State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

CA Governor: We can't buy our way out of the affordable housing problem

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to address affordable housing , which he unveiled during a Friday press conference on his revised budget, primarily tries to address the problem by lowering regulations for affordable development. Here’s what he said about his approach:

"The general idea is if you want some assisted housing, you're going to have to reduce some of the regulatory burdens that are faced by developers. That's what the idea is.

To get a subsidized rental unit, so-called affordable housing, in San Francisco it costs a $500,000 investment, a subsidy. $500,000. That means 10 people, it's $5 million. A hundred people? $5 billion. So you need more housing. There was a time in the 1970s, I think, the median home price in L.A. was like $65,000. So we need more production that will bring, hopefully, the supply is going to bring down the cost. Otherwise, through subsidies and through restrictions, we're just spending more and more tax dollars and getting very, very little. And the whole program anyway is for very small numbers of people." - Gov. Jerry Brown

Read article