Religious institutions and nonprofit colleges in California will be allowed to convert their parking lots and other properties into low-income housing under a new law aimed at combating the state’s ongoing homelessness crisis.
The law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, rezones land owned by nonprofit colleges and religious institutions such as churches, mosques and synagogues to allow for affordable housing. Starting in 2024, they will be able to bypass most local permitting and environmental review requirements, which can be costly and lengthy. The law expires in 2036.
California is home to nearly a third of all homeless people in the U.S. The crisis has sparked a movement among religious institutions called “yes in God’s backyard” or “YIGBY” in cities across the state, with a number of projects already in the works.
But churches and colleges often face major hurdles in trying to convert their surplus land and unused parking lots into housing because their land is not zoned for residential use.
Supporters say the new law will serve as another tool to help build much-needed housing in the state. A recent study by the University of California, Berkeley, Terner Center for Housing Innovation estimated that California religious and higher education campuses have more than 170,000 acres (68,797 hectares) of land that would be eligible under the bill.
Several cities opposed the bill, saying it would take away local control over housing development.
Newsom also signed another high-priority housing bill, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, to extend the life of a landmark law that streamlined rules for housing projects and led to the construction of thousands of homes to ease the state’s housing crisis.
“California desperately needs to increase housing production, and the governor’s action today helps put us on a path to get there,” Wiener said in a statement. “The era of saying no to housing is coming to an end. We’ve been planting seeds for years to move California toward a better housing future, and today we’re moving forward in a big way.”
The original law, which took effect in 2018 and is set to expire in 2026, allows developers to bypass most local approval processes for multifamily housing projects in cities that fall short of state-mandated housing goals. The law has helped fast-track more than 19,000 units, about 60% of which are affordable, according to the bill’s author, Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener. The new law would extend the existing rules for 10 years.
The new law would also remove the requirement to hire “skilled and trained workers” for a number of projects, a provision typically sought by the powerful building trade union. Instead, it requires workers to be paid the prevailing wage, which is the average wage paid to labourers and mechanics in a given area. In the face of opposition from labour groups, Wiener added amendments to strengthen labour regulations on larger projects.
The bill had also faced fierce opposition from the state’s Coastal Commission and environmental groups in July because it would remove the exemption for streamlined housing development in coastal zones. Opponents had feared the bill would place housing in areas vulnerable to sea-level rise or wildfires and make way for luxury apartments, not affordable housing, along the coast.
Wiener worked with the commission to clarify that the legislation wouldn’t apply to environmentally sensitive or wildfire-prone areas. The commission withdrew its opposition, but a number of Southern California cities continued to oppose the bill, arguing that it would take away local control.
The governor signed the bills on the same day that his administration and Sacramento leaders announced the location of the first group of 1,200 tiny homes he has pledged to build in four cities to combat homelessness.