Despite the wide reaching impacts of COVID-19 on the California Legislature this year, we saw some important housing bills make it to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Habitat for Humanity California’s hardworking lobbying team at lighthouse Public Affairs in Sacramento did a fantastic job keeping housing solutions in the spotlight in a mostly virtual session.

The Governor signed 15 bills aimed at increasing housing production and tackling our state’s affordability crisis, including two that Habitat California was actively supporting:

  • AB 1851 (Wicks) removes barriers to building through the reduction of parking requirements for faith-based affiliate housing production.
  • AB 2345 (Gonzalez) incentivizes the construction of affordable units through density bonus.

We continue to be actively engaged in conversations with stakeholders to ensure that streamlined housing production and the removal of barriers to production remain a top priority for members of the Legislature and the Governor as we enter the next legislative cycle early in 2021.

A complete list of bills included in the housing package can be found here.