Blog

A failure of leadership derailed housing reform in 2020

On Monday, we were on the cusp of passing SB 1120 — a bill which would have made it legal to build duplexes on single-family properties throughout the state. Despite vigorous opposition from affluent homeowners in exclusive communities, SB 1120…

How do other cities provide housing?

A globetrotting new whitepaper from SPUR looks at policy regimes in other countries that manage demand for housing with measurably more success than California. Three city profiles help give a sense of the bigger picture. Key takeaways: Vienna funds, builds,…

How Legalizing Homes Can Integrate the Bay Area

In an early installment of The Homework, we covered the first few research briefs in a new series from UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI) on the Bay Area’s deeply entrenched residential segregation. In this final episode of the…

This One Cool Trick Turns One Home Into Four

Last month, we covered an impressive new study from UCLA showing the market potential for over 1 million new homes in California simply by allowing fourplexes as the minimum density for every residential lot statewide. Now UC Berkeley’s Terner Center…

“Local Control:” 5 Decades of Segregation

We know local land-use regulations can produce racial segregation as an outcome, but how strong is the effect? In a new paper, UC Merced scholar Jessica Trounstine finds empirical evidence that impact and intent are strongly linked when it comes…

Opinion: We Must Plan Racial Justice In Our Cities

Read the full article here … “The very people who support progressive change elsewhere use local control of land use to prevent structural changes in their communities that would advance the cause of racial justice. These changes are essential if…

The Math on Fourplexes: 1.2 Million Homes

A new study from the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and MapCraft makes a compelling case for legalizing fourplexes statewide. While market conditions vary, the potential of allowing fourplexes in single-family neighborhoods is significant — and could make…

White Flight and Concentrated Poverty Still Dominate Most Cities

American neighborhoods are rapidly changing—and in our grimly unequal society, the poorest bear the worst of this change. In “American Neighborhood Change in the 21st Century,” the Institute of Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota has published a massive,…