California’s Housing Crisis Demands Urgent Action!

California is in the midst of a housing emergency—one affecting renters, homeowners, and entire communities. With a shortage of 2.5 million homes, nearly 200,000 people experiencing homelessness, and over 80% of low-income households struggling to afford rent, the crisis is unsustainable.

At the same time, the climate crisis is accelerating: rising temperatures, wildfires, droughts, and floods threaten both our environment and our economy. These twin crises—housing and climate—are deeply interconnected. Tackling one without the other is no longer an option.

The Fast Track Housing Package is a bold solution that speeds up housing approvals while ensuring projects meet California’s environmental goals. By cutting red tape, streamlining processes, and clearing the way for smart growth, Fast Track helps deliver the homes we desperately need—faster, fairer, and more affordably. This isn’t just about permits. It’s about the future of California.

Call To Action

The Cost of Inaction Is Too High

Without urgent reform, more Californians will be priced out, forced out, or left behind. The Fast Track Housing Package is a game-changing opportunity to address the housing crisis head-on, supported by a broad coalition of housing advocates, environmental leaders, and community champions.

Join us in calling for swift action. Let’s build a California where housing is affordable, climate goals are achievable, and our communities are resilient.

Final Report March 2025

​​Pre-Application and Application

AB 1294 (Haney) – Creating Universal Applications for California Homebuilders

Sponsor: Abundant Housing LA

AB 1294 requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to create a standardized housing entitlement application that every city and county must accept, ensuring clarity and consistency in the housing approvals process.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee on April 30th.

CEQA

AB 609 (Wicks) – CEQA Exemption for Environmentally-Beneficial Housing

Sponsors: California YIMBY, Bay Area Council

AB 609 streamlines the permitting process for multi-family housing in existing, developed urban areas by creating clear, objective criteria for exempting these projects from the California Environmental Quality Act.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30th.

SB 607 (Wiener) – Refocusing CEQA On Harmful Environmental Issues

Sponsors: Bay Area Council, Housing Action Coalition, Rural County Representatives of California, and Prosperity CA 

SB 607 refocuses the scope of environmental analysis required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to the issues we know to be truly environmentally harmful. 

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee on April 30th.

Entitlement

AB 357 (Alvarez) – Exempting Student, Faculty, and Staff Housing Projects from Coastal Commission Review

Sponsors: Student HOMES Coalition, UC Student Association

AB 357 exempts certain student, faculty, and staff housing developments in the Coastal Zone from Coastal Commission review. 

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 30th.

AB 920 (Caloza) – Centralized Application Portal for Housing Projects

Sponsor: Abundant Housing LA

AB 920 requires large cities and counties to implement a centralized online portal to manage permits across departments, allowing them to track in real-time the process from application through construction. This will increase transparency and improve the efficiency of housing project approvals, ultimately reducing time and costs that exacerbate the state’s housing crisis.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30th.

AB 961 (Avila Farias) – Extending California Land Reuse and Revitalization Act

Sponsor: Bay Area Council

AB 961 extends the California Land Reuse and Revitalization Act of 2004, which protects innocent landowners from liability for pollution if they meet certain criteria. The CLRRA reflects federal legislation that was passed to protect innocent investors in the remediation and development of brownfield sites, thus encouraging investment in what are often disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods. 

Status: This bill is currently on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file.

AB 1007 (Rubio) – Reducing Shot Clocks for Permitting Agencies

Sponsor: California Building Industry Association 

AB 1007 amends the Permit Streamlining Act to reduce the time limit (“shot clock”) for responsible agencies to act on permit applications for housing development projects from 90 to 45 days.

AB 1276 (Carrillo) – Expanding SB 330

Sponsor: California Building Industry Association 

AB 1276 expands the protections of SB 330 (2019) to state and regional agencies to improve transparency, consistency, and predictability in the housing approval process across California. This bill also makes updates to the policies and standards governing statutory vested rights to provide greater clarity and predictability for housing projects.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee on April 30th.

SB 328 (Grayson) – Capping Hazardous Waste Generator Fees

Sponsor: Housing Action Coalition 

SB 328 caps the Hazardous Waste Generator Fee, charged by DTSC, for certain housing, infill, non- profit, and park and open space projects, for homebuilders  and projects who remediate contaminated soil. Additionally, the bill places timelines on DTSC to respond to post-entitlement permits.  SB 328 would provide a fair and balanced approach to funding DTSC’s remediation efforts while still allowing critically needed housing and open space projects to move forward.

Status: This bill passed the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee on April 23rd.

SB 489 (Arreguín) – Improving the Permit Streamlining Act, Reducing Costly Delays

Sponsor: California Building Industry Association

SB 489 improves the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA) by requiring all public agencies to post online the information necessary for a housing development application to be deemed complete. SB 489 also eliminates gaps in the PSA and clarify the relationship of the PSA’s permitting rules and the separate rules governing post-entitlement phase permits so that all required public agency permits required to approve and build a housing project are expressly covered by either the PSA or the post-entitlement permit statutes, as appropriate.

Status: This bill is currently in the Senate Housing Committee.

SB 786 (Arreguín) – Clarifying Housing Element Law, Reducing Existing Ambiguities

Sponsor: California Attorney General, Rob Bonta 

SB 786 resolves several ambiguities in Housing Element law and its relationship to other elements of the General Plan, and enhances accountability measures within various areas under the law.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 29th.

Post-Entitlement

AB 1308 (Hoover) – Third Party Inspections

Sponsor: California YIMBY 

AB 1308 allows home builders to hire a licensed and certified third-party inspector to complete final inspections if the local government cannot complete inspections of permitted work within 30 days. It also requires local governments to review the third-party inspection report and issue final approval within 14 days. 

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30th.

AB 557 (McKinnor) – Streamlining Post-Entitlement Permitting for Modular Homes

Sponsor: SoLa Impact

AB 557 updates the California Factory-Built Housing Law to include factory-built developments using at least 50% factory-built housing, shifts inspection and enforcement to the Department of Housing and Community Development (rather than local agencies), and allows licensed architects, under penalty of perjury, to approve factory-built plans on the department’s behalf. Ultimately, this bill aims to ensure that the permitting of both the factory-built and site-built components of projects move at similar timelines, minimizing delays and increasing the supply of quality housing in the state.

Status: This bill was heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 24th.

AB 660 (Wilson) – Closing Gaps in Timelines for Post-Entitlement Permits

Sponsor: California Building Industry Association  

AB 660 closes gaps in existing law regarding the timelines for local agencies to act on post entitlement permits (“shot clock”) and establishes remedies for housing project applicants in situations in which a local agency violates the applicable shot clock when considering post entitlement permit applications and applications for service.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30th.

AB 782 (Quirk-Silva) – Removing Costly Double-Bonding Requirements

Sponsor: California Building Industry Association  

AB 782 removes burdensome and costly double-bonding requirements for private improvements imposed by some local governments by prohibiting local governments from requiring bonds for private improvements under SIAs.  

Status. This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee on April 30th.

AB 818 (Avila Farias) –  Home of Your Dreams Recovery Act

AB 818 streamlines the permitting process for residents rebuilding their homes following a natural disaster. The bill requires expedited review for permits necessary to rebuild or repair a residential property affected by a natural disaster, and places limits on the fees that local agencies can charge these projects.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30th.

AB 1026 (Wilson) – Bringing Parity to Application Review Timelines

Sponsor: Housing Action Coalition 

AB 1026 streamlines housing development by bringing parity to the application review timelines for investor-owned utility companies, incentivizing faster timelines in the energization process, and allowing homes to be occupied more quickly.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee on May 7th.

AB 1206 (Harabedian) – Expanding Pre-Approved Housing Plans

AB 1206 streamlines the approval process for single-family and multifamily housing by requiring local agencies to adopt pre-approved housing plan programs by January 1, 2026. The bill expands pre-approved housing plans currently in place for ADUs to include single-family and multifamily housing. 

Status: This bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Legal

AB 6 (Ward) – Streamlining Building Codes for “Missing Middle” Developments

Sponsor: Casita Coalition 

This bill establishes a working group of necessary state entities to study and make recommendations to the California Building Standards Commission to allow smaller developments between three and 10 units to be built under the California Residential Code (CRC). The bill also recognizes the need to reduce construction cost pressures by directing HCD to identify standards contributing to those costs and consider those pressures in future code adoption cycles, with a goal of reducing costs by 30%.

Status: This bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30th.

AB 610 (Alvarez) – Fair Housing Practices Act, Analyzing Current Housing Development Constraints

Sponsors: California Building Industry Association and SPUR

AB 610 aims to strengthen compliance with housing element laws by mandating a thorough analysis of governmental constraints and program requirements impacting housing development. 

Status: This bill was most recently heard in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 24th.

AB 712 (Wicks) – Holding Public Agencies Accountable

Sponsor: California Building Industry Association

AB 712 sets out to improve the enforcement and efficacy of California’s housing reform laws to provide more certainty for all stakeholders and ultimately, more housing in California. The bill increases remedies against public agencies that violate the rights established in existing housing law. It also prevents public agencies from requiring housing development applicants to indemnify those public agencies when they violate state housing law on the applicant’s projects.

Status: This bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 1050 (Schultz) – Facilitating the Revitalization of Commercial Centers

Sponsor: SPUR

AB 1050 facilitates the redevelopment of vacant commercial centers by establishing a procedure to remove existing private reciprocal easement agreements from property title deeds. This bill will not change state housing laws related to project approvals, nor would it alter local zoning ordinances or the entitlement process. It simply allows proposed mixed-use developments to provide notice to interested parties of the intent to remove reciprocal easement agreement and proceed to redevelop the property without exposure to the potential of litigation.

Status: This bill is currently on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file.

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