State housing crisis

If California lawmakers needed another reason to pass legislation to address the state’s housing crisis, the United States Census Bureau has provided one. Annual data released again confirm that when housing costs and other living expenses are figured in, California has the nation’s highest poverty rate. One in five Californians lives in poverty. Why? Because the staggering cost of paying for a roof over one’s head has left people struggling to survive.

This should be no surprise. The evidence of California’s housing crisis – and the poverty that results – is right in front of our eyes. It’s there in the tents and homeless encampments that have sprung up in recent years, and in the prevalence of people living in campers on city streets. It’s also there in the bumperto-bumper traffic on the freeways every morning and evening as people commute to their city jobs from farflung, somewhat-more-affordable suburbs.

Given all that visible evidence, it has been truly mind-boggling to watch California lawmakers hem and haw over whether to pass a handful of bills that would begin – just begin – to fix the problems that have led to the state’s housing crisis.

Those include both the general shortage of housing construction for people of all income levels and the lack of funding to build affordable housing for the poorest residents.