California’s New Governor Prioritizes Housing Supply Law Reform

As part of his first proposed budget, new California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed to aggressively reform the state’s housing supply laws by withholding transportation funds from local governments that don’t meet new housing production targets. The governor also proposes overhauling the state’s process for establishing regional housing quotas, so that the targeted numbers are bigger than they’ve been in the past.

Newsom’s spending plan also includes more than $1.7 billion for homelessness and housing issues, the largest such funding boost the state has seen in years. His budget proposal includes:

• $500 million in one-time cash for local governments to combat homelessness — of that $300 million will go toward regional planning, and $200 million as awards for cities that build new shelters or permanent supportive housing;
• A quintupling of ongoing cash (from $80 million to $500 million) for the state’s low-income housing tax credit;
• $500 million in one-time cash for “moderate-income” housing production; and
• $25 million to get more homeless Californians on federal disability programs.