California’s housing crisis is government’s fault, group says with ‘Golden Fleece’ award
California’s sky high housing prices and rents have led the Independent Institute to bestow its latest “Golden Fleece Award” on “the state and local politicians, government planners and regulators, and anti-development activists who obstruct new housing.”
Don’t pop the champagne just yet.
It’s a dubious honor, one the right-leaning California think tank uses to point out examples of government waste, fraud and abuse.
Previous recipients of the “award” include Cal Fire, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Department of Water Resources.
Senior Institute Fellow Lawrence J. McQuillan, whose analysis led to the Institute’s decision to award, calls housing a “government-created crisis” that can only be solved by “market-based solutions and fewer entrepreneurial impediments from lawmakers and regulators.”
“The only solution to the housing problem is to build our way out of the problem. An increased housing stock will ease the upward price trend, improve access, reduce homelessness, and speed-up wildfire recovery for tens of thousands of Californians who desperately need relief,” McQuillan said.
Just over half of Californians believe they can afford to live in the Golden State, according to a 2019 poll. Housing and homelessness are top issues for Californians, with majority of state residents reporting being concerned about the state’s roughly 151,000 homeless people.
The “award” comes the same day that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to use $750 million from the state’s budget to get homeless people off of the street, saying he is taking the problem seriously.
“The State of California is treating it as a real emergency,” Newsom said in prepared remarks.
There are many culprits behind the state’s housing crisis, McQuillan argues.
Government regulations, expensive union labor costs and “NIMBY” resistance to upzoning legislation are among some of them. Other factors include “faux environmental lawsuits,” bureaucratic redevelopment subsidies, the state not doing enough about homelessness and wildfires.
McQuillan offered several policy prescriptions to the problem. For one thing, he argues the state should abolish the California Environmental Quality Act, “which no longer serves its original purpose,” McQuillan wrote.
For another, building housing should be a constitutional right, McQuillan argues.
He also argues for the elimination of various regulations, fees, restrictions and building codes which McQuillan argues impedes growth. McQuillan said the state should also do away with any rent controls, “which discourage housing by making it less profitable.”
Housing is set to be a major topic of conversation for California lawmakers this month, as they weigh Senate Bill 50, a bill aimed at speeding up housing construction by streamlining local zoning regulations.
While that bill received strong pushback from local jurisdictions when it was introduced last year, the bill’s language has been updated to give those cities more flexibility to achieve goals before the state takes over.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 3:35 PM.
