Housing shortage bill + AB 2223 protest expected + Parents’ social media worries

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

NEW BILL AIMED AT ADDRESSING HOUSING SHORTAGE

Via Lindsey Holden...

Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, wants to see more housing production — and she’s planning to use commercial sites and union workers to make it happen.

Wicks on Tuesday will announce Assembly Bill 2011, which would “(allow) housing to be built by right in infill areas currently zoned for office, retail and parking uses,” according to a news release.

Developers who want to take advantage of these commercial properties would need to pay workers prevailing wages.

Those who want to build projects of 50 or more units would need their contractors to make use of workers from a state-approved apprenticeship program and provide health benefits. However, the bill makes exceptions for areas where such workers may not be available.

“California’s shortages of affordable housing and our growing homelessness challenges have become a humanitarian crisis, and we have to treat them with that sense of urgency,” Wicks said in a statement. “This bill combines some of the best ideas advanced in the Legislature over the last several years for promoting affordable housing development with a requirement creating ‘high road’ jobs,” Wicks added. “To effectively take on our state’s housing issues, I firmly believe we need to do both.”

Wicks, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development, sees building housing in commercial areas as a strategy that would “allow production of critical new affordable housing units at scale, while preserving the density and character of existing residential neighborhoods,” according to a news release.

The California Conference of Carpenters, a construction trade union group, and the California Housing Consortium, an affordable housing advocacy group, are co-sponsoring Wicks’ legislation.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon also endorsed Wicks’ bill, saying it “strikes the right balance” to provide jobs and build housing.

“It would allow for accelerated housing production across our state, while offering high-paying jobs and health benefits for workers,” Rendon said in a statement. “I’m grateful to Assemblymember Wicks for her leadership on this important issue.”

PROTEST PLANNED FOR AB 2223

Hundreds of protesters from across the state are expected to show up in Sacramento on Tuesday to register their objection to AB 2223, a bill by Assemblywoman Wicks to shield birthing parents from criminal or civil penalties stemming from miscarriages, abortions or infant deaths due to pregnancy-related causes.

Critics of the bill, including Fresno-based conservative outfit the California Family Council contend the bill would decriminalize infanticide if it is passed into law.

“We are thrilled to see Californians all over the state traveling hundreds of miles to tell legislators decriminalizing infanticide is barbaric and indefensible,” said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller in a statement. “A political culture that justifies killing millions of children in the womb is now declaring open season on unwanted newborns. Every Californian must oppose this heinous bill.”

The bill is expected to be heard by the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday afternoon, while protesters will gather on the south Capitol steps at 11 a.m. to speak out against it.

When the bill was heard by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, hundreds of speakers called in on the phone lines to register their disapproval of the bill. The bill passed out of that committee, 7-2.

In a previous statement to The Bee, Assemblywoman Wicks said, “Anti-abortion activists are peddling an absurd and disingenuous argument that this bill is about killing newborns, when ironically, the part of the bill they’re pointing to is about protecting and supporting parents experiencing the grief of pregnancy loss. No person should face prison time for a tragic pregnancy outcome, and this bill will ensure that prosecutions and investigations have no place in reproductive health care.”

PARENTS CONCERNED ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON CHILDREN

California lawmakers on the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee are preparing to hear testimony on AB 2273, a bill by Assembly members Buffy Wicks and Jordan Cunningham, R-San Luis Obispo, to require social media companies to design their products and services with children’s best interest in mind. Now comes a new survey by the group ParentsTogether, which found that 80% of parents believe their children’s mental health would improve if they spent less time on social media.

The national survey also found that 80% of parents believe that social media platforms don’t give them the tools they need to keep their kids safe online.

Two out of three parents in the survey worried that social media is bad for their children’s body image, with kids who use Instagram 25% more likely to say they want to change their appearance.

Two-thirds of parents reported that disagreements of their children’s use of social media was a main source of family stress, while one of of three said that their child had been contacted by a stranger on social media.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“California voters approved Proposition 12 — a farm animal welfare law — by a large majority in 2018. It protects consumers by ensuring farm animal products sold in California come from humane sources. We strongly oppose this lawsuit challenging Prop 12.”

- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• A group referred to as the “People’s Convoy” arrived in Sacramento on Monday morning, circling downtown streets and blaring horns in trucks and other vehicles. It’s the first of an apparent three-day stint of events planned at California’s state Capitol in protest of coronavirus restrictions, via Michael McGough.

• California counties, health insurance plans, community clinics, and a major national health care labor union are lining up against a controversial deal to grant HMO giant Kaiser Permanente a no-bid statewide Medi-Cal contract as the bill heads for its first legislative hearing Tuesday, via Bernard J. Wolfson, Kaiser Health News.

• The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is considering new limits on retirees who return to work for public agencies, via Wes Venteicher.