The Homework: May 11, 2026
Welcome to the May 11, 2026 Main edition of The Homework, the official newsletter of California YIMBY — legislative updates, news clips, housing research and analysis, and the latest writings from the California YIMBY team.
News from Sacramento
We’re in full swing in Sacramento, and several of California YIMBY’s sponsored and priority bills have cleared their policy committees. Here’s where everything stands as we head into the appropriations phase of the session.
Headed to the Senate Floor
- SB 1117 (Cervantes): Bypassing Appropriations due to minimal fiscal impact to the state; headed directly to the Senate Floor. Removes the financial penalty many jurisdictions impose on ADUs over 750 sq ft, lowering the cost to build them.
Cleared Policy Committees and Heading to Appropriations
- AB 1903 (Wicks): Allows builders to fix problems in newly constructed homes before costly legal fees and court proceedings are triggered, reducing housing costs and increasing homeownership opportunities.
- AB 2074 (Haney): Streamlines construction of high-rise residential and mixed-use buildings near regional transit hubs in California’s largest cities.
- SB 1116 (Caballero): Makes improvements to state housing law to lower costs and speed construction of smaller, lower-cost starter homes.
- SB 1014 (Grayson): Requires cities to disclose all infrastructure requirements — sidewalks, sewers, etc. — within 30 days of a housing application, and prohibits adding new requirements after permit application.
Passed the Full Assembly and Awaiting Senate Committee Hearings
- AB 1406 (Ward): Raises limits on homebuyer deposits in new developments, reducing risks for builders and expanding pathways to affordable homeownership.
- AB 1070 (Ward): Directs state agencies to study whether applying the residential building code to small multi-family projects could accelerate construction of “missing middle” housing.
Awaiting a Committee Hearing Date
- AB 1294 (Haney): Creates a standard, statewide application process for new home construction, making it faster and cheaper for builders to complete applications.
- AB 956 (Quirk-Silva): Allows homeowners to build up to two detached ADUs on a single-family lot
SB 1216 (Cabaldon) will not move forward this session. The bill would have created a housing leadership designation recognizing cities and counties that demonstrate measurable progress in building new homes. We remain committed to this issue and will pursue it in the future.
Be sure to follow California YIMBY’s Twitter and Bluesky to get more up-to-date news on housing policy, legislation, and research. If you find this newsletter valuable, forward it to a friend! And if you want to support these bills in Sacramento, sign up for Lobby Day on May 19.
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Housing Research & Analysis
Building in Harm’s Way: Is the Pacific Northwest Headed for Trouble?
Wildfire hazard zones across the Pacific Northwest are expanding — and according to Sightline Institute, so is the public cost. Nearly 1.6 million residents lived in high-risk areas in 2023, up 8 percent since 2018, with population growing fastest in fire-prone places in nearly every Northwest state. That growth has consequences: the four-state region spent $620 million on suppression in 2024 alone, funded largely through statewide taxes.
In Fire Hazard: The Mounting Costs of Northwest Sprawl, Ricardo Pelai and Emily Moore of the Sightline Institute analyze how sprawl development in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana creates escalating economic and health burdens. The authors investigate the socioeconomic divide of fire risk – and who bears the cost of fire-prone developments.
Key Takeaways:
- Affluent growth in fire country. Between 2013 and 2023, high-income communities in wildfire-prone areas grew more than twice as fast as lower-income ones nearby. Today, one in three fire-exposed northwesterners lives in a relatively well-off neighborhood.
- Vulnerable communities are stuck. About 40 percent of northwesterners in wildfire-prone areas live in lower-income communities, meaning fewer savings to fireproof homes, handle rising insurance costs, or rebuild somewhere safer after a fire
- Regionwide cost-shifting. Roughly 80 percent of northwesterners live outside high-hazard zones, yet statewide taxes fund suppression, insurance pools spread risk across all policyholders, and smoke makes the health costs borderless
How the Neighbors Raise Your Rent: The Spillover Effect of Apartment Bans
What happens to rents in low-income neighborhoods when their wealthier suburban neighbors block new apartment projects? According to a new national study, the rent goes up – by an average of about $27 a month.
Most research on exclusionary zoning has focused on costs within the communities that adopt it; this study finds the harm spills across the region, falling on low-income renters miles away.
In “The Cumulative Exposure to Exclusionary Zoning in Impoverished Neighborhoods,” Matthew Mleczko examines whether sustained exposure to restrictive local zoning is associated with rent levels and housing hardship in lower-income communities over time. They draw on two periods of zoning policy — the mid-2000s and the early 2020s — to test whether persistent zoning restrictions accumulate harm over time.
Key Takeaways:
- Rents climb: Poor neighborhoods in regions that had more restrictive zoning, in both time periods measured, had median monthly rents roughly $54 higher than those in less restrictive regions.
- Burden spreads: Poor neighborhoods in cities with restrictive zoning, in both time periods, had about 2 percent more rent-burdened households than poor neighborhoods in less restrictive cities.
- Affordable stock shrinks: Regions with more restrictive zoning, in both measured time periods, had 2–4 percent fewer homes affordable to low-income households than those with less restrictive zoning, and the shortage was not just in poor neighborhoods but regionwide.
Houser Headlines
- California governor candidates race to claim pro-housing mantle
- This law could ease the building of apartment towers in California’s biggest cities
- Housing bill could help save California’s struggling downtowns
- These 2 cities enacted upzoning policies to boost housing development. It’s working, study says.
- Parking reform is reshaping housing policy
- Where are all the cranes?
- A starter home is whatever we want it to be
- The housing affordability crisis isn’t just crushing millennials
- High housing costs drive Californians away. Here’s where they move to
- The tax that’s defunding your kid’s school
YIMBY Social – Top Posts
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