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catalystsca.org

Town Hall series on Housing and Litigation

What’s the Challenge? SB9 and HCD/RHNA

California cities and counties are increasingly under the thumb of aggressive state housing policy.

Legislators claim that access to affordable housing is a matter of statewide concern and not a municipal affair. However, over the years, state policies are worsening the cost of home ownership and rental housing and increasing the number of homeless.

Last year, SB9 used broad strokes to systematically deny jurisdictions the right to plan and zone for their own growth. Instead, legislators put controls into the hands of outside housing developers and investors. Six Southern California cities have filed two lawsuits in protest.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, jurisdictions are scrambling to find housing sites to meet the inflated housing quotas handed down by the CA Housing and Development (HCD) Department. In this 2023-3031 cycle, the state is dictating to cities that they have to build double or even triple the number of housing units they built in the past eight-year Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) cycle. California cities are exploring the potential for a lawsuit against HCD for faulty methodology and quotas that threaten the safety and well-being of residents.

What’s a Solution? Join the Lawsuits

Catalysts for Local Control is tackling the challenge of state overreach that removes local authority to plan for growth and zone for housing in a 4-part Town Hall Series called “Stop State Takeover: Preserve Local Control.”Details about the series, including speakers, topics, dates, and registration, are here. Litigation resources including Fact Sheets, the lawsuits, letters, and articles, are here.

ACTIONS for City Council members, Boards of Supervisors and Constituents

Learn about the objections to SB9

Learn about the objections to HCD/RHNA

Additional Actions

In Summary

We face genuine housing issues that should be addressed with incentives and collaboration, not bullying and threats. Local sovereignty is being replaced by outside special interests. SB 9 and HCD’s RHNA worsen, rather than improve, housing affordability

Register for the Town Hall series. Forward to friends.

JOIN THE LAWSUITS!