Housing affordability is a pressing crisis in California. It impacts everyone in our state and is the leading driver of houselessness. In the last year, over 330,000 Californians experienced houselessness. Nearly 30% of California’s renters pay over half their income on housing, with well over 1 million households experiencing severe rent burden, paying over half of their incomes in rent. Due to generations of racism, including in housing policy, Black Californians are disproportionately impacted by our state’s housing crisis: while only 7% of the state’s population identifies as Black, Black Californians make up more than 25% of our unhoused population.
An affordable home should not be a luxury commodity available only to those who are well-off.
Californians know that meaningful action is needed now to ensure every resident has a safe, stable, and affordable home. Our housing crisis is poised to continue to worsen over the next few years, the Trump administration and Congressional leadership have proposed devastating cuts to federal housing funding and wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes in Los Angeles County, putting added pressure on affordability.
The California Housing Justice Act is a bold plan to create and protect affordable housing, keep renters stably housed, provide rental assistance to prevent and end homelessness, and offer support services for people with disabilities to stay in their homes. While the state’s recent short-term investments in housing via bonds and one-time revenue sources provide needed emergency responses, the California Housing Justice Act will move the state towards a sustained, dedicated funding for affordable housing programs that will provide a holistic approach.
The California Housing Justice Act will:
- Require the Legislature to make ongoing investments at the scale needed to solve our housing crisis;
- Build a strategic roadmap to end the housing and houselessness crisis;
- Create new accountability measures to ensure housing and houselessness funds are used correctly; and
- Ensure that decisions are shaped by the people who have been failed by decades of policy choices that led to this crisis.
Housing is a human right. To truly fulfill this right, the State must invest ongoing funding to address the scale of our housing crisis. The Housing Justice Act is a crucial step toward achieving that important goal.
Primary Bill Author:
Assemblymember Mike Gipson
Bill co-sponsors:
- Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)
- ACLU California Action
- Bring California Home
- Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)
- Housing Now!
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
- PolicyLink
Resources:
Housing is intrinsically connected to our civil rights. Without stable housing, freedoms like privacy and equal protection under the law are at risk. This is why one-time funding initiatives like bonds aren’t enough – we need a permanent funding source dedicated to housing in California.
— ACLU California Action (@aclucalaction.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM
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