Lawmakers push disputed bill proposal

State lawmakers behind a controversial housing proposal that must move forward next week to survive implored local officials and advocates at a housing summit on Friday to support their bill, which would force cities across California to build denser communities.

“2020 needs to be the year of production,” Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Housing Solutions Summit in Santa Clara. “We are obviously very short of affordable housing.”

Senate Bill 50, a bill Chiu and Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, are pushing, would allow multifamily developments to be built around singlefamily homes and increase density near transit stops.

The idea has prompted praise from some housing advocacy groups that say it’s a necessary move in a state that has added jobs far faster than housing and found itself with what state officials say is a need to add 3.5 million homes in the next few years. But homeowners, particularly in some wealthy suburbs, have pushed back at the idea, saying it will negatively impact their quality of life and add traffic and congestion, as have some community organizations that argue it doesn’t offer enough protections to vulnerable residents.

“It’s a huge fight,” acknowledged Wiener.

And, he said, the idea that the state would risk hurting its booming economy by failing to add homes for all of its workers to live in is “terrible,” particularly when it comes from older residents who have benefited from that economy and are sitting in $2 million homes they bought for $200,000 decades ago.

But, he and Chiu said, opinion around housing is beginning to change.

“We finally have a shifting of the politics,” Wiener said, adding that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the bill’s chances of passage.

Last year, the proposal died in Sacramento but Wiener and Chiu have agreed to some changes they hope will increase support among local officials and others, such as giving cities some time to draft their own plans to add density before the state would crack down.

“It’s fate is by no means certain,” Chiu said, adding that he sees housing as “the moral crisis of our day.”

Both lawmakers pointed to a lack of housing — and astronomical prices where it does exist — as key factors behind a rise in the state’s homeless population and those living in homes but close to the brink — one busted car or one medical emergency away from being on the streets.

“People not just in my community but around the state are hurting,”

Wiener said.

But, he added, “we will not subsidize our way out of the middle class housing problem.” Building more housing, he insisted, is key.

Wiener acknowledged that construction and material costs are high, but encouraged developers to “be creative about what we use to build.”

In the past few weeks, several cities have rolled back opposition to SB 50 or endorsed the bill outright. But opposition groups, ranging from those who don’t want more housing in their neighborhoods to groups like the Oakland Tenants Union, who don’t think it does enough to protect poor residents currently living near transit from being pushed out as new construction takes place, have also rallied vocally. Protesters, including the Moms 4 Housing group that occupied a vacant home in Oakland recently, shouted Wiener down during a press conference earlier this month.

At the summit on Friday, which had sessions on everything from the possibility of making changes to a state environmental law that has been used to oppose new housing to how advocacy groups are pushing for more housing, several community leaders said they were pushing elected leaders to focus on building more this year.

Chrissy Garavaglia with the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, which has backed SB 50, said her organization was looking in 2020 to support “housing minded” candidates.

But, acknowledged Leslye Corsiglia of the housing advocacy organization Silicon Valley @ Home, getting residents on board with what could be a policy that results in major changes to their neighborhood is a complex process.

“Fear is real,” Corsiglia said. “Change is hard.”

Carl Guardino, the outgoing head of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which has also backed the bill, made a personal plea for support.

Pointing to a picture of his young children, Guardino said he loves his kids and doesn’t want them to have to move out of the Bay Area. But, he added to chuckles, he doesn’t want them living under his roof forever, either.

“When we’re talking about our housing challenges,” he said, “we’re talking about our families.”