(Photo Credit: USAF/Darlene Seltmann)
With so many news headlines about skyrocketing rents, the housing crisis has become a well-known hazard to life in California, like earthquakes or wildfires. But when you consider that 1 in 3 families are barely making their rent each month and our economy is suffering under the burden of the super-inflated rental markets, the severe housing shortfall is a crisis California leaders can no longer afford to ignore.
That’s why the California Housing Consortium has joined California Forward and the California Economic Summit to advance the ambitious One Million More Homes Challenge, and sponsored legislation that would renew state investment in affordable home construction and begin to reverse the backward and broken state policies that impede homebuilding.
With these goals in mind, CHC has launched a new resource to educate Californians on the roots of the crushing affordability problem facing families—and to put new tools in their hands to help solve the crisis.
The new BringCAHome.org website has information Californians need to become informed and be a part of the solution, including:
- At-a-glance infographics and statistics on the scope of the housing affordability crisis
- A “Take Action” section that connects Californians with legislators to make their voices heard on the solutions under consideration in the Capitol
- A toolkit of county-by-county fact sheets on housing affordability and the types of workers who are being priced out of California communities
Earlier this month, California leaders acted to fix our state’s crumbling roads and highways, demonstrating they can come together to solve seemingly intractable problems facing our state.
The Summit recently sent a letter to the administration and Legislature calling for equally bold action to address the state’s expanding affordability challenges.
California’s housing crisis is solvable when our leaders resolve to do so. As California’s Director of Housing and Community Development, Ben Metcalf, has opined: because barriers to building are “challenges that have been created through policies, we know we can fix them.”
Join us to fix our state's housing policies so seniors, families, students, veterans, and workers can afford to live in the Golden State, by visiting BringCaHome.org and be a part of the conversation on social media with #BringCAHome.
Ray Pearl is executive director of the California Housing Consortium and co-lead of the California Economic Summit Housing Action Team
