California housing showdown draws key interest groups

California YIMBY Co-Founder Brian Hanlon, who started lobbying for pro-housing bills last year, promises to continue pushing an ambitious housing agenda for California no matter the outcome of Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill, SB 827. He said what’s needed is a bigger more diverse coalition of housing, environmental and social justice groups pushing for more development, including of affordable housing for low-income and homeless people.

“We’ve been underbuilding for 40 years. We have people dying on our streets. Every day, millions of Californians think to themselves, ‘Is this the day I plan my exit’ because they cannot make it here,” he said. “Elon Musk isn’t going to save us. We can’t just EV our way out of this crisis. We need to change how we use land.”