Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Newsom Raises the Housing Bar on Himself
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
January 30, 2019

Share

Gavin Newsom began his governorship this month by promising to confront what he described as California’s most important issue, an ever-increasing shortage of housing.


Opinion
Dan Walters
CALmatters Commentary

California’s chronic housing shortfall, particularly for low- and moderate-income families, and its soaring costs are an existential threat to the state’s economy and its social fabric.
“This is the issue,” Newsom said as he introduced his first state budget.
California’s chronic housing shortfall, particularly for low- and moderate-income families, and its soaring costs are an existential threat to the state’s economy and its social fabric.
The cost of housing is the primary factor in California’s shameful status as the nation’s most poverty-stricken state, and undercuts efforts to alleviate poverty through such gestures as higher welfare grants, higher minimum wages and the state’s new “earned income tax credit.” Putting a few more dollars in the pockets of the poor will accomplish little if they are immediately soaked up by higher rents.
“We’re not going to play small ball on housing,” Newsom declared. He pledged to establish “more realistic” regional goals for housing and warned cities that failing to meet them would have financial consequences – cutting off transportation aid from the state’s new gas tax increase.
He also supported fast-tracking housing projects through the California Environmental Quality Act process, reducing the heavy “impact fees” that local governments impose on housing construction, making more excess highway right-of-way available for housing and jawboning employers, particularly those in Silicon Valley, into helping build housing for their workers.

Pledging a Half-Billion Dollars for New Housing

“We are doing our part and I will be asking them to do their part,” he said.
Silicon Valley got the message and within days its leaders created a new “partnership” that pledged a half-billion dollars for new housing.
Last week, Newsom underscored his insistence that local governments meet their housing quotas, even if their voters don’t like it. He announced that Attorney General Xavier Becerra was suing Huntington Beach for stubbornly refusing to meet housing goals.
“The state doesn’t take this action lightly,” Newsom said. “The huge housing costs and sky-high rents are eroding quality of life for families across this state. California’s housing crisis is an existential threat to our state’s future and demands an urgent and comprehensive response.”
It would be fair to say that in just a few weeks, Newsom has been more engaged in the housing crisis than predecessor Jerry Brown was during the previous eight years. However, it’s just a beginning. Even though he says his budget would spend $7.7 billion on housing, that’s only a third of the investment needed to increase housing production by 50 percent over current levels, and state and local governments don’t have that kind of money.

200,000 Housing Starts a Year

There’s only one way for California to reach the ambitious goal that Newsom declared – 200,000 housing starts a year – and that’s to make private investment more attractive by cutting red tape and shunning such fallacious notions as rent control.

“The state doesn’t take this action lightly. The huge housing costs and sky-high rents are eroding quality of life for families across this state. California’s housing crisis is an existential threat to our state’s future and demands an urgent and comprehensive response.”Gov. Gavin Newsom
Suing a strongly Republican city such as Huntington Beach is a no-risk move for a Democratic governor, but is he willing to crack down on anti-housing liberal communities such as Marin County, his home before winning the governorship? Two years ago, Brown signed legislation giving Marin, and only Marin, a decade-long exemption from meeting housing quotas.
Still another tricky factor is the woeful lack of construction workers. Newsom would have to confront numerous impediments to training more carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other building trades, including an education system biased toward college-prep, rather than skilled trades, and construction unions themselves.
Newsom has raised the performance bar on himself over an issue whose outcome is easily measured. He’ll either clear the bar or fall short.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.
[activecampaign form=19]

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Visalia Man Arrested for Soliciting Sex From Minor in Kingsburg

DON'T MISS

Camalah Saleh Cruises to Win in Stormy Fresno State Student Elections

DON'T MISS

Trump Goes Golfing While Stock Market Chunks

DON'T MISS

Brandon Vang Wins Fresno City Council Special Election Outright

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He’s Giving TikTok Another 75 Days to Find a US Buyer

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Man Arrested After Firing at Deputies During Eviction Attempt

DON'T MISS

If ex-Bitwise CEOs Behave in Prison, How Much Less Time Will They Serve?

DON'T MISS

Trump Just Bet the Farm

DON'T MISS

Staged Crashes and Insurance Fraud: Is Your California Commute a Target?

DON'T MISS

Fight Over Phonics: Will CA Require the ‘Science of Reading’ in K-12 Schools?

UP NEXT

As Dem Candidates for Governor Increase, They Wait for Harris to Decide

UP NEXT

Why Project Labor Agreements Are Good for Our Schools and Students: Opinion

UP NEXT

State Center Trustees Vote for Special Interest Giveaway Over Students: Opinion

UP NEXT

I Will Force Votes on Blocking Arms Sales to Israel: Sen. Bernie Sanders

UP NEXT

What Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Could Mean for Americans: Fareed Zakaria

UP NEXT

Why the Nation Would Be Wise to Support a Third Term Amendment for Donald Trump

UP NEXT

If California Bails Out LA’s $1 Billion Budget Deficit, Beware the Slippery Slope

UP NEXT

Trump Has Had Enough. He Is Not Alone.

UP NEXT

The Real Crisis in California Schools Is Low Achievement, Not Cultural Conflicts

UP NEXT

Trump and Musk Are Suffering From Soros Derangement Syndrome

Brandon Vang Wins Fresno City Council Special Election Outright

2 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Giving TikTok Another 75 Days to Find a US Buyer

3 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Firing at Deputies During Eviction Attempt

3 hours ago

If ex-Bitwise CEOs Behave in Prison, How Much Less Time Will They Serve?

4 hours ago

Trump Just Bet the Farm

4 hours ago

Staged Crashes and Insurance Fraud: Is Your California Commute a Target?

4 hours ago

Fight Over Phonics: Will CA Require the ‘Science of Reading’ in K-12 Schools?

4 hours ago

Russia Says Trump’s Threats Against Iran Could Trigger ‘Global Catastrophe’

5 hours ago

Get Off the Phone! Fresno Police Target Distracted Driving

5 hours ago

Federal Reserve Chief Says Trump Tariffs Likely to Raise Inflation and Slow US Economic Growth

5 hours ago

Visalia Man Arrested for Soliciting Sex From Minor in Kingsburg

A Kingsburg police investigation led to the arrest of a 25-year-old man last week on suspicion of soliciting a minor for sex and other relat...

15 minutes ago

Uriel Alcala Rios, 25, was arrested for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl on Thursday, March 27, 2025. (Kingsburg PD)
15 minutes ago

Visalia Man Arrested for Soliciting Sex From Minor in Kingsburg

2 hours ago

Camalah Saleh Cruises to Win in Stormy Fresno State Student Elections

President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Trump International Golf Club, Friday, April 4, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP/Alex Brandon)
2 hours ago

Trump Goes Golfing While Stock Market Chunks

2 hours ago

Brandon Vang Wins Fresno City Council Special Election Outright

3 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Giving TikTok Another 75 Days to Find a US Buyer

Kenneth Bratton, 43, was arrested after allegedly firing at Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies during an eviction attempt in Porterville. (Tulare County SO)
3 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Firing at Deputies During Eviction Attempt

4 hours ago

If ex-Bitwise CEOs Behave in Prison, How Much Less Time Will They Serve?

4 hours ago

Trump Just Bet the Farm

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend