Housing

By a significant margin, a majority of Californians want the state Legislature to force local governments to build more housing. They're in for a disappointment.

The head of the chief developers' group is increasingly pessimistic that they can cut a deal with unions to kickstart home building in California—although both sides are still talking.

Updated May 30, 2019  California tenants just scored a rare victory in the state Capitol—emphasis on the rare. A high-profile bill passed by the state Assembly would impose a “rent-gouging cap” on annual rent increases for the vast majority of renters. If approved by the state Senate and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it would […]

Updated May 30, 2019 Welcome to death watch. The legislative kind. We’ve tracked which bills California lawmakers have rejected as the Legislature hit the half-way point for making new laws for this year.  May 31 is the deadline for bills to pass the house in which they were introduced, a critical hurdle in the legislative […]

On this emergency episode of "Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast," CALmatters'  Matt Levin and the Los Angeles Times' Liam Dillon discuss why SB 50 failed, and what it means for other housing legislation going forward this year.

The sudden demise of the year’s most controversial state housing bill was celebrated by some and bemoaned by others. But very few—supporters, opponents, and even the author himself—can claim to have seen this coming.

Inside the Capitol’s corridors and pro-development quarters around the state, the California Environmental Quality Act is increasingly disparaged as a villain in the state’s housing crisis. But the act’s environmentalist defenders are pushing back, saying many projects slip too easily through—leading to overdrawn groundwater tables and disappearing forests. And whatever the urgency to build more housing, environmentalists say there’s nothing to preempt a rigorous review of commercial proposals—even ones as visually appealing as vineyards in the Napa Valley.

Michael Weinstein, rent-control advocate and president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, had a rough time in Sacramento last week.

A growing number of California seniors are building "in-law units" or "granny flats," and having their adult children move into their backyards—or vice-versa.

With fresh political attention on mental health, advocates are hoping California embraces humane and effective ways of averting some problems and solving others.