A failure of leadership derailed housing reform in 2020

On Monday, we were on the cusp of passing SB 1120 — a bill which would have made it legal to build duplexes on single-family properties throughout the state.

Despite vigorous opposition from affluent homeowners in exclusive communities, SB 1120 passed through the Assembly 44 – 18. Our calls, our emails, our tweets and our collective voice played a crucial role in winning that vote.

Thank you for showing that the YIMBY movement won’t let COVID-19 or anything else get in the way of the housing solutions our state desperately needs.

While a majority of Assemblymembers voted AYE on SB 1120, the vote came only minutes before the midnight deadline for legislation to pass, and by the time the bill returned to the Senate, the legislative session was over. The original bill passed the Senate unanimously in June and would have passed that chamber again easily if the clock had not run out.

We’re calling on legislative leaders to resolve whatever differences may have prevented a fair and timely vote last night, and to commit to passing meaningful housing production reform in the 2021 legislative session. Californians don’t have the luxury of waiting out the housing crisis.

We’re grateful to Senate pro-Tem Toni Atkins for authoring this important legislation, to Asm. Robert Rivas for his tireless efforts to secure this bill’s passage, to Asm. Buffy Wicks for her heroic speech in support of the bill (check it out here if you haven’t seen it), to the 44 members of the Assembly who voted to pass SB 1120, and to you, Salim — you’re one 80,000+ YIMBYs across the state who pulled out all the stops to send a clear message to their elected leaders.

Your passion, commitment, and strident advocacy still helped us pass some important housing legislation this year — bills that will help faith organizations build housing on their properties (AB 1851 by Asm. Wicks), require cities to build more multi-family housing (AB 725 by Asm. Wicks), and open up exclusive Homeowners’ Associations to renters (AB 3182 by Asm. Ting).

As YIMBYs, we still believe that an equitable California begins with abundant, secure, affordable housing.

And while we may be ending a Legislative session that was supposed to focus on housing production without the housing solutions Californians so urgently need, our resolve is stronger than ever.

We’ll be in touch with more shortly.

Until then, thank you for all that you’ve done for our movement.

Gratefully,

Brian

Brian Hanlon
CEO and Co-Founder
California YIMBY