By Dr. Julianne Malveaux
California has been experiencing a housing shortage for quite some time, as evidenced by crushingly high rents and home prices, along with a large, visible homeless population – some estimates suggest as many as 170,000 people are unhoused on any given night. These challenges are more acute in California than elsewhere, with about 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population residing in the state.
The “Yes in My Backyard” (or YIMBY) Democratic coalition in the legislature thinks that housing policy reform has moved too slowly, and recent actions they have taken will make housing more affordable, making make The Golden State more attractive for workers and for employers.
On April 22, YIMBY lawmakers on the Senate housing committee succeeded in advancing a bill requiring cities to allow more home construction near public transit hubs. The following week, the Senate Local Government Committee moved the same legislation.
The YIMBY agenda is simple: build more market-rate housing. Studies suggest that increasing supply works. More housing affordability and availability might slow the outmigration of California residents and businesses from states like Texas, Nevada, and Arizona, lowering prices by decreasing housing demand.
However, housing in California isn’t just a supply issue. It’s also a diversity, equity, and inclusion issue. We don’t just need more units; we need the right kinds of units for diverse and vulnerable and underserved populations. Without thoughtful policy, developers could focus on building luxury apartments and high-end condos that generate the biggest returns, not homes that working families, low-income renters, or fixed-income seniors can afford.
To ensure the right type of housing is built, the state’s leaders should expand funding for deeply affordable units and programs like the federal Section 8 voucher system. They can also encourage “missing middle” housing by easing restrictions on duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the transit hub housing bill, has already begun the process.
In understanding that housing is a diversity, equity and inclusion issue, some lawmakers have proposed other solutions to help low-income Californians afford housing, such as a cap on rent increases. While well intended, I would urge a thoughtful and measured approach as they could ultimately make the problem worse by discouraging new housing construction.
An analysis from the Brookings Institution, a think tank that has made advocating for housing equity a longtime priority, concluded that while rent caps can help some lucky tenants in the short term, “they also lead to decreases in the quantity and quality of housing stock.” In San Francisco, for example, expanding rent control in the 1990s led landlords to convert rental units into condos, ultimately reducing rental supply by 15%. And a shrinking rental supply pushes more people into unsafe or overcrowded housing or onto the streets.
The attempt to ban rent pricing algorithm software, which recommends real-time pricing adjustments based on current market conditions, is problematic for the same reason. It’s true that these software programs can sometimes recommend rent increases, but only when the market is so tight that landlords have no choice but to charge more. In fact, data shows landlords who use the software also “lower rents more rapidly than non-adopters” when market conditions change. If lawmakers can create the conditions for increased supply, this technology could accelerate rent decreases rather than impede them.
The YIMBY coalition’s proposed supply-side solutions might not improve the situation as immediately as some may like but walking slowly and purposefully in the right direction is far more advantageous than sprinting in the wrong one.
To succeed, however, California’s housing policy must be informed not only by the imperative to increase supply but also by the need to ensure that the housing being built is affordable and accessible for all. DEI centered housing policy helps ensure as much, all while enhancing our state’s long term economic development.
Here’s hoping state leaders recognize this. We’re all counting on them.
Dr. Julianne Malveaux is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women, the former Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at California State University Los Angeles, and a frequent guest on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and Fox News.
