Lee Ohanian Does Not Understand the Housing Element Process

by | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog

Lee Ohanian at the Hoover Institute has typed out a post about California’s RHNA system in an attempt to dunk on it from the right as some kind of Soviet central planning exercise. Ohanian’s piece makes a series of basic factual errors about the Housing Element update...

Housing Headlines: Feb 6 2023

by | Feb 6, 2023 | Blog

Every Monday, we round up the week’s biggest housing news for the Abundant Housing LA newsletter. Here in LA, the Times covered a proposal to build 800 apartments over a Costco in Baldwin Village and Steph Curry’s “I don’t want to say NIMBY, but” public comment letter...

South Pasadena Is Still Flouting State Housing Law

by | Jan 31, 2023 | Blog

We just finished up our review of South Pasadena’s latest housing element draft and sent our feedback to HCD and local policymakers. Unfortunately, the city continues to ignore the spirit and letter of state law; so we are encouraging HCD to refuse certification. You...

Grappling with Article 34 of the California Constitution

by | Jan 30, 2023 | Blog

Article 34 of the California state constitution is a provision that requires new “low-rent housing projects” that are “developed, constructed, or acquired” by public bodies be authorized by a public vote. Originally passed in the 1950s, Article 34 continues to...

New Terner Center Report Details SB 9 Progress

by | Jan 27, 2023 | Blog

The good folks at the Terner Center just came out with some new research on SB 9, the 2021 state duplex and lot split bill, finding that it has led to almost no new housing being built. This post is about how SB 9 could be tweaked to be more effective. The most...