Governor Newsom Announces Los Angeles as the Newest Prohousing City in California California Governor

Table Of Content

• Column: Credit Newsom for trying to alleviate homelessness, not that he has much choice
• The scrappiest place on Earth? Altercation at Disney California Adventure leads to ejection
• Now we’re using California’s infrastructure law to build more housing, faster.”
• Limits on San Francisco’s clearing of homeless encampments upheld by 9th Circuit

Since its launch in 2020, Homekey has been the fastest, largest, most cost-effective addition of permanent housing in California history, successfully re-engineering the strategy to create more housing for people experiencing homelessness. Last September, the Governor announced a $2.75 billion expansion of the program, builiding on the $846 million invested in the program, and already the state has approved projects that are on track to create 1,208 units of housing for Californians most in need of a safe place to call home. SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced $45 million in awards for two new Homekey projects in Los Angeles and Sacramento which will provide 170 units of housing for people exiting homelessness. Including today’s announcement, California has awarded $323 million for 1,208 units across 14 projects statewide as part of the expanded Homekey program- a key component to the Governor’s $12 billion plan to tackle homelessness. The $2 billion includes $500 million in grants for nonprofit and for-profit developers or local governments to construct more units on existing, but underused, urban land close to city amenities and transportation, and $300 million for sustainable projects in areas friendly to walking and biking and near public transit.

Column: Credit Newsom for trying to alleviate homelessness, not that he has much choice

Do, whose case has been stayed pending a Grants Pass decision expected in late June, said every jurisdiction in the country could potentially have a “green light” to arrest homeless people for sleeping in public — and he has no doubt California cities will take the opportunity. Recent studies of homelessness in California, they say, have shown most homeless people in the state lived here before becoming homeless. While policies that criminalize homeless people do uproot them, Donovan said, it is locally and temporarily — and with negative consequences, not positive ones.

The scrappiest place on Earth? Altercation at Disney California Adventure leads to ejection

Arizona governors do not have a mansion for themselves - The Arizona Republic

Arizona governors do not have a mansion for themselves.

Posted: Wed, 07 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The ripple effect is evident throughout the state, as more low- and middle-income Californians flee their more expensive communities in search of cheaper costs of living, a trend that deepens inequities and exacerbates long commutes. Ninety percent of respondents in a March survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California said housing affordability was a problem in their region, and 33% said they would seriously consider leaving the state because of the costs. The median price tag for an existing single-family home in November was $782,480, according to state Department of Finance records, a dip below numbers that surged past the $800,000 mark earlier in 2021.

Now we’re using California’s infrastructure law to build more housing, faster.”

She previously worked with The Times’ Sacramento bureau as a state politics reporter, covering the Legislature and pivotal policy issues including homelessness and housing, mental health, addiction, gun control and the state judicial system. Before coming to The Times, she covered state politics for the Sacramento Bee. Wiley has a bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Limits on San Francisco’s clearing of homeless encampments upheld by 9th Circuit

Just as California leaders blamed the 9th Circuit for tying their hands, the critics believe they will point to a Supreme Court decision in favor of Grants Pass as a new legal mandate for harsher crackdowns. “Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Debra Blake, a then-60-year-old homeless plaintiff who died during the litigation, wrote in a 2019 court declaration that she knew hundreds of people who slept outdoors in Grants Pass, about 40 miles north of the California border on the 5 Freeway. California cities are looking to the Supreme Court to win more authority to restrict homeless encampments. Approximately $400 million remains to be awarded from the current round of funding.

Progressive critics said they are extremely worried those leaders aren’t being truthful about their plans ahead. “We hope that there is support for the notion that cities need to have more flexibility to address the crisis on the streets, but providing us with flexibility is different from letting cities completely off the hook in addressing what is happening,” Chiu said. If the Supreme Court enables more places to ramp up encampment sweeps, citations, arrests and other penalties, he said, there’s a risk of further spiraling in cities such as L.A.

Completed applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted or May 2, 2022, whichever comes first. Last month, Governor Newsom announced Sacramento County, Placer County, and the City of El Cerrito as Prohousing designees. “When the governor of your state says this is your priority, people listen,” Pearl said.

HCD continues reviewing applications, and grants will be announced on a rolling basis until all funds are exhausted. “What we are building should be carbon-free, and how we are building should be with community-greening infrastructure,” Creasman said. Newsom’s proposal reflects the challenges ahead in solving California’s housing affordability crisis. Many furnishings remain from former governors, including Pardee's 1902 Steinway piano, velvet chairs, and sofas belonging to Governor Hiram Johnson, and Persian rugs bought by the wife of Earl Warren. The Governor certified the Fourth and Central Project utilizing tools to build more faster that were extended in the historic infrastructure package passed last year with the support of the Legislature.

Some city rules wouldn’t allow for example, developing high-rise apartments with hundreds of new units. Newsom’s plan emphasizes accountability for local governments throughout California to plan for greater density, but that could also include duplexes and fourplexes. San Francisco’s downtown, though its boundaries are not formally defined, stretches from the Financial District to SoMa and includes the Tenderloin, Nob Hill and Chinatown.

California is also home to some of the most expensive rental markets in the country. A one-bedroom apartment costs an average of $2,200 in Los Angeles, according to the real estate site Zumper, and jumps to $2,850 in San Francisco. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to shift home construction in California away from rural, wildfire-prone areas and toward urban cores as part of his $286.4-billion budget plan that aims to align the state’s housing strategy with its climate goals. The Governor’s action means that any legal challenges brought against the project must be heard within 270 days to the extent feasible – reduced from the typical timeline of three to five years. This is the third project and the first housing project to be streamlined since the Governor signed the infrastructure package into law.

Timothy Sandefur of the conservative think tank Goldwater Institute argued in favor of Grants Pass and camping bans. The California Housing and Community Development website uses Google™ Translate to provide automatic translation of its web pages. This translation application tool is provided for purposes of information and convenience only. Google™ Translate is a free third-party service, which is not controlled by the California Housing and Community Development. The California Housing and Community Development is unable to guarantee the accuracy of any translation provided by Google™ Translate and is therefore not liable for any inaccurate information or changes in the formatting of the pages resulting from the use of the translation application tool.

Newsom also wants to direct hundreds of millions of dollars toward using excess state-owned land for affordable development and easing the cost burden of converting existing structures into residential spaces in downtown areas. The Grants Pass case began when local homeless people challenged as unconstitutional a pair of city ordinances against sleeping and camping in public parks. Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) also urged caution, saying that he wants to know how rural counties will receive funding compared with urban counties.

The plan would also provide $500 million in low-income housing tax credits for developers and $500 million to preserve and increase the state’s affordable and mixed-income housing stock and rehabilitate mobile home parks. The 9th Circuit has already allowed for reasonable restrictions on when, where and how homeless people can sleep or build protective structures, the critics said. And San Francisco already have such policies in place — and actively enforce them. David Chiu said he hopes the high court “strikes the right balance” in allowing cities to enact reasonable restrictions without giving them a free pass to throw homeless people behind bars. He said San Francisco has already invested billions in shelter beds and other resources for homeless people, and the Supreme Court’s decision — whatever it is — won’t change its commitments. The more liberal 9th Circuit, Newsom said, had “tied the hands of state and local governments” by issuing vague rulings that invited litigation from homeless people and their advocates every time California jurisdictions tried to address the problem.

“When you fine the very poorest, most vulnerable people in our society, when you jail them, you are actually compounding and perpetuating the underlying problems that can lead to homelessness,” said Donovan, now president and chief executive of Enterprise Community Partners, a national housing nonprofit. On Monday, after the high court’s conservative justices indicated during oral arguments that they are skeptical of treating homelessness as a status that deserves constitutional protection, Horvath said the future will be bleak if cities are allowed to clamp down by criminalizing poverty. When the Board of Supervisors voted a couple months ago to throw its support behind Grants Pass (population approximately 39,000), Horvath was one of two dissenting votes. While others called for the Supreme Court to clarify whether cities have the right to enact anti-camping policies that restrict those with no shelter from sleeping outside, Horvath warned of unintended consequences.