Sacramento Report: Major Housing Efforts Underway at the Capitol

Welcome to the new Sacramento Report. I’m Deborah Brennan, and I’ll be exploring how state politics intersect with San Diego issues in this newsletter. I’m a nearly life-long resident of Southern California, and have reported on politics, government, environment and education for newspapers including The San Diego Union Tribune, North County Times, Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News. Every Friday I’ll share updates on legislation introduced by San Diego lawmakers, and highlight how statewide laws and policies affect our region. 

Do you have tips and ideas for this newsletter? You can reach me at deborah@voiceofsandiego.org. 

Housekeeping at the Capitol

It’s that time of year when we vow to get our house in order, and local lawmakers have their own New Year’s resolutions. I checked in with them in Sacramento last week to learn about their priorities for the next session. Not surprisingly, many of those focus on housing and homelessness.

San Diego has regularly ranked among the country’s priciest real estate markets, placing number two in the nation last November. As Voice of San Diego’s Lisa Halverstadt reports, the region’s homeless rate is outpacing new housing efforts. This year San Diego politicians have bills to boost the housing supply and make sure dollars spent on homeless aid make a difference.

A novel twist is AB1635, introduced by Assemblyman Chris Ward, D-San Diego, now chair of the Assembly Housing Committee. It directs the DMV to redevelop its Hillcrest site in a package that would include both a replacement field office and new housing. 

Wait, you’re asking; do you mean the same DMV that made me wait hours for a driver’s license is going to build homes? Well no, not quite. The bill requires the DMV and state Department of General Services to enter a long-term lease with a developer who will plan and build the project. 

Ward’s bill builds on legislation that former state Sen. Christine Kehoe passed in 2007 which authorized the two state agencies to lease the land for housing. Seventeen years later, the site still houses the same drab, white, institutional DMV office and no new homes, so Ward wrote a new bill requiring the state agencies to make the housing deal by July 2026.

If the DMV does not sign a housing lease by then, they would be barred from contracting with any other public or private agency to redevelop the site, Ward’s office said. At least a quarter of the units must be affordable housing, targeted at low-income renters, which typically means people earning 80 percent or less of the median income.

“We have to be creative about using property,” Ward told me last week.”For 20 years the state has been authorized to do this and hasn’t.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria weighed in favor of the proposal, noting that the site “is situated on an important block in the heart of our LGBTQ empowerment district and a vital commercial corridor.”

In a separate bill, AB1333, Ward wants to prohibit developers from “bundling” homes for sale in “build-to-rent” schemes, and require them to sell homes through separate, conventional sales instead. It targets a practice of flipping large blocks of new homes to corporations, which rent the homes instead of selling, essentially “pulling the rug out from under” prospective buyers, Ward said. The Assembly passed the bill Thursday.

As lawmakers face the uncomfortable reality that the billions of dollars spent on tackling homelessness have failed to improve the problem, they’re looking for ways to better manage the money. Last year San Diego tallied a 22 percent spike in homelessness, reaching the highest number in at least 12 years.

Ward said he’ll require agencies receiving homeless funding to provide data on outcomes, such as the number of people sheltered, the services provided and the number who entered permanent housing.

“We’re not receiving good feedback on how many Californians are being housed,” he said. “I’ve been asking for that for years, and now that I have a seat at the table I’m going to require it.”

Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Santee, plans to reintroduce a bill to ban homeless encampments near schools, daycare centers, parks and libraries. The original bill, SB-31, failed in committee last year. But Jones is trying again, encouraged by the city of San Diego’s passage of an “unsafe camping ordinance” last year. The city ordinance, which passed the Democratic city council by a narrow majority, prohibits camping in public areas if shelter beds are available, and at all times near schools, shelters, parks or along trolley tracks or waterways.

In a housing-adjacent action, Jones is also pushing to repeal a provision of the energy bill AB205 that mandates fixed, income-based power rates. It passed, largely without scrutiny, as a budget trailer, Cal Matters columnist Dan Walters reported. Jones noted that the exact fees aren’t set yet, nor is any means of verifying income.

State Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, hopes to align housing costs with wages by requiring the department of labor to come up with a formula for a “living housing wage,” the pay rate required to cover the cost of housing. The second, and perhaps trickier, part of that bill would be “coming up with incentives to large scale employers to adopt it.”

Here are some other bills San Diego lawmakers have in the works:

• On Thursday, State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, introduced SB949, which provides court breaks for employees who need to pump milk. She also aims to streamline construction of bike lanes in coastal districts through her bill, SB689.
• Assemblymember Brian Maienschein has two gun control bills in the works. AB667 would tighten the terms of gun violence restraining orders if a court finds that someone is an extreme risk of violence. AB 1047 would create a registry that allows people at risk of suicide to self-flag that concern, in case they purchase a gun. Both go to a vote this month.

Toni Atkins Announces Campaign for Governor 

State Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, launched her campaign for governor Friday, making her one of three women vying to be the first female governor of California.

“Many have said that in 2026, it’s time for California to finally elect a woman Governor,” Atkins said at her launch party at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, before numerous San Diego politicians and labor supporters in orange vests. “As the most qualified candidate running for Governor, who also happens to be a woman, I agree!”

She joins Democrats Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former state Controller Betty Yee, and state school Superintendent Tony Thurmond, in her bid for the seat.

If elected, Atkins would complete a trifecta of top jobs. In 2014, she became the first lesbian and first San Diegan to serve as Assembly speaker, and then repeated her ground-breaking streak In 2018, when she was the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person chosen as Senate Pro Tem, and the first person to have led both houses in a century and a half.

A live band opened the event, and Secretary of State Shirley Weber introduced Atkins, emphasizing their shared background as daughters of rural, working class families.

“You shouldn’t have to be a millionaire to make it in California,” Atkins said. “You should only have to have a dream—and people who care enough to help you reach it.”

‘Tough on Crime’ Makes a Comeback

The California ballot measure that reduced some thefts and drug offenses to misdemeanors came into the spotlight last week, in both Gov. Newsom’s budget release and Mayor Todd Gloria’s State of the City Address.

Gloria revealed he’s not a fan of Prop. 47 and called for a statewide initiative to reform it. “We should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent,” he said, drawing blowback from the left, and smirks from some on the right.

The comment smacks of a “return to the days of the War on Drugs,” Gloria’s challenger, Genevieve Jones Wright tweeted. Former Republican supervisor candidate Amy Reichert suggested he was playing to conservative voters, tweeting “Why is Mayor Todd Gloria sounding like a Republican? Must be an election year!”

Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom argued that Prop. 47 is tough on crime as it stands, compared to what he said are more lenient criminal codes in states such as…. Texas. There, the dollar threshold for a felony is $2,500.

Clawing Back Climate Funding

For years Gov. Newsom has made climate change a signature cause, proclaiming California a world leader in climate action. But he trimmed those programs last year, and announced another $4 billion in new climate cuts as part of his budget package last week, in an effort to close a projected gap of at least $38 billion.

What does this mean for San Diego? Details aren’t finalized yet, but the cuts come as San Diego County finalizes a new Climate Action Plan and an ambitious regional program to cut fossil fuel emissions. Meanwhile the city of San Diego introduced an updated CAP two years ago, with the goal of reaching net carbon zero – the point at which the region removes as much carbon as it emits – by 2035.

“The governor’s budget will definitely affect San Diego, as it significantly cuts funding for public transit improvements, decarbonizing homes and vehicles and climate adaptation projects in low-income communities,” said Masada Disenhouse, executive director of the climate action group SanDiego350.