Many U.S. cities suffer from a serious lack of affordable housing, forcing lower-income workers into substandard housing and requiring them to drive long distances to get to work, exacerbating already serious traffic and air-quality problems. The Associated Press reports that California alone “lacks an estimated 1.5 million affordable housing units compared to demand.” The L.A. Times notes that developers need to build about 100,000 new homes each year—above what’s already planned—to keep pace with California’s population growth.
The California legislature has recently passed a housing package of related measures to address this problem that could be of interest to other states, including a new fee on recordation of real estate transaction documents, a $4 billion housing bond and a bill that streamlines some building regulations for affordable housing.
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