Editorial: Gavin Newsom Tells Southern California to Plan for Housing. A Lot More Housing

If Southern California leaders were questioning whether Gov. Newsom is serious about ending the state’s housing crisis, he’s given them a very clear answer.

He is.

His administration recently overruled a long-term housing plan from Southern California leaders that vastly underestimated the number of homes needed to ease the existing shortage and to shelter the next generation of Californians. Instead, the state Department of Housing and Community Development declared that cities and counties in Southern California will have to plan for the construction of 1.3 million new homes in the next decade. That number is more than three times larger than what local elected officials had wanted to commit to.