Posted on 03/09/2023 2:26:26 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — California on Thursday sued one of its picturesque coastal cities and accused it of refusing to build more affordable housing, an issue Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called the “original sin” of the state’s housing shortage.
Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Huntington Beach, a city of about 200,000 people along the Southern California coast where the median home sales price is $1.1 million — or more than $300,000 higher than the state average.
Bonta is asking a judge to order Huntington Beach City Council to comply with state housing laws and to punish councilmembers by making them pay a fine.
Bonta said the council has blocked new duplexes in some single-family home neighborhoods, despite a state law requiring them to do it. He also said the council has not allowed new “accessory dwelling units” — small apartments built on a property commonly known as “granny flats.”
Both approaches are a key part of state lawmakers’ strategy to address the state’s housing shortage, which has sent rents and home values soaring while increasing the number of people on the streets. California is home to nearly a third of the nation’s homeless population, according to federal data.
State housing officials say California needs an additional 2.5 million homes by 2030 in order to keep up with demand. But the state builds about 125,000 houses each year, which would leave California well short of that goal.
“This is the colossal challenge that California is confronting,” Bonta said. “The message we’re sending to the city of Huntington Beach is simple: Act in good faith, follow the law and do your part to increase the housing supply. If you don’t, our office will hold you accountable.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
The original sin of California is that houses are so expensive? This is a sin?
Close the southern border.
Rich Californian enclaves like Beverly Hills have used zoning laws to keep out minorities, now the State government has decided they can no longer do so and is forcing them to accept low-income housing to racially integrate them.
Two sided America, sort of like the One Percenters and the Anonymous mobs said on their placards.
Poor and middle class citizens have to put up with Section 8 and Affordable Housing types being forced into their neighborhoods.
That housing brings in pedophiles, child sex trafficers, rapists, home invaders, car jackers, shoplifters, violent muggers and gangs.
The wealthy and the powerful find ways to keep them out. Unfair.
blacks/ unwed mothers and illegals have a right to surf.
California’s “solution” to the housing “crisis” is to force pleasant middle- and upper-class towns to double their populations, even though the towns are completely built-out and there is no land available. Every town has a state-mandated “fair share” of low-income housing. That the people in those towns DO NOT WANT high density housing for the poor doesn’t mean squat. The only thing that matters is what the communist overlords in Sacramento want.
Fixed it. Keep voting Demonic Californtards...
Yup, I used to live in Huntington Beach and they had a lot of minorities - the rich Vietnamese that left garden Grove. They’re trying to get blacks from long beach and Latinos from Santa Ana to move in but you can’t afford property tax and all the other crap as well.
The Dems are just trying to get more republicans to flee the only place near LA they have left.
*** to accept low-income housing to racially integrate them.***
Because their daughters aren’t interbreeding fast enough.
Besides, what would any self-respecting man of color want anything to do with
genetically inferior Caucasian females?
Second thoughts about “sanctuary” status?
Where do they plan to get the water and electricity for all those new homes in the next seven years?
-PJ
While trying to make a new career as a writer, I wrote 57 articles for the newspaper and a few magazines. I interviewed the president of what was then the fifth largest builder in America, Turner Heritage Homes. I was living in one of his developments. It had no through streets as it backed up against forest. Each house was on a wooded one-acre lot. They sold for between $110k-$150k. He told me that if it weren’t for the requirement for “affordable houses” which he had to sign up for to make the development he’d have been able to create a gated community and sell each house for substantially more. But no one would pay the then astronomical price of $200k-$500k for a house that was only a few houses away from an “affordable home” sold by requirement for $110. He said he lost money every time he sold an affordable home.
I eventually had to move because of serious problems with people in the “affordable homes.” No, they weren’t black. They were just really bad people. Many others moved away as well. They had seized control of the HOA and were suing and fining people all the time. Despite the two lawsuits I won there was no getting them out of their dictatorial roles. Oh, and I proved they were stealing money. The prosecutor looked at the evidence and said, “Yep. You’re right. But it’s not a public problem. You’ll have to get everyone together and sue them.”
I stopped in to talk to the builder at a nearby condominium complex that’s under construction. These look like Soviet apartment blocks, each one with a wall connected to the neighbor. There will of course be an HOA as the buildings will require maintenance, like new roofs in twenty years. I asked him three times how many were set aside as affordable housing. He changed the subject each time. The affordable housing people are the ones likely to have thousand-watt stereos in their cars. They are also the ones likely to be selling or using drugs. Ultimately, it looks like there will be a hundred condos here. In twenty years, these buildings will be a “bad neighborhood.” What Turner Heritage did was sell the affordable homes last. It’s not what the president told me. It’s what I observed. It was a good strategy.
At least when I did the interview, the county had set the price that was considered affordable. It was below the cost.
Just tear down San Fran. It’s already a s#ithole.
Huntington beach will be so much more awesomer if they can make it more like long beach just as houston became so much more blessed after katrina
if you drive just minutes outside of a California city, you will find NOTHING, a whole lot of NOTHING.
Just land, GOOD LAND with NOTHING on it!
I can guarantee you only government regulation would cause that.
Maybe the city council is being selfish, I dunno. But they aren’t the cause of expensive housing in California. Los Angeles has been trying to spend $500k a unit for low rent apartments (and get blocked and protested by the mostly lefty locals). At $500k per unit, it can’t possibly be “low rent” unless it is subsidized by taxpayers.
And the kids play darts with all the needles on the side walks.
Good question. But while they were saying we need all this new housing , the population of California is declining.
So I wonder if they are making certain assumptions about younger people coming of age and starting their own families, and wanting to buy their own homes? Is the number of family units occupying housing expected to increase, even if the population is forecasted to decline?
Or are they not forecasting declines in population even though population actually has gone down?
Maybe they are using Pie in the Sky estimates?
“...refusing to build more affordable housing, an issue ...Gov. Gavin Newsom called the “original sin” of the state’s housing shortage.”
The solution, of course, is to require the construction of a ‘granny flat’ in the back yard of every single-family home in the state where the currently homeless can live rent-free. No comrade, you will have no say in who we move into your backyard.
/s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.