New CA Senate housing leader says his experience as a renter shapes priorities
As the mayor of Berkeley, state Sen. Jesse Arreguín pushed to build more homes in the well-off and famously liberal community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet, he is still a renter in that area and was evicted several times while growing up in San Francisco, he said.
That experience gives him a perspective that he said he will use to help shape California’s housing and homelessness future as chair of the Senate Housing Committee.
“I know what it’s like to lose your home and how scary and challenging it is to not have a place to live, and there are thousands of people in our state who experience that on a weekly, if not monthly, basis,” the Berkeley Democrat told The Sacramento Bee in a recent interview. “So, that’s why I’m really focused on not just building homes but also protecting our neighbors from homelessness.”
Arreguín on Sunday takes over the role which can have a major influence in deciding the fate of what homelessness and housing bills make it through the Legislature and what those proposals say. He was already on the committee but was recently appointed to the top position by the new Senate President pro Tem, Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara.
“The Senate Housing Committee has led and advanced policies to help build more housing and expand homeownership,” Limón said in a statement. “I am confident Senator Arreguín will continue this work to ensure the Senate is creating opportunities and lasting impacts for the benefit of all Californians.”
Arreguín’s priorities include finding ways to make it cheaper, and easier, to build homes in the state, placing a multi-billion dollar housing bond on the November ballot and protecting renters.
He is not the first to want to speed up home building. For years before Arreguín was elected to the Senate in 2024, legislators have passed an array of bills trying to make it harder for local governments to block housing developments and make it easier for developers to open denser and taller projects. So far, those efforts have not led to a dramatic increase in the number of houses in California or a major decrease in the cost of living in both urban cities and rural communities.
Now legislators are looking to increase the use of modular homes, or those that are made in factories but assembled on site, to help alleviate the state’s housing needs.
Arreguín supports that idea and also calls for patience on the Legislature’s recent efforts.
“We need to make sure the laws are working,” he said, “and we need to give them time to work.”
On homelessness, Arreguín is less patient. He wants the state to set a clear goal, such as 75% or 100%, for reducing homelessness.
“Because right now, we’re spending a lot of money, and I think most voters can agree that we’re not seeing a material improvement in the situation on our streets,” he said.
At the same time, he wants to increase and continue funding for the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, which has provided billions of dollars grants to local communities, than what is currently outlined in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget proposal.
“I hope sometime soon we’ll be able to find a permanent revenue source so we can continue this program every single year,” Arreguín said.
He also wants the budget for the next fiscal year to include more money for programs that support multifamily homes and tax credits for low-income housing. If the state can get more people into affordable and stable living situations, he said, it can help future Californians have a different life experience than his own.
“I think of people like myself, who will never be able to afford the cost of a single-family home in the community that I live in and represent,” he said. “We’re pricing a whole generation out of our ownership market. And that’s unacceptable.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 5:12 PM.
