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Do Communities Adequately Plan for Housing?


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The 2019-20 Budget: What Can Be Done to Improve Local Planning for Housing?

February 20, 2019 - As part of the 2019‑20 Governor’s Budget, the administration proposes changing state oversight of local housing decisions and proposes offering rewards to cities and counties to encourage them to plan for and approve housing. To help the Legislature in its consideration of the Governor’s proposals, this report: (1) explains the existing process through which local communities plan for housing, as well as its limitations and shortfalls; (2) describes the Governor’s proposal; (3) provides recommendations on the parts of the proposal aimed at increasing home building in the short term; and (4) offers a package of changes to improve the state’s existing long‑term planning process for housing.

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Considering Changes to Streamline Local Housing Approvals

May 17, 2016 - The Governor’s May Revision proposes changes to state law to streamline local government approval of certain housing. This proposal has the potential to be an important step toward addressing California’s housing shortage. We believe it warrants serious consideration from the Legislature. We also suggest the Legislature consider expanding eligibility for streamlining to facilitate more new housing, as well as making other changes to strengthen the proposal’s effectiveness.

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[PDF] The 2022-23 Budget: The Governor's Housing Plan

February 14, 2022 - Provides an update on some major recent state budget actions related to housing, describes the Governor’s housing budget proposals, and raises issues for the Legislature’s consideration.

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The 2019-20 Budget: California Spending Plan—Housing and Homelessness

October 17, 2019 - This post describes the 2019-20 budget actions related to housing and homelessness issues.

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California’s High Housing Costs: Causes and Consequences

March 17, 2015 -

Living in decent, affordable, and reasonably located housing is vitally important to every Californian. Unfortunately, housing in California is extremely expensive and, as a result, many households are forced to make serious trade-offs in order to live here. While many factors have a role in driving California's high housing costs, the most important is the significant shortage of housing in the state's highly coveted coastal communities. We advise the Legislature to address this housing shortfall by changing policies to facilitate significantly more private home and apartment building in California's coastal urban communities.

See our February 9, 2016 follow up to this report: Perspectives on Helping Low-Income Californians Afford Housing.

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Climate Change Impacts Across California - Housing

April 5, 2022 - This report focuses on how a changing climate is affecting the housing sector and key issues the Legislature faces in responding to those impacts. This is one of a series of reports summarizing how climate change will impact different sectors across California.

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[PDF] The 2019-20 Budget: California Spending Plan (Final Version)

October 17, 2019 - Each year, our office publishes California Spending Plan, which summarizes the annual state budget. In July, we published a preliminary version of the report. This, the final version, provides an overview of the 2019‑20 Budget Act, then highlights major features of the budget approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. In addition to this publication, we have released a series of issue‑specific, online posts that give more detail on the major actions in the budget package.

Correction (10/29/19): Figure 4 total.

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The 2019-20 May Revision: Considerations for the Revised Housing and Homelessness Plan

May 13, 2019 - Housing in California has long been more expensive than most of the rest of the country. In this post we assess the Governor’s 2019-20 May Revision proposals for housing and homelessness.