September 11, 2017

The California state legislature will be taking votes in the coming days, on three major pieces of legislation to address the housing affordability crisis. Those bills are SB 2 (Atkins), SB 3 (Beall), and SB 35 (Wiener). The Chamber has been active in supporting SB 2, by Senator Toni Atkins, which creates a sustainable fund for affordable housing. Previously, affordable housing was built using redevelopment agency funds however since the elimination of redevelopment in 2012, it has become increasingly difficult to finance affordable units, thereby exacerbating our current crisis. SB 3 by Senator Jim Beall is a $4 billion general obligation housing bond that the Chamber’s Infrastructure, Housing & Land Use Committee supported and SB 35 by Senator Weiner seeks to streamline the development process at the local level.