Photo via istockphoto.com
For years, California has grappled with a problem that has affected nearly every aspect of our society: The state doesn’t have enough homes that people can afford to live in. Proposition 1 aims to address that crisis.
It’s estimated that more than 180,000 Californians are homeless. Rents are so high that a minimum wage worker would need to work 102 hours a week to afford a typical one-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
A big piece of that problem is construction: Not enough homes are being built. Fewer than a third of California cities and counties are on track to permit enough market-rate housing to hit their state-mandated targets, and fewer than 6% are on track for very low-income housing. Those targets are based on the state’s assumption that we need nearly 2.5 million more homes.
Legislators have passed multiple laws trying to address that by making it easier, faster and cheaper to get projects permitted and built. Prop. 1 is supposed to supply the money.
A recent report estimated nearly 40,000 affordable units throughout California have been designed, permitted and partially funded and are sitting stalled because developers just can’t quite…
