INGLEWOOD – Governor Gavin Newsom signed new laws into place that will help boost the stock of affordable housing across the state.
Sen. Scott Wiener and Inglewood Assemblymember Tina McKinnor co-authored Senate Bill 4 which allows affordable housing to be built by right on land owned by faith institutions and nonprofit colleges.
“California desperately needs to ramp up housing production, and the Governor’s action today helps put us on a path to achieve that goal,” said Senator Wiener. “The era of saying no to housing is coming to an end. We’ve been planting seeds for years to get us to a brighter housing future, and today we’re continuing strongly down that path.”
SB 4 ensures that churches, faith institutions, and nonprofit colleges will be able to build affordable housing on their land without having to go through an expensive and difficult rezoning and discretionary approval process.
It re-zones the property and ensures neither CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) nor local political processes can be misused to stop these affordable housing projects. The bill had previously passed the Assembly 73-1 and passed the Senate on concurrence 32-2 with bipartisan support.
“Working with the faith community to increase affordable housing in California has been a priority of mine for years,” said Assemblymember McKinnor. “As the principal co-author of SB 4, I am proud that Governor Newsom signed the bill into law and shares the values of multi-faith communities across the state who want to make sure that every Californian has a safe and affordable place to call home.”
The faith-based community applauds the passage of SB 4 as churches own 20% of land in the United States and with the housing crisis far from resolved, underutilized spaces such as vacant land, and empty parking lots owned by churches seem like the perfect opportunity to increase the state’s housing supply.
“SB4 is an important milestone in the great story of how churches are re-purposing land to provide shelter, housing, and programming for our least, lost, and left out and I am proud of my team’s work in making this happen. Some caveats- it comes with significant restrictions and hurdles that need to be analyzed against the opportunity of any given property. LOGOS is working through SB4 as passed and will have further comments to share with you shortly,” said Pastor Martin Porter LOGOS Faith Development LLC.
LOGOS Faith Development LLC is partnering with churches across all denominations including AME, Baptists, UMC, and non-denominational faith-based organizations to determine if developing affordable housing on their property is suitable for them.
1 Comment
I hate hearing the term “affordable housing” the people who are on the street can’t afford the price of so called affordable housing which also uses the same qualification expectations as regular housing. 3x the rent and good credit in order to qualify. These people are so out of touch with what’s really going on.. well lemme explain… People on the street don’t make 3x the rent. And they don’t have a 700 credit score! These people don’t need “affordable housing” they need “section 8 housing” or “free housing” but you already know this, ur just using this as an excuse to bypass rezoning laws and make it easier for big corporate developers to build wherever they want. Affordable housing isn’t affordable at all. I guarantee it