It’s about to get harder for California cities to refuse building new, affordable housing.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed 32 housing bills into law on Thursday. Many of them not only make it easier to build more housing by loosening zoning and planning laws – they also open the door to state officials coming down harder on local governments that ignore requirements to build.
Newsom called out some of those localities, like Huntington Beach, during a bill signing.
“We continue to struggle with accountability,” he said. “We continue to struggle with transparency.”
SB 1037 will enable the Attorney General to seek higher penalties against local governments in these cases. AB 1893 will allow the state to step in and designate sites for affordable housing and streamline applications.
Californians might also see more interim housing – like small trailers – going up soon.
Democratic Senator Josh Becker of Menlo Park sponsored one of the signed bills that streamlines the approval process for cities to put in relocatable, non-congregate housing.
“When they have a fixed place to live, then they can actually get services,” he said.
The bill also makes more money available for these projects.
A couple more new laws aim to bolster tribal housing by creating a specific funding program (SB 1187) for it and giving the state’s tribal housing authority more autonomy and support (AB 1878).
California is also putting over $2 billion into permanent new housing and services for veterans and people experiencing mental health and addiction challenges. That’s part of the $6.4 billion voters approved in March through Proposition 1.
The measure put more tax and bond money into behavioral health services in the state.
Newsom shared a plan on Thursday for how the state will begin rolling out that money.
“We made a commitment that we were going to move a process forward to invest those dollars with the kind of accountability that the people of the state deserve,” he said.
Local governments and housing authorities can apply for the money starting in November. The funding includes $120 million set aside for tribal communities. All projects are required to have services attached like case management, therapy and crisis counseling.
The state says it will start distributing the money in March 2025.
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