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…
The HomeWork: March 8, 2021
Welcome to the March 8, 2021 Main 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. Legislators in Sacramento are about…
Institutional Investors in California Housing Markets
TL;DR: Following the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, large institutional investors, such as the private equity firm Blackstone, purchased foreclosed homes in distressed neighborhoods throughout the country. Many of these neighborhoods were the same historically Black and Latino neighborhoods that…
California YIMBY Joins Asm. Laura Friedman to End Costly Parking Mandates
“Affordable Housing for Humans, Not Unaffordable Parking for Cars” Mandates Add Up to $80,000 Per Parking Spot to Cost of Housing, Rent “200 Square Mile Parking Crater” SACRAMENTO – Today, California YIMBY and Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), along with Sen.…
California YIMBY Joins Sen. Wiener to Launch 2021 Legislative Housing Package
Statewide Housing Advocates, Equity Leaders Join the Call for More Homes SACRAMENTO – Today California YIMBY joined State Senator Scott Wiener (San Francisco), along with housing and equity advocates from across the state, in launching a package of bills in…
Did Displacement Play a Role in California’s COVID-19 Surge?
For the past two months, Southern California was America’s COVID-19 epicenter. Throughout the month of January, someone in Los Angeles County died every six minutes from COVID-19 related complications. The pandemic ravaged the Los Angeles area to such a degree that air-quality…
Black Housing Heroes: Tia Boatman Patterson
I have experienced everything from homelessness to homeownership. I grew up in public housing with a single mom who purchased her first home through a first-time homebuyer program in the mid ’70s. It used to be that a single woman…
The Elements of Housing Elements: A Phase Change to Greater Production?
Recent reforms to California’s Housing Element Law may change political incentives in municipal governments to permit more housing production as a default stance, with the cover of state regulators forcing their hand. That’s the compelling analysis offered by Elmendorf et…
Parking Requirements are a Mandate for Expensive Housing
An abundance of academic literature strongly suggests that parking requirements hurt American households by raising the cost of housing and increasing demand for automobile travel by artificially lowering the cost of car storage. Essentially, by reserving land for parking irrespective…