Housing

You can also subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Gimme Shelter’s tour of California’s housing woes takes them to Sonoma County this week, where the devastating North Bay fires have thrown a harsh spotlight on the region’s housing shortage. First, Liam and Matt discuss an initiative possibly headed for the November 2018 ballot that would […]

This week, we're airing a Zocalo Public Square/AARP forum entitled "Are Housing Prices Killing the California Dream?"

You can also subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Starting this week, Matt and Liam explore how state housing policy affects different regions of California. This episode is devoted to the Bay Area, the epicenter of the state’s housing woes. Featuring an avocado of the week where a city official tells Liam how […]

You can also subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Overcast. What makes or breaks good housing policy? The wonky details. This week, Matt and Liam break down the ins and outs of all 15 bills in the state housing package: where the new affordable housing revenue will be spent (6:00), whether the so-called “streamlining” bills will […]

California cities are hoping to tailor new state housing laws to their own needs.

California leads once again in something no state wants to boast about: the highest poverty rate in the country.

We have a housing package! It’s such big news, we’re breaking it into two mega-pods: This week dedicated to the politics behind the package, and next week to its crucial policy details. Matt and Liam discuss the late-night drama at the Capitol (6:50), Asm. Marc Levine as YIMBY heel (9:30), the broad political forces that […]

In the final days of the session, hundreds of bills landed on Brown’s desk. Here are some of the most consequential.

Three days and counting until the Legislature adjourns for the year. We thought we could see a housing package passed as early as July. Why the delay, and what's happening now?

While California tops the list of states with insane housing costs, it’s by no means a uniquely Golden State phenomenon. Building affordable housing—and particularly getting cities and other localities to permit its construction—is a tough endeavor that has bedeviled state policymakers across the country. So where should Californians look to solve a problem that feels so intractable? Affordable housing experts suggest legislators find inspiration in Massachusetts. For more than 40 years, the state’s signature affordable housing policy—Massachusetts “40B”—has served as a model for how states can motivate and sometimes bully reluctant localities into meeting their fair share of affordable housing.