As cities around California contend with their latest Regional Housing Needs Assessments — a periodic assignment of housing targets mandated by state law which compels local jurisdictions to legalize the housing needed to accommodate new residents — the anti-housing activists…
The HomeWork: March 23, 2021
Welcome to the March 23, 2021 Capital 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. The Legislature held its first…
Black Homeowners in Crisis from COVID
A new report from Neighborhood Housing Services of LA County is sounding the alarm on the dire straits that Black homeowners in Los Angeles County are facing as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to homeownership, and its role…
Getting By on Increased Supply: The Portland Experience
Does legalizing multi-family homes (a.k.a. “upzoning”) just boost asset values for speculative real estate portfolios, or does it produce a tangible benefit with new housing supply? Some research has already explored the nuances around this question, but a new study…
Black Housing Heroes: Lori Gay
For me, the path to my passion about housing was really economics. In school, I was great at math, but it didn’t feel relevant. I also wanted action. So I specialized in consumer economics, which is the study of finance…
California Progressivism is Just Getting Started
Anyone unfortunate enough to spend time watching Fox News will come to discover that Berkeley, Calif. is the right-wing’s favorite toponym for progressivism. It’s nothing new; for decades Berkeley has been a favorite epithet for Republicans looking to tar some…
The Housing Crisis Primed California’s COVID19 Tragedy
When COVID-19 began surging in California in late November, the pandemic was attacking an already sick patient. Despite the state being an early adopter of mask-mandates and social distancing rules, California is the center of America’s COVID-19 tragedy. Between mid-December…
Location, Location, Location: Winning (and Losing) the Housing – Transit Lottery
Do people have innate transportation preferences that they express independently of their living conditions, or does the built environment of our neighborhoods influence those preferences? New evidence from researchers at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz analyzed data from San Francisco’s…
Two Great Tastes, Taste Great Together: How Social Housing Closes the Gap
Can California learn from robust public housing development models around the world to fix its long-standing housing crisis? The Oakland-based advocacy group East Bay For Everyone (EB4E) has some ideas in a new paper. Key takeaways: The volatile business cycle…
Black Housing Heroes: Jon Wizard
I was appointed to Monterey County’s planning commission in 2017. Through my initial interest in housing, I found an incredible community of people who are fighting to improve our communities and make them more inclusive. The housing crisis is a…