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NOTE: The opinions expressed in the news items cited here do not necessarily represent the opinion of Catalysts for Local Control. We try to present a balanced picture of the news on the subject of housing and legislation.
Malibu, fires, and the Mandate for Endless Growth
Posted by: Zelda Bronstein –
January 14, 2025
“California will force Malibu and other towns to add housing. Here’s why that’s not nearly enough.”
So reads the headline on an op-ed published by the Los Angeles Times on May 5, 2024. The authors are Paavo Monkkonen, a professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA, and Aaron Barrall, a housing data analyst at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. Monkkonen is one of the most vocal advocates of the Yimby build-baby-build agenda.
Developers making millions from ‘affordable housing’ program lobbied California lawmakers to shut down regulation
By KATE TALERICO
UPDATED: January 2, 2025
Developers who have reaped millions of dollars from an affordable housing program for middle-income renters with sometimes little-to-no discounts from market rents have spent hundreds of thousands on lobbying and campaign donations in recent years in a bid to keep lawmakers from imposing regulations. The expenditures represent a fraction of the $32 million the California real estate industry as a whole spent on lobbying the state legislature and the executive branch in the past three years.
Billions Spent On Homelessness, Yet It Is Still Increasing. Why?
Dick Platkin
December 26 2024
The city, county, and state of California are spending billions to eliminate homelessness, yet the number of homeless people is still increasing. For example, by mid-2023, the State of California had spent $17.5 billion on homelessness. LA County has allocated about $800 million for fiscal year 2024-25, and the City of Los Angeles has budgeted $961 million. Let me explain why I think the numbers of homeless and overcrowded people are still increasing, despite so much local spending. The problem is NOT a housing shortage.
Marin Voice: To save Democratic Party, Bay Area must build more homes
By DAVID NEWMAN
December 23, 2024
There is a startling contradiction at the heart of Bay Area politics. On the one hand, the Bay Area is an unabashed “blue” stronghold, defining itself by its support for diversity and tolerance. Yet its resistance to building new homes cuts against these values. Experts have proven that suppressing housing is fundamentally regressive, massively increasing segregation, per-capita carbon emissions and rents. The opposition to development is kneecapping the Democratic Party on a national level.
How a Yimby candidate with little experience became Berkeley’s next mayor
By Zelda Bronstein
December 19, 2024
Berkeley’s new mayor, education consultant Adena Ishii, is a Yimby with scant experience in the town’s governance and politics. To be sure, Berkeley has had a Yimby mayor for most of the past eight years. But Jesse Arreguín’s Yimbyism was an acquired taste. He was first elected mayor in 2016 on an anti-Yimby platform. Shortly after taking office, he jumped onto the antidemocratic, “pro-housing” bandwagon.
Why Has The Price Of Housing Increased Faster Than Incomes?
Dick Platkin
December 19 2024
Most Angelenos know that the cost of housing has risen much faster than family incomes in recent decades. The above chart reveals that in LA County the cost of housing has soared since 1970 while median family income has barely moved. The result is that housing in Los Angeles – like most of the US – is increasingly unaffordable. This is why so many people double-up, become homeless, or move to cheaper housing markets. They have been priced out of market housing, and the option of public housing barely exists.
An Open letter to Gavin Newsom from Fairfax
Posted by: Teliha Draheim
December 16, 2024
Dear Governor Newsom,
Though we welcome you and your family to Marin County, the spreading boondoggle you have created pertaining to affordable housing in California will soon land in your own backyard.
Californians, as residents of the fifth largest economy in the world, have the reasonable expectation that State policy decision making is evidence-based.
Investors Behind the US Housing Affordability Crisis
Chuck Collins
December 16 2024
BILLIONAIRES & HOUSING – The housing affordability crisis – and how to solve it – has become a major focus during election season, for good reason. Millions of American families struggle to afford and keep a roof over their heads, find themselves unsheltered, or have become frustrated in the hope of owning their own home. The over-focus on expanding housing supply through for-profit development misses a key contributor to the housing crisis: the concentration of wealth and power.
Fewer people are living together in the Bay Area — and it’s driving up housing demand
By Kota Suzuki, Data team intern
Dec 16, 2024
The average Bay Area household is getting smaller. According to experts, that means more housing is required to accommodate a stagnating Bay Area population.
The shrinkage in household size can largely be attributed to young people living solo as well as older empty-nesters. The trend isn’t unique to the Bay Area — both ends of the age spectrum are increasingly opting to live with fewer people, a shift that is undoubtedly impacting the housing market.