Today, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state is suing five California cities for being out of compliance with state housing laws.
“And those five cities are Calexico, Costa Mesa, Half Moon Bay, Turlock, and Ridgecrest,” Bonta said at a press conference this morning. He explained that, despite multiple warnings, the cities have failed to plan to build more housing.
“The law is simply asking cities to plan for housing," said Bonta. "I want to be clear on that. This, accordingly, should not be a big lift.”
Since 1969, California has required every city and county to plan for housing at every income level. The Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, assigns every city and county a share of the state’s housing need, and then the city or county must show how it plans to meet those needs. Non-compliance can result in the state coming in and taking over, fines, or both.
California’s housing shortage is widely considered to be a major contributor to the state’s affordability and homelessness crisis.
According to The HCD, California should be building 180,000 homes a year, but has been averaging less than 80,000.
