Even before 2020, the United States faced an acute housing affordability crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic made it a whole lot worse after millions of people who lost their jobs fell behind on rent. While eviction bans forestalled mass homelessness — and emergency rental assistance has helped some — most moratoriums have now been lifted, putting a lot of people at risk of losing their homes.
the battle over SB9 — which could ultimately help add hundreds of thousands of homes across the state by allowing up to four units on some properties that had just one before — is ramping up again before the law takes effect in January, as cities that opposed the measure move to limit its impact on their communities.
A tragedy of our current time is the state’s reliance on mandates, quotas, and coercion to solve a human need for housing.
A Marin Voice Opinion by Susan Kirsch published in the Marin Independent Journal.
Catalysts launched in March 2021 in response to a barrage of housing bills. The bills dismantle local control over planning and land use and bestow authority to unelected bureaucrats in regional agencies and the state Housing and Community Development Department (HCD). The bills are often based on inaccurate numbers and the unproven pretense that cities are to blame for the housing crisis.
In September, Newsom signed Senate Bill 9 into law. Among other things, SB 9
“would require a local agency to ministerially approve a parcel map for an urban lot split that meets certain requirements, including, but not limited to, that the urban lot split would not require the demolition or alteration of housing that is subject to a recorded covenant, ordinance, or law that restricts rents to levels affordable to persons and families of moderate, low, or very low income.”
