Blog

The Single Stairway to Heaven

While the broader housing shortage is driving up housing costs for a huge share of the population, many cities face an acute shortage of family-sized units in particular. In a new blog post, Andrew Justus of the Niskanen Center argues…

The HomeWork: January 19, 2023

Welcome to the January 19, 2023 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. News from Sacramento On January…

It Actually Takes More than an (Urban) Village

To stimulate housing production, many California cities have experimented with loosening their restrictive land-use regulations. Yet not all of these reforms have been equally successful in producing housing. Indeed, Gabbe et al. (2021) find evidence that San Jose’s “urban villages”…

Location: Still the Critical Factor in Affordable Housing

It’s not enough to merely build subsidized affordable housing — housing location matters at least as much as availability; in addition to secure, affordable shelter, humans need access to quality transit, walkable neighborhoods, minimal exposure to health and environmental risks,…

Los Angeles Leads the Way on AB 2097 Implementation

By M. Nolan Gray Over the holiday break, while many of us were nestled up by the fire reading The High Cost of Free Parking, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning (DCP) circulated an interdepartmental memo explaining how certain…

Ending Criminalization of Homelessness

By Ned Resnikoff In the Tuesday press conference where Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposal for the 2023-24 state budget, he touched on a key theme addressed in California YIMBY’s report on California’s homelessness crisis (of which I am the…

California YIMBY Statement on Governor’s Proposed Budget

Budget Strengthens Commitment to State Housing Law, Funding Homeless Services “The Governor’s priorities align with ending the housing shortage – but there’s work to do” SACRAMENTO – Today, California YIMBY released the following statement in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s…

The HomeWork: December 20, 2022

Welcome to the December 20, 2022 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. News from Sacramento Earlier this…

Time is Money, and Money is Housing: Approvals Done (By)-Right

The results are in: The City of Los Angeles’ Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program of permitting new housing “by-right” has helped build more below-market rate affordable housing, faster, than housing proposals in the city that are still subject to discretionary…

Where’s the Missing Middle? Quadrupling Down on Duplexes

A new policy brief from Garcia et al (2022) at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation explores “Unlocking the Potential for Missing Middle Housing.” This qualitative study identifies important barriers to building more affordable, smaller-scale, multifamily housing for middle-income…