SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Latest on California’s affordable housing legislation (all times local):
12 p.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed 15 bills to provide more money for affordable housing and streamline regulations that can stifle construction.
A long list of lawmakers and housing advocates lined up to cheer the legislation as a game-changer in California’s quest to provide enough housing at reasonable prices. But all say the issue is far from solved.
The $4 billion housing bond that serves as the key funding mechanism of the bills still needs approval from voters next year.
Brown says at the signing ceremony Friday in San Francisco that more work will need to be done in future legislative sessions to fully tackle the problem. California lacks an estimated 1.5 million affordable rental units compared to demand.
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6 a.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown will sign legislation Friday aimed at tackling California’s growing affordable housing crisis with one of the nation’s most expensive cities as his backdrop.
More than a dozen bills make up the package Brown will sign outside a San Francisco affordable housing complex. They include money to build more low-income housing and policies to speed up stalled construction. Lawmakers and advocates cheer the package as the most significant housing policy to come out of Sacramento in years.
But it will be several years before affordable housing units start popping up across the state and, when they do, they won’t cover California’s full demand. The state lacks an estimated 1.5 million affordable homes compared to demand. Estimates predict the package will help build 90,000 new units in the next 10 years.
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