAC sponsored this session, all three have been approved by the Legislature and now await Governor Newsom’s signature.

The Housing Action Coalition is continuing to work with the Mayor’s office, other city leaders and allied advocacy groups as San Francisco works to implement its Housing Element. Last week, in a 10-1 vote, the Board of Supervisors passed two pieces of legislation that deferred and reduced inclusionary requirements and impact fees. The legislation came after the City’s Technical Advisory Committee met for months in an effort to determine an economically feasible inclusionary rate. While HAC pushed for 100% of all fees to be waived as means to help projects ‘pencil’, we understand the political reality. The reduction in fees, according to the feasibility analysis done by HAC member Century Urban, will not be enough to get entitled projects moving. Therefore, the City of SF must continue to explore creative ways to reduce the timeline and cost of construction for new housing.

To alleviate our severe housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis it’s essential to enact new policies that make it faster and easier to build more homes for residents of all income levels.

Among the myriad obstacles facing California home builders one of the most frustrating is the long and arduous process to get a housing project built. In San Francisco, a city infamous for its laborious approval and permitting process, it can take as long as 10 years for an affordable housing project to have people move in. These inordinate delays substantially drive up building costs and can often derail a project.  

The California Legislature recently approved  a critical bill designed to speed up California’s lagging housing production by addressing inefficiencies in the permitting process – AB 2234 (Rivas) Planning and zoning: housing: post entitlement phase permits. This common-sense legislation brings certainty to the building permit acquisition process after local housing developments are approved.

As San Francisco’s housing crisis has grown progressively worse, so too has our city’s discourse around housing. Having spent the past six years working to advance evidence-based solutions to SF’s housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis, it’s been alarming to watch housing conversations become increasingly devoid of facts. What’s worse, much of the inaccuracy is coming directly from SF Supervisors themselves. 

Last month, I wrote about the Affordable Homes Now ballot measure backed by Mayor Breed and led by HAC and a coalition of pro-housing, labor, and environmental organizations that will make it faster and easier to build new homes in San Francisco that are affordable to low and middle-income San Franciscans and teachers.

While HAC started as a San Francisco based organization focused on supporting homebuilders to get their projects approved, over the past couple of years the breadth and scope of our work have expanded immensely. 

With so many factors contributing to the Bay Area and California’s housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis, pro-housing advocates need to press for a myriad of solutions to alleviate our housing headaches.

HAC staff and board members were joined for a June 25 Regulatory Committee meeting by Darin Ranelletti, Oakland’s Policy Director for Housing Security, to learn more about proposed changes to Oakland’s planning and building codes which are intended to address housing affordability. These proposals follow ideas from the 2016 Oakland at Home report, also known as the 17k 17k report, which identified strategies for addressing affordability. With funding from MTC and ABAG, Oakland was able to explore one of the issues identified in 2016, cost of construction, and produce a new report, Innovation in Oakland. 

With the appointment of former Assemblymember Rob Bonta to California Attorney General, there will be a special election to fill the seat for Assembly for California Assembly District 18 (AD-18). Governor Gavin Newsom declared the primary for this special election will be held on June 29, with the general election to follow on August 31. 

San Francisco may be considered one of the country’s most progressive cities, but you’d never know it by looking at its land use policies. With nearly 75% of SF currently zoned for low density, it is currently illegal to build small fourplex homes in most parts of the city. This explains why our severe housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis has only worsened exponentially decade after decade and reveals a wildly irresponsible lack of leadership from our Board of Supervisors.

t’s been a busy several weeks in (virtually) Sacramento as our team has been covering hearings, advocating for and against (but mostly for) 26 pieces of legislation, and closely monitoring numerous other housing and housing-related bills. 

The Housing Action Coalition is excited to announce that for the first time in HAC’s history, we’re co-sponsoring a piece of legislation in Sacramento! This is an excellent opportunity to build on our years of advocacy work and collaborate with pro-housing leaders to help build much-needed homes across California.

When President Joe Biden was elected, and HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge was confirmed, housing advocates hoped for a sea change in federal housing policy to address America’s skyrocketing housing shortage and affordability crisis.

Earlier this month, the Housing Action Coalition met with San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. As the supervisor of District 8 (The Castro, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, and Glen Park), Supervisor Mandelman recognizes the need to build more much-needed multi-family housing, especially within his own district. His much-publicized “Monster Homes” legislation will attempt to address just that.

HAC was delighted to welcome Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín to a recent Regulatory Committee meeting and discuss his views on housing in Berkeley and the broader Bay Area.