March 5, 2024

Since arriving in Sacramento, Assemblymember Matt Haney has immediately gotten to work to champion housing. In addition to strong votes, he carried an important bill, AB 1114, to close loopholes abused by San Francisco to delay housing. Haney has also worked on office-to-housing conversions and prioritized limiting the cost burdens for renters, bringing his perspective as one of the few renters and chairing the California Legislative Renters’ Caucus.

One might assume that the Supervisor representing wealthy neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and the Marina would be a NIMBY against housing. However, we are excited to endorse Supervisor Catherine Stefani who far exceeds expectations. While she may not be the loudest pro-housing voice, Supervisor Stefani stands for the rule of law and consistent standards applied to housing. Although the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is majority anti-housing, Catherine Stefani has bravely voted for housing projects and against baseless appeals. She voted in support of headline housing projects like 469 Stevenson Street (the Nordstrom parking lot project) and 1151 Washington Street.

We expect Catherine Stefani to continue her pro-housing goals in the Assembly, a body that is much more supportive of housing. She explicitly supports more housing in her Assembly District. She also writes unambiguously in our questionnaire “we need to prioritize building all types of housing in exclusionary communities.” Further, she writes “I am also committed to ensuring that cities and counties across the state do their fair share in terms of building housing, and if they don’t, hold them accountable through closing loopholes within the Housing Accountability Act. “

We encourage Supervisor Stefani to sponsor legislation in the Assembly that aligns with her good-governance ethos, such as strengthening the Housing Accountability Act where it may conflict with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Scott Wiener continues to be an exemplary leader on housing. He has passed numerous bills in the recent session, including SB423, extending and expanding upon one of the most productive affordable housing bills of the past decade, SB35, as well as SB4 (YIGBY), which will allow for affordable housing on religious properties, opening up tens of thousands of acres for new housing. We are also now seeing the dividends of his early work to strengthen state law and put teeth into the RHNA process by strengthening the Housing Element process, meaning jurisdictions all over California have to build the housing they say they will or face consequences from the state.