San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed: “Newsom just quietly floated an idea that could help fix California’s housing and fire recovery crises”
Published On February 5, 2025
Managing Director Ben Metcalf writes in an Op-Ed for the San Francisco Chronicle that while considerable attention has been paid to Governor Newsom’s executive actions to speed up rebuilding in Los Angeles after the fires, a different and little-noticed idea in the governor’s budget proposal has potential for major impact both in Los Angeles and statewide: a reorganization of the state’s housing functions.
The proposal would cleave the existing Business Consumer Services and Housing agency into a consumer protection agency and a housing and homeless agency, but it also teases a more substantive restructuring, calling for a “more integrated and effective” administrative framework for addressing the state’s housing and homelessness challenges.
The details of the governor’s proposal have not been released—including the extent to which this effort may end up unlocking deeper streamlining efforts—but we do know that fixing California’s disjointed system is long overdue.
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