Gov. Newsom signs AB 179 July 13, 2026. (Photo: gov.ca.gov)
Governor Newsom to ‘San Francisco’ all of California With No ‘Red Tape’ Affordable Housing
Upzoning from single-family zoning to allow for multiple-unit buildings is supply-side progressivism
By Katy Grimes, July 13, 2026 12:00 pm
Governor Gavin Newsom, the “greatest champion of affordable housing,” announced Monday he was signing legislation “cutting red tape, helping build more affordable housing in California.”
The Oakland press conference sounded more like a presidential campaign stop, with lawmakers and local officials lauding the termed-out governor as if he actually improved California’s housing crisis.
Let us remind you exactly what the governor is referring to with his bombastic announcement.
In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 79–authored by Democrat Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco–that forces single-family neighborhoods to accept high-rise apartment buildings, overriding local zoning restrictions which ban dense development to favor “transit-oriented housing development.”
In Governor Newsom’s juvenile response on X, he named YIMBY as the benefactors. Apparently YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard) and Sen. Wiener actually dream of destroying California suburbs, because suburbs are where people flee from the cities, from apartment living, from crappy schools, from living on top of each other in dense housing, the Globe reported.
Take note: last August the Los Angeles City Council voted 8-5 to oppose SB 79, calling it a “Sacramento attempt to hijack local planning,” silencing residents, Palisades News reported. Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades were right.
As many who followed the long path of SB 79 have concluded, all of the six-story apartment buildings built next to a single family home will probably be luxury housing, no matter what is said by Sen. Wiener and Gov. Newsom. Developers can’t afford to build subsidized “affordable housing” in established residential neighborhoods. So Newsom thinks he is addressing the problem by removing red tape.
Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 179 Monday morning, the Housing Development Finance Committee Bond and Tax Credit Reservation, which aims to cut red tape and accelerate “affordable housing” construction in California. AB 179 implements aspects of the Governor’s Reorganization Plan of 2025, which eliminates the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency effective July 1, 2026, and creates the new California Housing and Homelessness Agency (CHHA). It also makes targeted changes to housing programs, funding allocations, performance tracking, and administrative structures.
It’s more government in the way of housing development.
Newsom signed the bill, but not before being lauded as the greatest “champion of affordable housing,” and “most transformative governor around affordable housing,” by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk Silva (D-Fullerton) and Senator Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley).
Here is the press conference video:
The legislation is one of several trailer bills supporting the state budget with $1.7 billion in housing and homelessness investments, which is a 52% increase over last year. This includes $900 million for Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention, $500 million for State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, $200 million for Multifamily Housing Program, and $100 million for the Disaster Rebuilding Fund.
There is also a proposed $11.25 billion Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond on the November 2026 ballot.
Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Round 7 refers to the seventh round of California’s Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, a major state grant program administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development. It provides flexible funding to continuums of care, cities, counties, and tribes for regional coordination, homelessness prevention, shelter, housing, and supportive services… more homeless spending.
The $900 million total for Round 7 was significantly boosted in the final 2026-27 state budget via AB 179 over a proposed $500 million.
According to HCD, Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program funds are flexible but typically support:
- Housing navigation, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing.
- Shelter and interim housing.
- Prevention (e.g., rental assistance to avoid homelessness).
- Street outreach and coordination.
- Administrative costs (with limits).
Allocations are typically based on a city or county’s share of the state’s homeless population, primarily using Point-in-Time count data.
To understand why California has a housing shortage, you merely need to look at existing law which:
1) Requires, pursuant to State Density Bonus Law (DBL), each city and county to adopt an ordinance that specifies how it will implement State Density Bonus Law. Requires cities and counties to grant a density bonus when an applicant for a housing development of five or more units seeks and agrees to construct a project that will contain at least one of the following:
a) 10% of the total units of a housing development for lower-income (LI) households;
b) 5% of the total units of a housing development for very low-income (VLI) households;
c) A senior citizen housing development or mobile home park;
d) 10% of the units in a common interest development (CID) for moderate- income households;
e) 10% of the total units for transitional foster youth, veterans, or people experiencing homelessness; or
f) 20% of the total units for lower-income students in a student housing development.
g) 100% of the units of a housing development for lower-income households, except that 20% of units may be for moderate-income households.
During Governor Newsom’s eight-year tenure, California has faced a severe housing shortage for many years driven by government regulations like strict municipal government zoning, lengthy permitting, environmental reviews (CEQA), use and height restrictions, and mandatory parking/no parking minimums,–the primary drivers of high rents and housing prices.
Newsom said that the state’s affordable housing shortage was deliberate: “It was intentionally designed NOT to build,” and addressed local “impact fees,” often driving per-unit housing costs up as much as $60,000 to $70,000.
Then he bragged that one of his first efforts as the newly elected governor in 2019 was to sue Huntington Beach over their “lack” of affordable housing. Newsom even intimated that he was unsafe in Huntington Beach City Hall: “there’s not enough security for me to be at Huntington Beach…” he claimed melodramatically, as if his life is in danger should he travel to Huntington Beach. Is he mimicking the President again?
“Affordable housing” in state government terms is subsidized housing. The rest of Californians think of affordable housing as being able to afford and purchase a home.
As the Globe reported, 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 noted in 2019.
“Some cities are refusing to do their part to address this crisis and willfully stand in violation of California law,” Newsom said, adding, “Those cities will be held to account.” Only, left-leaning Marin will never be held to account the way conservative Huntington Beach will.
Newsom’s previous efforts to boost affordable housing include:
- Streamlining bills like Sen. Wiener’s SB 79, which boosts density near transit stops.
- Senate Bill 423 (signed in 2024), also by Sen. Wiener, to speed up permitting approvals in cities like San Francisco, the slowest city in California to approve new housing. Under SB 423, cities that fail to meet state housing goals must expedite permits for projects that comply with existing planning.
- Budget investments and bonds for affordable units, including a recent housing bond for the November ballot.
California needs more housing, but destroying long established urban and suburban neighborhoods with density housing is not the way to do it. No one should have to live in a high-rise near public transportation just because they are working class or poor.
What would actually unleash more housing construction in California is for politicians to strip away their own building and permitting regulations in order to get actual “affordable” housing built – supply and demand works.
Sen. Wiener supports “upzoning land,” which makes it easier for cities to “upzone” from single-family zoning, allowing for multiple unit buildings.
This is not without controversy and is supply-side progressivism.
Leftists say aloud “low and moderate income families deserve to live in high-opportunity neighborhoods. It’s wrong to restrict them to communities where the affluent do not want to live.” This is “housing and environmental justice.”
Wiener’s bill is solely about state control over local development and growth, because of a “housing crisis” created by the brain trust at the state: Never ending regulations, CEQA abuse, and “mitigation fees” which are just additional taxes. This is about destroying “high-opportunity neighborhoods” in which people sacrificed, scrimped and saved to be able to move to.
Instead of fixing the problems they have created, lawmakers and the governor have pushed the issue to local governments, San Diego Supervisor Jim Desmond warned before SB 79 was signed. It is forced density without local input and control. And now it will be streamlined?
A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.
““Affordable housing” in state government terms is subsidized housing.” Yes, it is housing for welfare leeches, gang members, drug dealers, drug users, criminals, single mothers on welfare, the lowest form of humanity.
It is NOT for productive members of society who dream of owning a single family home in a SAFE, QUIET single family home neighborhood with good schools for their kids, and an opportunity to build equity in a place they live in.
“Affordable housing” is a smokescreen for the truth.