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California Governor signs 18 bills to boost housing production

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Building on the state’s historic actions and investments this year to tackle the housing affordability crisis, Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed 18 bills designed to help jumpstart housing development. Also included was SB 330; a major legislation aimed at removing local barriers to housing construction and speeding up new development.

“Since taking office in January, my administration has been urgently focused on California’s housing affordability crisis,” Governor Newsom said. “The high cost of housing and rent is putting the squeeze on family budgets, and our housing shortage threatens our economic growth and long-term prosperity.”

On October 9, 2019 the governor signed SB113 at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego; which will enable the transfer of $331 million in state funds to the National Mortgage Special Deposit Fund, and establishes the legislature’s intent to create a trust to manage these funds to provide an ongoing source of funding for borrower relief and legal aid to vulnerable homeowners and renters. This follows the governor’s proposal in August to provide a new, sustainable, ongoing source of funding for legal aid for renters and homeowners through local nonprofits, and builds on the state budget additional $20 million in legal assistance to help California renters fight unjust evictions.

“In 2019, California has taken urgent action to address this challenge. We’ve invested more in new housing than at any point in our history, and we have created powerful new tools to incentivize housing production,” Governor Newsom added. “Now, we are removing some key local barriers to housing production. This crisis has been more than a half century in the making, and this administration is just getting started on solutions.”

Besides SB 330, and SB 113, the governor kicked off his statewide tour to sign a series of bills that build on his administration’s efforts to tackle the housing affordability crisis. In Oakland, he signed the nation’s strongest statewide renter protection package and a number of other bills to address the rising costs of rent and housing. AB 1482 by Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco) creates a statewide rent cap and eviction protections that are critical to combat California’s housing and cost-of-living crisis.

Housing affordability has been a top priority for Governor Newsom. The state budget signed in June made a historic $1.75 billion investment in new housing and created major incentives – both sticks and carrots – to incentivize cities to approve new home construction. The budget also provided 420 million for legal services for renters facing eviction as well as $1 billion to help cities, and counties fight homelessness.

The high cost of housing, and rent has also been the focus of executive action. In the first weeks of his administration, Governor Newsom signed an executive order that created an inventory of all excess state land in order to find parcels to develop into affordable housing, launching partnerships with six California cities in April to develop affordable housing on that land and, last week, announcing the first Request for Proposal (RFP) on state-owned land will be issued in the City of Stockton. The Newsom administration has also enforced state housing law – putting more than 40 cities on notice that they were out of compliance with state housing requirements and in jeopardy of legal action.

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