The Homework Newsletter

The Homework: July 6, 2026

July 06, 2026

Welcome to the July 6, 2026 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.

Election Update

California YIMBY announced several new general election endorsements, including our support for Xavier Becerra for Governor. Former Secretary Becerra moves on to the general election against Steve Hilton. Here’s our blog post explaining why we believe Becerra is the better candidate for YIMBYs than Steve Hilton.

California YIMBY’s endorsed candidates are advancing in 17 of 19 competitive open-seat elections. To help elect pro-housing champions like these, consider becoming a regular supporter of our Victory Fund PAC. The following YIMBY-endorsed candidates (excluding incumbents) now move on to the general election:

  • Governor: Xavier Becerra*
  • Lieutenant Governor: Fiona Ma
  • Insurance Commissioner: Ben Allen
  • Treasurer: Eleni Kounalakis
  • AD 12 (Marin): Eric Lucan
  • AD 27 (Fresno): Brian Pacheco
  • AD 31 (Fresno): Annalisa Perea
  • AD 35 (Bakersfield): Andrae Gonzalez
  • AD 65 (South LA): Ayanna Davis*
  • AD 66 (Manhattan Beach): Sara Deen
  • AD 67 (Fullerton): Mark Pulido*
  • AD 68 (Anaheim): David Penaloza
  • AD 72 (Newport Beach): Chris Kluwe
  • SD 2 (North Coast): Damon Connolly
  • SD 10 (South Bay): Scott Sakakihara*
  • SD 12 (Bakersfield): Nathan Magsig
  • SD 14 (Fresno): Esmerelda Soria
  • SD 24 (West LA): John Erickson
  • SD 26 (East LA): Sara Hernandez
  • SD 34 (Anaheim): Avelino Valencia
  • SD 40 (San Diego County): Mara Elliott

* new endorsement

News from Sacramento

Eight of our bills have advanced through their house of origin and now the second house’s policy committees. The next step is the Appropriations Committee of the second house. However, the Legislature has adjourned for its traditional summer recess and will reconvene on August 3rd for those committees. Here’s where our bills stand so far. 

Passed second-house policy committee (heading to Appropriations):

  • AB 1903 (Wicks): Allows builders to fix problems in newly constructed homes before costly legal fees and court proceedings are triggered, reducing housing costs and increasing homeownership opportunities.
  • SB 1116 (Caballero): Makes improvements to state housing law to lower costs and speed construction of smaller, lower-cost starter homes.
  • AB 2074 (Haney): Streamlines construction of high-rise residential and mixed-use buildings near regional transit hubs in California’s largest cities.
  • SB 1117 (Cervantes): Removes the financial penalty many jurisdictions impose on ADUs over 750 sq ft, lowering the cost to build them.
  • AB 956 (Quirk-Silva): Allows homeowners to build up to two detached ADUs on a single-family lot.
  • SB 1014 (Grayson): Requires cities to disclose all infrastructure requirements — sidewalks, sewers, etc. — within 30 days of a housing application, and prohibits adding new requirements after permit application. 
  • AB 1070 (Ward): Directs state agencies to study whether applying the residential building code to small multi-family projects could accelerate construction of “missing middle” housing.
  • SB 677 (Wiener): Protects approved housing projects from local delay tactics over the creation of subdivisions and approval of federal financing for affordable housing.

No longer advancing

Like SB 1216 (pro-housing designation program), AB 1406 (condo pre-sale reform) and AB 1294 (universal application for homebuilding), will not advance this year due to insufficient support. California YIMBY also sponsored AB 736 (transfer tax reform), but that bill is unlikely to advance. Read more about transfer tax reform here.

Be sure to follow California YIMBY’s Twitter and Bluesky to get more up-to-date news on housing policy, legislation, and research. If you find this newsletter valuable, forward it to a friend.

Housing Research & Analysis

Why Building More Apartments is Good for the Planet

Building apartments in urban areas is one of the most effective climate strategies available right now. While federal EV incentives are gutted, and building codes that ban new gas appliances face litigation across the country, apartment construction continues to reduce climate pollution through four channels: less driving, less fossil-fuel heating, less carbon-intensive construction, and less land converted from carbon-storing ecosystems. 

In Apartments Are the Climate Solution Hiding in Plain Sight, Alan Durning, Founder and Executive Director of the Sightline Institute, examined how permitting more apartments and middle housing in compact, in-town locations is an affordability win and an underappreciated climate win.

Key Takeaways:

  • Electric heating predominance. Choosing an apartment over a house increases a resident’s likelihood of living in an all-electric home from 38 to 68%. Developers favor electric heat in apartments because electric systems are simpler to install and meter per unit.
  • Climate pollution reduction. Multi-family apartment buildings are more energy efficient per square foot due to shared walls and floors, resulting in economies of scale for heating and cooling – the largest sources of pollution from housing. They also are typically located in lower-VMT neighborhoods, which reduces pollution from driving. 
  • Political feasibility despite limited funding. The entire US pro-housing nonprofit sector spent roughly $40 million in 2023. The nonprofit climate movement spent an estimated $4 billion the same year — 100 times more — even though housing reforms are winning bipartisan support in red and blue states. In contrast, most climate policies are stalled.
READ MORE

One Reason Why American Public Transit is More Expensive to Build than in Europe

America pays roughly 50 percent more per mile for public transit than comparable countries do, and a little-examined culprit is the community engagement process meant to improve projects. A new analysis from the Urban Institute finds that poorly structured public participation drives up costs, lengthens timelines, and can produce outcomes that don’t reflect what most community members want.

In “The US Spends More Time and Money Building Transit Than Most Countries. Inefficient Community Engagement May Help Explain Why,” Christina Plerhoples Stacy, Gabe Samuels, and Yonah Freemark of the Urban Institute examined how community engagement practices shape transit project costs across the US and internationally.

Key Takeaways:

  • Timeline drag. When public input processes lack formal time limits or allow key decisions to be repeatedly reopened, planning phases stretch for decades. San Francisco’s Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit corridor took nearly 30 years from concept to launch, and construction costs rose accordingly.
  • Design cost escalation. The BART Silicon Valley Extension, where deep tunneling was adopted partly to address community concerns about surface disruption, ballooned from an initial estimate of roughly $4.7 billion (~$800M/mile) to approximately $12.7 billion (~$2B/mile).
  • Participation gaps. Current engagement methods typically draw higher-income and more politically motivated participants than the surrounding community, meaning engagement-driven project changes may not reflect the actual preferences of the people who will use the transit.
READ MORE

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