SACRAMENTO, California — In the space of two minutes, Gov. Gavin Newsom reordered a political standoff over California’s housing crisis.
The governor on Wednesday threw his weight behind a push to turbocharge housing construction statewide by slashing local restrictions and environmental reviews. With divisions among legislative Democrats imperiling a package of bills, Newsom announced during a news conference that he would instead advance those policy changes through the budget, over which he has considerably more leverage.
“Enough,” Newsom said, after pointing to housing as the biggest issue facing California. “This is a crisis. If you care about your kids, you care about getting this done, this is the biggest opportunity to do something big and bold.”
With that move, Newsom put his imprimatur on a debate over how much to ease housing development — even in cities wary of fast growth. For years, slashing barriers to construction has been the state’s core strategy for bringing down exorbitant rents and home prices that have put home ownership further out of reach for many people and undermined Democrats’ political standing on an issue of paramount importance to cost-strained voters.
Pro-housing activists and their legislative allies have collided with lawmakers, unions, and environmental groups who warn that in its race to build, California is abandoning hard-won labor and environmental protections for laws that have produced mixed or minimal results.</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.yimbylaw.org/law-journal/californias-streamlining-laws-dlf8x","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>mixed or minimal results.
“To go taking these large swings and then not even giving them a chance to work — we think that’s a little reckless,” said Chris Hannan, executive director of a collection of unions called the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.
Democratic state lawmakers this spring split on a series of housing votes that killed one bill and exposed gaping intraparty fractures.
But Newsom’s intervention could be decisive. By moving to enact changes through the budget, he could circumvent legislative obstacles like hostile committee chairs, and he will hold considerable leverage over lawmakers intent on securing their spending priorities. His public backing of the legislation flips a familiar dynamic in which he’s useds his veto power to thwart lawmakers on automation</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/23/gavin-newsom-autonomous-vehicles-00112358","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0006","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0007","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>automation, immigration</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/13/newsom-sanctuary-law-trump-00204012","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0008","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0009","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>immigration, and spending</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2019/10/07/newsom-says-hes-vetoing-high-cost-bills-despite-their-merits-1221137","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc000a","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc000b","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>spending bills.
Supporters cast the moment in make-or-break terms as Democratic leaders lean into an affordability message to win back voters who have drifted away from the party and to lower-cost states, bolstering Republican attacks on California’s liberal governance.
The bills “ask a simple question,” said California YIMBY CEO Brian Hanlon, whose group has driven pro-housing development policies in Sacramento. “Will the California Legislature rise to meet the scale of the housing crisis, or push California families to states that do build?”
That message has taken on additional urgency after Democrats lost winnable races to Republicans last year as Trump made gains in both staunchly blue coastal counties and purple inland battlegrounds.
“Our constituents are demanding it. Look at the election results in November,” said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat who is both carrying a leading bill and shepherding a larger affordability package. “I think there’s far greater risk in not solving the problem than there is in not appeasing your groups so as to not upset the apple cart.”
Rise of the YIMBYs
Newsom’s embrace of the pro-development agenda illustrates the power of California’s housing-focused “YIMBY,” or Yes In My Backyard, movement, whose champions have harnessed deep public frustration with rents and home prices to push through changes to local zoning rules, relaxed statewide building regulations and other proposals to make it faster and easier to build.
They’re tapping into a moment embodied by Ezra Klein’s “abundance” push</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/27/california-abundance-craze-00253159","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc000c","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc000d","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Ezra Klein’s “abundance” push — which Newsom enthusiastically trumpeted when he hosted Klein on his podcast </u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2025/03/26/the-abundance-movement-comes-home-00249968","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc000e","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc000f","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>hosted Klein on his podcast — and fueled by alarm among elected Democrats that California’s housing costs are driving away voters.
The underlying politics have shifted dramatically in the last decade as a cohort of Democratic state lawmakers began pushing bills to build more, faster — a fix Vice President Kamala Harris echoed for bringing down costs</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/22/harris-obama-dnc-affordable-housing-00175694","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0010","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0011","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Vice President Kamala Harris echoed for bringing down costs at the Democratic National Convention last summer — even when that meant defying labor unions, environmental groups, and homeowners who have long thwarted efforts to plan for and construct multi-family homes.
Behind the legislation is an ascendant network of groups funded substantially by young tech industry workers that have spent millions on lobbying and elections while organizing priced-out Bay Area liberals to show up to public meetings and advocate for housing developments.
Pro-housing Democrats began by reshaping San Francisco politics, and then won seats in the state Legislature.
“Nowadays you can’t go to Senate Housing or Assembly Housing (committee) without hearing about some sort of streamlining package or bill,” said Christopher Martin, policy director for Housing California. “There’s a lot more political capital, there’s a lot more that’s possible in this world in large part because the crisis has gotten so tough for people — not just for low-income folks but for folks who are earning good salaries.”
After early setbacks — Democratic infighting doomed a nationally watched 2020 bill</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/01/30/newsom-atkins-urge-more-housing-action-after-sb-50-dies-1257593","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0012","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0013","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”> doomed a nationally watched 2020 bill to build near transit, and an influential construction union group </u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/06/28/california-democrats-are-reliably-pro-labor-but-one-union-is-testing-their-patience-1386963","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0014","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cc0015","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>an influential construction union group thwarted a series of proposals — pro-housing lawmakers have been on a winning streak. They broke through the labor impasse by peeling off union groups like carpenters, sending Newsom bills to expedite development in commercial corridors and in cities trailing their state-mandated housing goals.
Now, the Legislature is debating a package of bills that would expedite building apartment complexes in urban hubs and limit reviews under a landmark environmental measure, the California Environmental Quality Act, that had long been considered politically sacrosanct as beneficiaries like unions and environmental groups fight to protect it.
“CEQA has been like the sacred cow,” Wicks said. “When I introduced the bill I was like: ‘OK, am I just going to get clobbered now?’”
In housing, Wicks and like-minded lawmakers have had a consistent ally in Newsom, who campaigned for office in 2018 vowing to build 3.5 million more housing units by 2025</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://medium.com/@GavinNewsom/the-california-dream-starts-at-home-9dbb38c51cae","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>build 3.5 million more housing units by 2025. In addition to signing a spate of bills, the governor has been aggressive in challenging</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2023/05/02/construction-criticism-00094795","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0002","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0003","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>aggressive in challenging cities and counties</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2022/08/10/revisiting-housing-in-newsoms-hometown-00050777","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>counties that, in his view, have actively resisted planning for more housing.
California remains drastically behind Newsom’s 2018 campaign goal, however, with state data </u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.hcd.ca.gov/planning-and-community-development/housing-element-implementation-and-apr-dashboard","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0006","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0007","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>state data showing fewer than 500,000 units completed between 2019 and 2023 — the majority in the “above moderate income” price range. That shortfall and an attendant homelessness crisis could haunt the governor, whose final term ends at the end of next year, if he runs for president in 2028.
Growing dissent
Yet that formidable pro-development coalition has run into Democratic dissent. One bill from state Sen. Scott Wiener, a potential successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/03/scott-wiener-pelosi-elections-california-00161159","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0008","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0009","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>potential successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has already been voted down, and Wiener had to push two more through votes over the opposition of Democratic committee chairs, a rarity in Sacramento that speaks to the issue’s continued volatility.
“It implicates so many different interests and anxieties and goals,” Wiener said in an interview. “You have people who don’t want to see change in their neighborhoods versus people who do want to see change, you have fights about labor standards, you have environmental justice advocates, there’s just so many angles that it’s inherently contentious.”
State Sen. Aisha Wahab, who chairs the Senate Housing Committee and favors more projections for renters and lower-income Californians, unsuccessfully sought to block Wiener’s bills. Wahab said in an interview that she supports building more housing, but that it must be affordable — and she warned a flurry of recent housing laws have done little to reduce costs while enriching housing developers.
It is time, Wahab said, to pause an agenda that looks “suspiciously like what we are seeing at the federal government, where deregulation is their goal to ensure profitability.”
“If these sweetheart deals for developers are not creating affordable housing,” Wahab said, “why are we continuing this path forward?”
Construction unions fighting the bills have made common cause with affordable housing advocates who want guarantees of less-expensive units and from environmental justice groups who warn that rollbacks would expose low-income residents to pollution at the moment the Trump administration is moving to slash climate protections.
“We know we cannot rely right now on the federal government,” said Grecia Orozco, a staff attorney for the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. “California needs to step in and say: No, we need to be a leader here, we need to protect the communities that are most vulnerable.”
Local warning signs
California’s biggest cities have also illustrated cautionary tales about the risk of political backlash over policies to ramp up housing construction.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass reversed herself and diluted her order</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-ed-1-changes-mayor-karen-bass-affordable-housing-low-income-streamline-revision","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd000a","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd000b","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>diluted her order to speed up housing production in the wake of devastating wildfires, saying she wanted to protect existing tenants</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-ed-1-changes-mayor-karen-bass-affordable-housing-low-income-streamline-revision","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd000c","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd000d","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>saying she wanted to protect existing tenants, including those in rent-controlled units. Housing advocates lamented a lost opportunity.
But Bass’ recalibration reflected deeper fears about gentrification and altering the character of neighborhoods that have long fueled more skepticism to dense housing in Los Angeles compared to the Bay Area.
Those concerns have taken outsize importance as Los Angeles works to rebuild areas incinerated by wildfires, to the point that Newsom himself has denied allegations</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1877953993042960679?lang=en","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd000e","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd000f","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>has denied allegations he’s colluding with developers to put apartments in affluent neighborhoods like the Palisades.
In San Diego, city officials last month moved to roll back a policy that built on state law to allow more accessory dwelling units on single lots, arguing it had been abused by developers.</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/05/01/san-diegos-unpopular-adu-incentive-has-been-exploited-by-developers-needs-guardrails-planners-say/","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0010","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0011","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>arguing it had been abused by developers.
Former state senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, who represented San Diego and authored ambitious housing legislation that effectively ended single-family zoning throughout California, said in an interview that her city’s recent missteps showed the risks of “bad development,” recounting gargantuan projects bereft of green space or transit connections in earlier decades.
“There was a backlash in San Diego,” Atkins said. “Really, it took a long time to come back from that.”
But Atkins is still leaning into housing, making it the centerpiece of her 2026 governor campaign with an assist from the same carpenters’ unions</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1474575&session=2023&view=received","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0012","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0013","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>carpenters’ unions that have flexed their muscles in the Legislature. Meanwhile, Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for governor, has accused Democrats </u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/TeamSteveHilton/status/1919468138745483329","_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0014","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000196-d44f-d9ba-a5d7-ff5fc3cd0015","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>has accused Democrats of waging a “war on single-family homes” — reminders that housing politics will continue to dominate and divide long after Newsom is gone.
“It will be my number-one issue,” Atkins said, “because I think if people don’t have an affordable place to live, you can’t really do anything else.”