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.
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/16184635/dan_walters.jpg)
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.
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.
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]
RELATED TOPICS:
Gomez Guilty of Murdering Los Hooligans Bass Player
6 hours ago
Biden Says It Was a Mistake to Say He Wanted to Put Trump in a ‘Bull’s-Eye’
6 hours ago
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Appears to Confirm Delay in Aug. 8 Robotaxi Unveil Event to Make Design Change
9 hours ago
Smittcamp Asks Court to Drop His Lawsuit Against Controversial NW Fresno Project
10 hours ago
Measure P Arts Grants Spark Debate and a Meeting Tonight
10 hours ago
Tedford Exits Fresno State Football. Tim Skipper Is the Next Bulldog Up.
10 hours ago
Trump Receives Enough Delegate Votes to Officially be Republicans’ Nominee
11 hours ago
Man Dies After Rescuing His 2 Children in Mississippi River
5 hours ago
Categories
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/15173402/A-photo-provided-by-Jesse-Pope-shows-Cody-Jay-Pope-right-with-him-in-2012.-The-authorities-found-the-body-of-Cody-Jay-Pope-a-41-year-old-Minnesota-man-who-had-disappeared-two-days-earlier-after-1024x538.jpg)
Man Dies After Rescuing His 2 Children in Mississippi River
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/15150557/AP24197467333843-1024x576.jpg)
Is Inflation Finally Corralled? Powell Says Federal Reserve Believes It’s Close
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/15171647/Los-Hooligans-court_1280X720-1024x576.jpg)
Gomez Guilty of Murdering Los Hooligans Bass Player
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/15172819/President-Joe-Biden-arrives-to-speak-to-members-of-the-media-in-Rehoboth-Beach-Del.-about-the-shooting-incident-at-Donald-Trumps-rally-in-Pa.-on-Saturday-July-13-2024.-President-Biden-said-o-1024x538.jpg)
Biden Says It Was a Mistake to Say He Wanted to Put Trump in a ‘Bull’s-Eye’
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/15144853/AP24197697589922_-1024x576.jpg)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Appears to Confirm Delay in Aug. 8 Robotaxi Unveil Event to Make Design Change
![](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/15120621/lawsuit-against-respiratory-care-facility_1280X720-1024x576.jpg)
Smittcamp Asks Court to Drop His Lawsuit Against Controversial NW Fresno Project
![The Wines of Fresno: Tony Kirk, Birdstone Winery](https://gvwire.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/12152749/Tony-Kirk-Birdstone-Winery-016-1-1024x576.jpg)