Housing options and development were featured topics last week at a day-long event in Santa Barbara hosted by the Coastal Housing Coalition. The fifth annual Santa Barbara Housing Conference, titled Collaborate for Housing, offered networking, a guest speaker, followed by morning and afternoon educational workshops and panel discussions. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, opened with a keynote address that examined housing development in California cities. “Unless we get it together in housing, what we are going to see in many communities — particularly coastal communities like Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Francisco — is cities with three types of people living there: people who are wealthy, people who are lucky enough to bought their home 20-40 years ago or inherit their home, and people who are homeless or packed into an overcrowded housing situations,”said Wiener. “That is the future unless we turn it around.” He spoke of policy that aims to lead more affordable housing in California. During his first year in State Senate, Wiener said, he passed 11 bills that were signed into law, including a bill to approve projects without delay in cities behind on their housing goals. Senate Bill 35, written by Wiener and took effect Jan. 1, 2018, was part of a broad housing package that aims to make it easier to build homes and generate in new funding for affordable housing.
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