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Open letter to Sen. Aisha Wahab

(Click here to add your name as a signer of this open letter.) Open Letter to Senator Aisha Wahab April 17, 2025 Dear Chair Wahab, California is in an acute housing crisis.  This unprecedented crisis warrants unprecedented reforms.  The roots…

Why Housing Costs More in California Than Colorado or Texas

California faces a severe housing shortage, with seven of America’s ten most expensive metros. While building more housing is critical to address this shortage, building costs in California far exceed those in other western states. In “The High Cost of…

How you can help pass our most ambitious legislative agenda yet

California YIMBY is advancing its most ambitious legislative agenda yet—one that tackles the three biggest impediments to ending California’s housing shortage: legalizing housing where it’s most needed, streamlining approvals, and reducing costs. If we can pass this package—and fend off…

The Power of Housing Choice: Lessons from Gautreaux

California cities remain racially segregated, with significant economic disparities between predominantly minority and white neighborhoods. In “The Long-Run Effects of America’s Largest Residential Racial Desegregation Program: Gautreaux,” researchers Eric Chyn, Robert Collinson, and Danielle H. Sandler examined what happened when…

Calling the Bluff: First the Reforms, Then the Funds

Housing costs are a contentious political issue in most American cities. Demands for building more “affordable housing” run up against a variety of politically-powerful stakeholders, who are ambivalent (at best) about neighborhood change; many constituents are fiercely opposed to even…

How-To ADU: The Handbook

Over the past eight years, California lawmakers have adopted dozens of reforms designed to make it easier for homeowners to build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which are sometimes referred to as “granny flats,” in-law units, or casitas.  To help homeowners,…