By Darlene Futrel
San Diego families know the pain of California’s housing crisis firsthand. Rents are sky-high, affordable homes are hard to find, and far too many people are at risk of losing the roof over their heads.
“We are in a housing crisis.” That’s how Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, recently summed up the situation in our state. And he’s right. More than just an economic issue, housing access is a civil rights issue — and fortunately, California Democrats are beginning to treat it that way.
The numbers are staggering. California is home to nearly 30% of the nation’s homeless population, even though it has just 12% of its people. The crisis hits Black and Latino families hardest. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, 70% of extremely low-income renters in California are people of color, and many spend more than half their income on rent.
The root of the problem? A lack of housing supply — especially affordable housing. The state has added fewer than 100,000 new homes per year over the past decade, far short of the 300,000 homes per year that Gov. Gavin Newsom says are needed. As a result, mid-tier home prices are more than twice the national average, and rents have soared.
Thankfully, a new generation of Democrats is leading a change. Lawmakers like Garcia, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, Senate leader Scott Wiener, and Speaker Robert Rivas are embracing housing reform as a path toward racial and economic justice. They’re part of the growing YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement that supports zoning reform and affordable housing development to meet demand and bring down prices.
They are right: removing outdated policies — like exclusionary zoning and bureaucratic red tape — that have been used for decades to keep lower-income people, especially people of color, out of certain communities, is long overdue. Making it easier to build multi-family housing, mixed-income projects, and low-cost units is critical if California is going to reverse generations of segregation and displacement.
But progress isn’t coming easy. Opposition has come not only from NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard activists) in affluent suburbs, but also from groups like the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), based in Washington, D.C. AELP has led efforts to ban algorithmic pricing tools used by landlords, arguing they inflate rents. But this isn’t true. They only report on what the going housing rates are at any one given time. Banning them for reporting that a housing shortage and inflation have pushed prices up is no different than shooting the messenger, and that never makes sense.
Nevertheless, some cities have adopted the idea, including San Diego, San Francisco, and Berkeley, and there have been multiple proposals for statewide bans, with Democratic governors, such as Jared Polis (D-CO), vetoing others.
Price controls rarely work. In San Francisco, attempts to expand rent control led to a 15% reduction in rental units, as landlords converted properties into high-end condos, according to Stanford economists. Less supply means higher prices and fewer options, especially for working families.
AELP’s quest to ban this pricing software is reflected in its broader economic philosophy — that we have too much “wealth, energy, and stuff.” This might sound reasonable in D.C. salons and cigar bars, but it’s tone-deaf to the reality faced by Black and brown renters here in California. These families need more housing, not less.
This is why even progressive voices like economist Julianne Malveaux have warned against blanket anti-market policies like AELP’s algorithmic pricing ban. Smart regulation matters, but banning helpful pricing tools or capping prices just to score political points only makes things worse for the very people progressives claim to protect.
There’s encouraging momentum. This year, a statewide rent control bill failed in the Assembly. In its place, lawmakers are advancing bills that speed up affordable housing approvals, curb exclusionary zoning, and hold localities accountable for blocking development. Buffy Wicks put it plainly: “We’ve got to make it easier to build more housing in California.”
For the National Action Network and other nonprofits focused on racial justice, this is a moment to act. The fight for affordable housing is about more than economics. It’s about dignity, opportunity, and finally delivering on the promise of equal access to safe, affordable homes, no matter your zip code or your skin color.
Darlene Futrel is the President of the Orange County Chapter of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and preserving racial justice.