Bay Area’s housing crisis is forcing tenants out of the cities

It doesn’t make any sense to me why the mayor of Berkeley, Jesse Arreguín, recently called the housing bill SB 827 proposed by the California State Senate a “declaration of war against our neighborhoods.” He sees the bill as dangerous and believes it would deprive governments on the local level of the right to control their own zoning laws. Basically, the bill is an approach to kill two birds with one stone; I argue it provides more housing units within cities by eliminating restrictions to build apartment buildings close to public transportation hubs.

In that way, it also contributes to reducing car pollution, which is still the cause of the biggest amount of greenhouse gas in California. Berkeley’s mayor agrees on the point that something must be done in terms of tackling the housing crisis. To make that happen, there is a need for rethinking what housing means to the people. I may now offer the answer already: It is an unimpeachable human right!