San Francisco: proposed Affordable Housing. (Photo: HUD.gov)
Gov. Newsom’s and AG Bonta’s Affordable Housing Shakedown Scheme
The state is breaking cities over these policies
By Katy Grimes, April 25, 2024 8:59 am
“Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), announced a settlement with the city of Malibu to bring the city into compliance with the state’s Housing Element Law,” Governor Gavin Newsom’s press release says.
Malibu, CA will be required to “adopt a housing plan by September 23, 2024, to allow for the development of 79 housing units, 47 of which must be affordable to low- and very low-income households.”
We are talking about Malibu, California… famous for tanned and toned Malibu Barbie, over 20 miles of beach on the Pacific Ocean, and entertainment moguls who live in million-dollar mansions.
The Globe just reported on Santa Monica’s “affordable” homeless housing, coming in at $1 million per apartment for 122 units, a 19,000 square foot grocery store on the bottom floor, and about 100 below-ground parking spots, half for the store and half for the residents.
Is this the “affordable housing” Newsom and Bonta are pushing cities taxpayers to build?
“Affordable housing” is just taxpayer-subsidizing housing for low-income households, and costs about 20 percent more per square foot than unsubsidized homes, the Cascade Policy Institute reports. “Developers capture most of the benefits of such subsidies, and affordable housing does little to make overall housing more affordable because the construction of new subsidized dwellings displaces almost as many new unsubsidized homes.”
Remember when as one of his first acts as governor, in 2019, Gov. Newsom sued the Orange County city of Huntington Beach for failing to provide enough additional “affordable housing,” while his own home county of Marin enjoyed a moratorium on affordable housing building requirements until 2028, the Globe reported.
Newsom said that because “some cities are refusing to do their part to address this crisis and willfully stand in violation of California law, those cities will be held to account.”
Only, left-leaning Marin won’t be held to account the way conservative Huntington Beach will.
And now Malibu.
Here’s what AG Rob Bonta said:
“Our housing laws are not optional; they apply to all cities and counties in California. Today’s settlement with the City of Malibu underscores that basic principle.”
Oops. But not Marin.
Neither the governor nor the Attorney General are actually performing the duties of their job – and really, is either actually qualified to run a state as the top executive or as the chief counsel for the state?
The California Constitution requires the governor to address the State Legislature at the beginning of session and to provide a report at the end of the session, McGeorge School of Law confirms.
Where is the Governor’s State of the State address?
According to the National Association of Attorneys General:
the role of an attorney general is to serve as counselor to state government agencies and legislatures, and as a representative of the public interest.
Instead of haranguing cities on their affordable housing tallies, maybe the AG can actually go after criminals and serious statewide criminal prosecutions, utility regulation, and victim compensation programs, as a start. And we are waiting for AG Bonta to represent the public’s interests in charitable trust and solicitations – perhaps this is where the $24 billion California spent on homeless went.
On the State’s affordable housing scheme, the California Policy Center reported on the Huntington Beach lawsuit:
state regulators have “carved out ‘favored’ portions of the State to be allowed to skirt the very same Housing Laws, including RHNA Laws, which are imposed on Huntington Beach.
Huntington Beach has refused to go along with the state’s demand that the city approve construction of 13,368 new homes.
In response, on March 9, the state sued Huntington Beach.
Within hours of the state’s lawsuit, Huntington Beach fired back. In a federal lawsuit, the city accuses the state of violating California and U.S. constitutional laws through the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process (the city’s lawsuit is here).
CPC reports Huntington Beach says the state’s lawsuit:
- Violates California Constitution Art. XI (Charter City)
- Violates the First Amendment speech rights of cities, city officials, and residents
- Violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
- The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) regulatory process is broken
- Violates California Constitution Art. XI (Due Process)
Huntington Beach officials assert that the reason is political. Is the Malibu threat also political?
In February of 2023, the Globe reported:
As we reported in 2019, the California Department of Housing and Community Development is the state agency charged with overseeing local governments’ housing plans. “Since 1969, California has required that all local governments (cities and counties) adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community,” the agency says on its website.
Also on the website of the Housing agency are links to “Status and Copies of All Housing Elements.” Only, “all” cities are not included in the report, “Copies of all housing elements.”
Notably absent are cities in Marin County.
The Department of Housing and Community Development reported in 2019 that most of California city’s housing plans are in compliance, while 51 cities and counties were not, including Huntington Beach… and Selma, Orange Cove, Holtville, Lake County, Bradbury, Claremont, La Puente, Maywood, Montebello, Paramount, Rolling Hills, South El Monte, Westlake Village, Atwater… while all Marin County cities were listed in compliance.
That report is no longer available on the housing department website.
Neither Marin County, Huntington Beach, nor Malibu should be forced to comply with the state’s one-size-fits-all housing mandates. Cities and counties are much better suited to determine housing needs – and if they even want more housing built in their region. Water requirements, roads and bridges, are impacted, as are public schools, hospitals and medical facilities, and even grocery stores. These are all issues the governor and legislators constantly badger cities and counties over.
It’s a shakedown. The state is bankrupting cities over these policies. Newsom’s and Bonta’s lawsuits are a diversionary tactic to take your eye off of the real issues plaguing Gov. Newsom’s California: the $73 Billion state budget deficit, the state created water shortage, one-half of the nation’s homeless population living on California city’s streets, escalating crime and serial retail theft and smash-and-grabs, high-in-the-nation gas prices ($7.00 gallon), insurance companies leaving California, illegal immigration, government created energy shortage, businesses leaving the state (Oracle is the latest), failing public schools, abortion sanctuary state, and many more issues in a very long list.
Shakedown is right. The Democrat Party is a criminal organization on a national level. Look at what they are trying to do to Donald Trump. They want him killed if not jailed.
youall voted for this Clown twice. Deny that you voted for him all you want but you got what you wanted. He wears his colors proudly and yet youall voted for him.
Grewsome newsome won the same way Biden won…Illegally!!! Too many people hate what he has done to California & didnt vote for him but yet mysteriously he one..
Makes you wonder if Aunt Nasty Pelosi had anything to do with him winning?
It’s so sad & i just dont get it…
How can all these Stupid Snooty Democrats that worry so much about their status’ & how others see them, Do they not care enough about their own offspring, or their grandkids that they continue to destroy California? i mean i thought Grewsome would be the type to try & build a perfect state for his kids & their future?! But boy i guess im totally wrong. Or maybe he just doesnt get it, its not going to matter how much money he has put away for them & their future if he continues destroying Calif like he is all hes going to accomplish is putting a huge target on his kids back or shortening their life expectancy!!
No doubt the criminal Democrat mafia that controls NorCal has a large concentration of their thugs living in gated mansions in Marin County so no low income housing in their neighborhoods?
I wonder what the governor could possibly do to address the “one-half of the nation’s homeless population living on California city’s streets” building more housing certainly won’t do anything about that.ay e we can get Elon musk to send them to mars on some of his rockets
Love this satisfying Katy Grimes article, an object lesson in phoniness, hypocrisy, and vengeance from our CA ‘leadership,” most notably Gov Gavin “I-Me-Mine” Newsom (screw everyone else). Five years later the unmitigated CHUTZPAH of our Clown Governor still continues to amaze me. And the Marin exemption (where Newsom lived, owned property, had ‘friends’) that Lt Gov Gavin Newsom unquestionably had a dirty hand in will still be in force for four more years! (2028) And likely will be extended after that, of course.
Remember these city planning issues USED to be entirely locally-determined, and it wasn’t ALL that long ago that this was the case. To have to now comply with ridiculous state “affordable housing” mandates, when the A.H. crap is and always has been a complete and total scam, is maddening in the extreme. It does NOTHING to add to the stock of housing that is actually affordable (or available), and in fact existing REAL affordable housing has been and is still being demolished to make way for this token luxury crap (see above what it has come to in Santa Monica! Wow!) that the feckless leaders point to and say “see what we noble souls have done!” Meanwhile no one can get into this housing anyway except politically-connected “friends.” Waiting lists are miles long.
YES, a shakedown that impoverishes well-run and SENSIBLE cities, for sure. It’s also a gift to campaign donor developers and others, and ultimately it is a huge example of jackbooted state-centralized-totalitarian government at its finest and most suffocating.
Gov Newsom’s reputation as one of the biggest a-holes of all time keeps growing and growing, doesn’t it? Good luck with that, Gavin Newsom, Worst Governor Ever.
And your little dog Rob Bonta, too!
The Democrats, all of them, are completely unhinged.
Project much? You people are seriously bat💩 crazy…believing the big lie, storming the Capitol, and your nominated pick for POTUS is on trial for multiple felonies. So tell again how Democrats are unhinged.
Best response ever, I agree with your response.
Cities have no business building housing unless it is jail cells. I doubt the state constitution has any obligation to build housing.
Come, come now – the state’s regulations laws and lawsuits have built scads of housing units. Think of all the lawyers and consultants and developers who got a new house with the money they made?
It may not be low/mod, but it’s a start….
Ha ha! — no kidding
Think of the poor Grifters! Without government projects like this they might have to get a real job.
Exactly. 🙂
This governor at some point has to address the housing problem.I rented a apt.in Natomas last July,which I waited a year to get ad they strong us on. when I finally got to move in, the rent was higher than they promised,then y months in they had smud problems,and now we have to pay back months of smud bills because it took them that long to fix their priblem.they raised the laundry machines 6 months in and now they what to raise the rent.senior cannot continue to keep up with these increases when our income goes up by 2.3 or 3.2 percent.you figure it out.I know I will end up homeless at 77 .
My Mother had to sell her very nice mobile home in a nice adult park in Citrus Heights because she couldnt afford the space rent, even though the mobile was paid for. She ended up having to move to Oklahoma of all places. She took the money she made off the mobile and paid cash for a little house. It broke my heart.
You will probably never find a county with more arrogant leftists than Marin County. Why is there no BART in Marin County? Why aren’t they required to build low income housing? Why do they not have to build housing for the homeless? Marin County has a reputation of NIMBY.
They are arrogant hypocrites.
Very refreshing article. Glad to see like minded folks in Cali!
Lake county private housing is a lot less than government involved low income housing. Government IS the problem causing housing to be so expensive. Too many construction mandates. After the big wildfires interior fire sprinklers are now required in all new homes, not just high rises. More virtue signaling that is not stopping wildfires but adds about 5% to construction costs. Soils engineers for driveways and ground mount solar, the list is long of questionable requirements.
Just think of the enormous amount of property taxes that will be collected from all this affordable housing. It is all about the money ladies and gentlemen. Not one of these properties will ever house a homeless person.
It’s worse than you think. Democrats will now use housing stipends for the newly built low income housing to both secure votes and change voting patterns in cities who dare to oppose their mandates.
If someone buys a house, it is affordable.
They need more accurate term when they demand “affordable housing”.. Nor should we enable their stealth agenda repeating this meaningless term “affordable”. ALL housing is affordable. What are they really demanding?
Housing is a commodity. It is not a right. What they are demanding is subsidized, taxpayer subsidized, housing. F Why is that so hard for them to say that?
Next questions: who gets taxpayer subsidized housing? Why and for how long. At least with senior subsidized housing nature creates a natural turnover .But any other age group who gets taxpayer subsidized housing, one can expect zero turnover and most likely generational squatting. Therefore, this is not an answer at all.
Jaye – So-called “affordable housing” is a big subject and these days is such a mess it’s beyond my brain capacity and pay grade to adequately explain, but last time I checked it was primarily no longer the government-subsidized stuff, “public housing projects” and so forth, except I guess for Section 8 housing, which is apparently still going strong.
Today’s ruinous schemes are the state-mandated “quotas” for so-called “affordable housing” that most California cities are forced to comply with. The state demand is for cities to provide —- against their wishes and no matter how built-out the cities already may be —- however-many units the state prescribes… or else. Modern “affordable housing” schemes that are in vogue for cities to be compliant mess with natural market forces by relying on, e.g., developer fees that subsidize a certain percentage of additional “affordable” units — which costs of course are passed on to those buying or renting units at market rates — so that the inevitable result is overpriced units and ever-increasing housing costs. So once again Dem politicians and bureaucrats have created the very problem they then rush in to “rescue” you from.
Look up “inclusionary housing” and “workforce housing,” for starters, and I know you will see right away how economically and socially destructive all of these schemes have been — and still are. I hope you, and anyone else who is interested, will do that to at least get the gist of what is going on with today’s so-called “affordable housing.” I think someone like you will be able to explain it better than I can. And by the way, you’re right that this scheme has been mis-named “affordable housing” by the villains of the piece. But it sounds so good they have unfortunately gotten away with it for at least a couple of decades.
P.S. Jaye – I noticed in refreshing myself on this subject that “micro-units” are apparently in fashion now — at least in Pasadena they are — the apartment version of “tiny houses.” Sigh.
It looks super-claustrophobic on the surface and this particular news coverage is obviously not telling you the whole story, of course. You’ll find more truth in the comments below the video, where very long waiting-lists and bait-and-switch schemes are mentioned. Apparently the $700 monthly rent is not true, units are not available, etc. Sounds like the same old thing although I am not up on to what extent government intervention is at work for the ‘micro-units’ —- beyond the usual unwelcome interference, of course.
“Micro-Units – Pasadena’s Tiny New Affordable Housing Options”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN3krZ3zJjg
I would argue even if they built one bedroom apartments and they only charged $25 per month for rent, quite a few “renters” still wouldn’t pay their rent. Wouldn’t surprise me that within 6 months they would owe unpaid rent balances. Not all, but quite a few relative to the number of units. A vast majority, almost all, homelessness has absolutely nothing to do with being able to afford housing. Most are addicts and/or mentally ill. Not on the streets because the rent is too high. At least for the addicts, somewhere along the line, they made a choice. Substances or housing. They chose substances. $25 for rent or $25 substances. Why would they change now?
The other issue with California is that they were allocated funds(billions) of dollars from the US Government to provide relief for California’s COVID 19 RENT RELIEF PROGRAM and that funding went into someone else’s pockets and they were sued. Following the lawsuit they were given a court order and list of things they were to comply with and they have been in violation of this court order. They are playing games with peoples livelihood and denial of these funds and even short cutting by only giving people who qualify only a portion of the money applied for. I personally applied for the 18 months of back rent relief due to Covid19 and was only given 8 months of rent while I still owe for 10 more months and they are totally ignoring me after filing an appeal. This is causing a major problem because of what is still owed. I even received a letter from the Governor Garimendis office stating I was supposed to receive 100% of these very desperately needed funds. Meanwhile, I can’t seem to get any answers and I’m back in limbo again. I had to wait for 3 years to get only 8 out of 18 months owed. This is ridiculous and needs to be addressed. This is Government funding stolen from the American people and they should be punishment for this crime.
California has criminals running it. INVESTIGATE INVESTIGATE INVESTIGATE!!!! THEY STOLEN ALLOCATED FUNDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT WAS FOR CALIFORNIA’S COVID 19 RENT RELIEF PROGRAM. THEY SHOULD BE IMPEACHED AND IN PRISON …CRIMINALS!!!
Yeah, the Democrate party is taken over by outright criminals: including crooked police, Judges, and the crooked pedophile politicians and there evil handlers. A bunch of real DEVILS….
I’m sorry for all of you still living in Ca. I lived there for 20yrs before moving. The only way to make a positive change is to vote all Democrats out of office. I believe some honest agency needs to come in and AUDIT the voting.
California was never out of balance like it is now. People like Newsome have deep government connections being his auntie Nancy P runs the Democratic house of Rep. He is not very smart but he knows how to manipulate and lie.
As I have been told over and over, you start to make political changes by starting in your towns and cities first.
THIS is what happened to California democrat one party rule, lots of corruption with no push back, American taxpayers money being stolen …..
“..most of California city’s housing plans are in compliance, while 51 cities and counties were not, including Huntington Beach… and Selma, Orange Cove, Holtville” etc.
Way to sound pretentious and smug, bravo. This article is obviously so personal to the reporter that the arguments are all over the map and loosely connected to their topic. While I don’t take a stand on the issue either way, I will say this: Learn how to properly argue and defend a topic before you attempt to write about it and try to persuade other people. If you have any questions about your articles effectiveness just look at the comments, their all over the place. Except for the divisive party comments. Those comments are dead bullseye focused as always. Like a dog on it’s favorite bone. I say if your Republicans or better yet if you hate Democrats then get someone else in office, or heck run for office yourself, and lessee if you can do a better job, or do the job at all. It’s easy to throw stones while doing nothing else. I should know I’m doing it right now.