The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) now seems committed to addressing the state’s current housing crisis. Decades of underproduction, underscored by exclusionary policies, have left housing supply far below demand, resulting in soaring prices. As a result, millions of Californians, consisting of disproportionately lower income and people of color, must make hard decisions about paying for housing at the expense of food, healthcare, childcare, and transportation—such that one in three households in the state don’t earn enough money to meet their basic needs.
HCD’s latest Statewide Housing Plan includes a comprehensive roadmap which tracks California’s progress toward meeting the current goal of building 2.5 million homes over eight years to help create a more affordable, equitable California for all. The plan tracks data on housing by income level and demographics, includes information about what the state and local governments are doing to address the problem, and will be regularly updated as new data and research become available. Though a Statewide Housing Plan has been required by law since 1962, previous iterations focused on assessing the housing landscape and providing policy recommendations. The new 2022 version provides more accountability for getting the homes needed.