Group says legislators should work with ALL stakeholders to craft a workable housing development plan that meets needs of low-income Californians, cities and the state as a whole; also offers to work with Sen. Wiener to fashion a bill offering more meaningful action on truly affordable housing and homelessness
SACRAMENTO (January 30, 2020) Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) proclaimed today that the defeat Thursday in Sacramento of hotly contested legislation known as SB 50, a bill authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener and heavily reliant on failed trickle-down economic theory, paves the way for more meaningful action on the state’s housing and homeless crisis as well as crafting new legislation to create truly affordable housing.
The bill (in its third iteration over the past two years) was seen by many as a giveaway to Big Real Estate and luxury-housing developers, one that would have devastated middle- and working-class communities throughout the state.
“We thank the State Senate for its foresight today rejecting SB 50 and looking out, first and foremost, for hard-working and vulnerable Californians across the state,” said René Christian Moya, director of Housing Is A Human Right. “The defeat of SB 50 really is a victory for affordable housing, one that also offers opportunity for more meaningful and effective action on California’s homelessness crisis. We are ready and willing to work with state legislators, including Senator Wiener, on crafting a workable housing production plan that directly addresses the affordability crisis while taking seriously the displacement crisis in our cities. We and other tenant rights and community groups also recognize the crisis—which is not simply a housing crisis, but a housing affordability and gentrification crisis—and expect a seat at the table to ensure an effective, community-based strategy to produce truly affordable housing is enacted.”
In addition to tenant rights and community groups, Housing Is A Human Right wants to also acknowledge and thank cities around the state that opposed and lobbied against SB 50. HHR now strongly urges state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom to do away with trickle-down, luxury-housing policies that have already fueled California’s housing affordability crisis and gentrification crises in many of California’s cities. Instead, elected leaders should implement the “3Ps”:
- Protect tenants: prevent gentrification and homelessness by keeping rents under control and discouraging evictions;
- Preserve communities: support progressive, sustainable land-use policies that maintain neighborhood integrity and allow working- and middle-class families to stay in their communities;
- Produce housing: Produce truly affordable housing through adaptive reuse and cost-effective new construction.
We need real, thoughtful solutions that put people over profit.
