Opinion: Local control over housing has pushed Californians to other states

"Across the world, cities have struggled to figure out how to provide more affordable housing to people in need. In Copenhagen, Denmark, so-called social housing accounts for 20% of the region's housing stock. In Auckland, New Zealand, a set of reforms initiated by the national government in 2021 created a building boom that dropped rents by 28%. Coastal California cities, by contrast, have run a two-pronged strategy for low-income housing over the last several decades the freeway system and inland counties hours away."

"With the California Legislature's recent passage of Senate Bill 79, a bill that automatically permits dense multifamily housing near high-frequency transit stops, many in the state's most exclusionary cities have found their eyes filled with tears at the prospect of losing local control. (SB 79 now lies on Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. He has about a month to sign the bill, which state legislators approved on Friday.)"

"But California's century-long policy of handing land use policy off to cities and counties has allowed jobs-rich coastal areas to build gilded walls around themselves with segregationist zoning. The result is mass displacement of all but the wealthiest from coastal metros like San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego to inland regions like the San Joaquin Valley, the Inland Empire and, increasingly, out of the state entirely."

Cities worldwide have struggled to provide affordable housing. In Copenhagen, social housing makes up 20% of the region's housing stock. In Auckland, national reforms in 2021 created a building boom that reduced rents by 28%. Coastal California historically relied on freeways and distant inland counties to accommodate low-income residents. California legislators passed Senate Bill 79 to automatically permit dense multifamily housing near high-frequency transit stops, and the bill awaits the governor's signature. A century of delegating land-use authority to cities enabled exclusionary zoning that has displaced all but the wealthiest from coastal metros to inland regions. California faces extreme cost burdens and homelessness.

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