California’s housing shortage and climate crisis are often treated as if they are unrelated to each other. In fact, they are deeply interconnected.
We need to address not only how much housing we build but also where we build it. That’s the idea and the promise behind new legislation backed by a novel coalition of housing and environmental advocates.
California must add at least 2.5 million new homes by 2030 to meet its needs. Decades of underproduction have exacerbated skyrocketing rental prices, put homeownership increasingly out of reach for most Californians and pushed more of our neighbors into homelessness than in any other state. The housing shortage is driven in large part by local government policies that prevent new housing from being built in existing neighborhoods, forcing most development into exurban and rural areas.
