Why this week is big for housing fixes

This week, that bill — along with others that take aim at various tension points in the housing debate — will face some early but important tests. My colleague Conor Dougherty, who has written extensively about housing in California, explained what’s at stake:

Pretty much anytime a group of experts is asked to prescribe a solution to California’s affordable housing crisis, the consensus view that comes out is that the state needs one set of policies that make it easier to build more and taller housing and another set that protects already-affordable housing and tenants in units that already exist. This week, bills that broadly address both sides of that equation — and could drastically change what California cities look like and how local landlords operate — are headed to crucial committee hearings that will go a long way toward determining how ambitious the current State Legislature will be on housing.

On Wednesday, SB 50, which was introduced by Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, will have its second committee hearing. SB 50, which is a rehashed version of Wiener’s controversial SB 827 bill from last year, would essentially force cities to allow denser apartment buildings near transit stops and job centers. The next day, several pro-tenant bills are headed to the State Assembly’s housing committee. One of the bills, AB 36, would allow cities to bring more units under rent control, while another, AB 1482, would impose a statewide rent cap. Were AB 1482 to get out of committee and ultimately pass, California would follow Oregon as the second state to pass statewide rent control.

Of course, there is a long way to go until the legislative session ends in September, and these housing bills — along with the dozens of others that would, among other things, create homeless shelters, subsidized legal aid, streamline housing approvals and create a rental registry — can always be killed and amended at various points along the way.

The friction between the competing views on how to solve the housing crisis was thrust onto doorsteps this week when the prominent backer of a recent rent control initiative sent out a series of political mailers that said SB 50 would accelerate gentrification, and, evoking 1960s urban renewal programs and the author James Baldwin, likened the bill to “Negro removal.” The mailers were widely condemned by African American leaders including London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco.

Housing is atop the list of California’s biggest problems and the year began with bold bills to try to fix it. But housing is also touchy, complicated and a giant piece of the economy, so now the question is how far the boldest bills can really go.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.