By Yue Stella Yu | CALmatters
In December, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas assigned his members an “urgent” task: Make California cheaper to live in.
“Californians are deeply anxious. They are anxious about our state’s cost of living,” he told his colleagues in the wake of an election where concerns about the economy were top of mind for voters. “We must chart a new path forward and renew the California dream by focusing on affordability.”
Five months later, the state Legislature has little to show for it.
Just last week, Rivas announced four new “select committees” tasked with pitching ideas to lower the cost of housing, fuel, child care and food, but they won’t meet until June, and Rivas did not specify when he expects legislation from the committees. Some of the lawmakers assigned to chair them say they want to develop “practical” solutions but did not articulate what those would be.
Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, has also backed a slate of measures, most of which aim to ease restrictions on housing construction, but few have reached the Assembly floor for a vote.
Similarly, Senate Democrats unveiled just three legislative proposals as their “opening salvo” to affordability last week, focusing on reducing energy costs, increasing housing supplies and boosting job training.
While the Legislature is just starting to zoom in on affordability, prices are rising rapidly as a result of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies and groceries could get more expensive.
Economic justice advocates argue that Californians need immediate relief. Anya Svanoe, communications director for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, said renters are still feeling the pinch.
“Putting together a committee that comes together months from now that won’t even do anything until the following year does not seem to me that (lawmakers) are treating it with real urgency,” she said.
Democratic leaders told CalMatters good policies take time to develop. They noted that lawmakers had to shift their focus earlier this year to Los Angeles wildfire victims and counter Trump’s policies, and it took time to onboard freshman lawmakers.
“I have never been one to simply do something to get clicks or make headlines. I want substance and impact,” Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire said in an interview. “My philosophy is: Do it right, not fast.”
Rivas spokesperson Nick Miller also said the select committees — essentially working groups established to tackle niche policies — will allow lawmakers to gather more public input and drill down on specific issues during the summer recess without feeling swamped by the regular legislative schedule.
Some analysts are skeptical that any proposals could actually make California more affordable, anyway. Garry South, a longtime Democratic strategist, said affordability is a problem “too large for legislative solution,” especially when compounded by Trump’s tariff policies.
“It’s political optics to some degree,” South said. “(The bills) all sound good on the surface, but I don’t think there’s any predictability that if any of them pass, or all pass, that all of a sudden we are going to be out of the housing crisis in California.”
Tackling the ‘biggest cost drivers’
Rivas said that the select committees will tackle the “biggest cost drivers for Californians.”
The committees will focus on four areas: Lowering the cost of child care for babies to 3 year-olds; making food more affordable and enrolling more people in CalFresh, the state’s food stamp program; exploring financing options for affordable housing; and examining the effectiveness of the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a clean energy incentive program that some argue could raise gas prices.
Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Suisun City Democrat who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee and will chair the select committee on fuel, said lawmakers have had a packed calendar.
“How could you even fit these types of conversations at the same time we are actively doing committees?” said Wilson, who sits on six different committees.
Lawmakers don’t need a new committee to develop solutions, because they are already introducing proposals in the current legislative session, said Mike Gatto, a former Los Angeles Democratic assemblymember who chaired the appropriations committee.
“Every single member of the Legislature has a pretty good understanding of what is causing this affordability problem in the state of California,” he said. “This information is out there.”
Select committees have traditionally been used to “give individual lawmakers who care about an issue … greater portfolio and greater exposure,” Gatto said. But he said they’re rarely effective.
“I don’t think too many veteran Capitol watchers can recall a select committee that produced significant results on an important issue,” he said.
But Miller pointed to last year’s select committee on retail theft last year, which produced laws to clamp down on organized shoplifting and toughen penalties on property thefts.
Proposals largely focused on housing
Optics or not, state Democrats’ affordability agenda appears clearer than a few months ago.
Led by Rivas, a strong ally of the YIMBY movement, Assembly Democrats are pressing for fewer regulations in exchange for quicker, more abundant new construction they argue would ultimately lower housing costs.
Lawmakers in early April approved a four-bill package to expedite building by streamlining the approval process for new housing and halting most changes to building standards for six years. One proposal would allow renters to take in people at risk of homelessness as long as their landlords agree.
“These bills will alter the trajectory of the housing crisis,” Rivas said in a statement.
Later that month, Rivas said he supported nine other “affordability” measures on housing, wage theft and broadband. One of them, introduced by Oakland Democrat Buffy Wicks, a major supporter of easing construction restrictions, would exempt most urban housing projects from the California Environmental Quality Act, making it all but impossible for environmentalists to sue to block developments.
Most of the housing proposals Rivas signed off on represent much more technical changes, though, such as making it easier to build farmworker housing, making agencies approve developments more quickly and standardizing the housing project application process.
It’s hard to know if any of those measures will lead to more housing construction, much less if they will make housing cheaper, said Bill Fulton, former director of planning and economic development for the city of San Diego and a fellow at the University of California-Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.
“In spite of the fact that all those bills have passed (in past years), we have not seen overall housing production increase very much or overall housing affordability go down very much,” Fulton said.
“The Legislature passed lots and lots and lots and lots of laws … without actually doing a careful analysis of what’s working and what’s not, and they continue to pass more laws.”
Fulton said other factors discouraging building in California include the high cost of labor and building materials and high interest rates, which are not addressed by the current raft of housing bills.
Svanoe, who champions tenant protections, said state lawmakers are streamlining housing development while doing little to make rent affordable. She supports Assembly Bill 1157, a progressive proposal to lower the cap on rent increases. Faced with pressure from YIMBY-aligned Democrats, the measure is now delayed until next year.
“There’s no room to give (on) any rent increase at this point,” Svanoe said. “It’d be the difference between someone staying in their home and someone becoming homeless.”
The housing measure included in the Senate Democrats’ affordability package is much more skeptical of new construction. While Sen. Aisha Wahab’s Senate Bill 681 would streamline some development, it would also restrict landlords from charging extra fees and crack down on homeowners association fees.
“We’re reinforcing the state’s housing production goals, but not at the expense of the Californians who are barely hanging on,” Wahab, a Fremont Democrat who chairs the Senate Housing Committee, said in the legislative analysis.
A potential showdown looms between Democrats over housing policy — a clash already underway in the Senate.