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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.

Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy quietly cuts funding for affordable housing, homelessness groups

Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy quietly cuts funding for affordable housing, homelessness groups

By KATE TALERICO
May 2, 2025

In April 2024, Priscilla Chan sat on a stage during the five-year anniversary celebration for a housing initiative that she and husband Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy had seeded with a $50 million commitment. A year later, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has made a sharp reversal on its commitment to housing. CZI is quietly ending funding for a number of California housing organizations, telling many of the advocacy groups that it will not renew their grants going forward.

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When California politicians ignore policy risks, failure and scandal often result

When California politicians ignore policy risks, failure and scandal often result

Dan Walters
May 1, 2025

California’s governors and legislators have a very bad habit of enacting major programs and projects without fully exploring their downside risks. The most spectacular example occurred in 1996, when a Republican governor, Pete Wilson, and a Democrat-controlled Legislature decided to overhaul California’s electric power industry.The legislation was hammered out in lengthy and secret negotiations. It was enacted with only cursory public input.

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LA Mayor Karen Bass’ budget calls for 80% drop in financing of new affordable housing

LA Mayor Karen Bass’ budget calls for 80% drop in financing of new affordable housing

By David Wagner
Published Apr 23, 2025

Facing a nearly $1 billion deficit, the city of Los Angeles is set to finance much less affordable housing over the next year under a proposed budget released this week by Mayor Karen Bass. The budget calls for a nearly 80% drop in city financing of new affordable housing units, declining from 770 homes in the current fiscal year to 160 homes in the next fiscal year. Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Bass said economic conditions are increasingly unfavorable to housing development.

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Aspirational goal becomes a wrecking ball

Aspirational goal becomes a wrecking ball

By Ann Duwe
Apr 22, 2025

When Governor Gavin Newsom declared he wanted 2.5 million new housing units in California, he failed to see how his “aspirational goal” would transform the Golden State into a matrix for high-rise, rental development. Newsom’s number became the basis for the 6th-cycle RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) numbers, the outsized housing demands now at the heart of every city’s housing element.

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Bill to Reform Controversial California Environmental Law Clears First Legislative Hurdle

Bill to Reform Controversial California Environmental Law Clears First Legislative Hurdle

Adhiti Bandlamudi
Apr 22, 2025

A bill to exempt some housing projects from a controversial California law that pro-building activists blame for slowing down development cleared its first legislative hurdle this week.
On Monday, the State Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee approved AB 609, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Berkeley), which would exempt infill housing projects built within existing cities from review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

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Bills are taking aim at land use

Bills are taking aim at land use

By Kate Talerico
April 20, 2025

For years, this lot just south of the West Oakland BART station has sat vacant. This was supposed to be housing — a 222-unit tower with 16 apartments set aside for low-income renters. But soon after Oakland’s planning commission signed off on the project, the decision was appealed. A coalition of trade unions, using the California Environmental Quality Act, demanded that the developer conduct more studies to assess the soil’s contamination levels — a process that could hold up construction for months.

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Emotions Run Hot Against Large Housing Projects in Manhattan Beach

Emotions Run Hot Against Large Housing Projects in Manhattan Beach

By Dave Fratello
Apr 20, 2025

Statistically speaking, there must be some people in Manhattan Beach who support a series of large new residential development projects currently under consideration by the city.

But at a forum hosted by city officials April 9, no such voices were in evidence, and opposition seemed to be universal from a boisterous, overflow crowd at the Joslyn Center.

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Senate Bill 79 – Another Housing Rip-off from the California State Senate

Senate Bill 79 – Another Housing Rip-off from the California State Senate

By Dick Platkin
April 17, 2025

Are your lying eyes still deceiving you? Do you see vacancy signs on unrented apartments and houses in your neighborhood, yet you are repeatedly told that Los Angeles has so much homelessness and overcrowding because of a housing shortage? No, your eyes are not deceiving you; those vacancy signs are for real, and the claims of a general housing shortage are fabricated. They are a ruse because the homeless and overcrowded do not have enough money to rent or buy vacant apartments or houses.

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