The stigma of living in California and how expensive it is has become so embedded into our communities, it almost distracts from the severity of what is happening. For the last few decades, California has continued to experience a short fall in the number of available homes we can afford compared to the number of people who need housing. 

During the pandemic, we saw the housing market become even more competitive and now its common to see homes sell for well over asking. This creates a dynamic where we either have to move further away from where we work to afford rent, which then increases traffic and for families- childcare costs; OR we stay on the seemingly never ending rat race of barely being able to pay rent and stretching resources to make ends meet. While there are affordable housing programs that exist, the income limits seem to forget those of us that fall into what is considered middle income, and yet that same income doesn't quite stretch to cover all it needs to. Not to mention Affordable Housing waitlists commonly extending out over 5+ years. 

The truth is the pseudo normalization of expensiveness in California is about to reach its breaking point...simply put, we need more homes that Californians can afford. 

In 2021, we saw rapid emergence of a program called Essential Housing, or Moderate Income Housing- a program that utilizes tax-exempt bonds that investors purchase to acquire apartment communities which then ensures the city would receive ownership of the building at maturation of the bonds. Meanwhile, the units are converted into Essential Housing compliance standards with rent restriction implemented based on income and annual increase caps set at 4%. This created an opportunity for over 13,000 Californians to move into really great apartment homes, local to where we work, at rates we can afford. 

This is a huge step in the right direction and we need to continue to move towards solutions that increase the accessibility of homes to our communities. 

However, a bill has recently been introduced to standardize this new program a bit more- AB 1850. The issue is that some of the stipulations added into the bill take the program a few steps back from where it is now, which diminishes the benefit of the Essential Housing program to our communities. 

We need more access to housing, not more restriction.

We need AB 1850 to be turned down. 

Please sign this campaign and join the many Californians who agree it is time to make our voices heard and advocate for the tension around housing affordability in California to be eased.