Every week, we round up the week’s biggest housing news from around the city, state, and country for the Abundant Housing LA blog.
Locally, Huntington Beach continued its long tradition of being loud and wrong about state housing law, this time by challenging their RHNA numbers, passing an ordinance that declares the city exempt from the builders remedy, and refusing to adopt a housing element. AHLA-endorsed Assemblymember Tina McKinnor introduced a bill to ban so-called “crime-free housing” policies that disproportionately harm Black and Latino renters who police suspected were involved in criminal activity, whether or not they had been arrested, charged, or convicted. Finally, the Times editorialized about the need to collect data about what the city’s camping ban is actually doing.
Down south, the California Planning and Development Report reported on TOD in the San Diego suburbs (paywalled). Up north, San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney introduced a bill to crack down on some SF process shenanigans and SF landlords sued to block the city’s vacant homes tax. Further north, Seattle voters approved Initiative 135, which creates a social housing developer.
In the national press, Annie Lowery talked about “how high urban rents make life worse for everyone in countless ways.” Axios wrote about homebuilders offering cut-rate mortgages to entice buyers. New Hampshire legislators rejected zoning reform while the Montana legislature debated a minimum lot size reform bill.
