California Economic Summit: VIDEO – California needs another “Year of Housing” solutions

Here’s where they agree: California faces a worsening housing crisis and the state took some steps last year, but much more needs to be done. Agreeing on those next steps is the hard part. “Before you know it, you have 50 different people, each with 50 different solutions who will fight to the death to oppose the other 49,” said Ben Metcalf, director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. At the 2017 California Economic Summit, a wide range of public, private and civic sector leaders were in the room to create a way forward to solve California’s biggest challenges, like that growing affordability crisis. Two of those people at the Summit are featured in our latest video in a series on those challenges, what’s happening to solve them, and what’s next. People in the room included those outside of government and working to create change, like Laura Clark, executive director of YIMBY Action, a housing nonprofit group advocating for more home construction in California cities. “We have booming economies and, instead of being a great thing that we have jobs and opportunity, they have crippled whole regions of California because people have been unwilling to build apartment buildings so that people can come and join those communities,” said Clark. The group seeks to streamline the time it takes to build housing projects, both affordable and market-rate, which can be held up by lengthy approval processes and locals seeking to prevent new housing nearby.