California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law a comprehensive bipartisan housing package, with bills focused on addressing homelessness and the scarcity of housing in the state.
There are 32 bills that are part of the housing package, some of which were signed into law at a housing complex in San Francisco.
The bills center around addressing homelessness – preventing and ending the crisis – creating housing accountability, specifically at the local level, streamlining the production of housing, creating transparency, efficiency, and other protections for housing. There are also some new laws that focus on tribal housing.
There is a specific number of units to be built that will measure success for Newsom: 2.5 million by 2030.
According to Newsom's office, 181,000 Californians experienced homelessness in 2023. Roughly half – 90,000 – were unsheltered.
Newsom, joined by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and others, spoke extensively about why the reforms matter and why accountability is so important.
"The reason we put $1 billion up is there was support, there's a framework," he said. "You don't get the money unless you resolve the underlying issue in the first place. You get the money because you actually have to identify the needs of the individuals that are being displaced, which means you actually have to provide support for them. Once you provide that plan, we then provide the money."
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One of the new laws frees up Prop 1 funding for new Homekey housing. It is set to create more than 4,000 new permanent housing units paired with mental health and other services. Half of the units are reserved for veterans with behavioral health needs.
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