Housing advocates seek funding to repeal California law

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers are trying again to get rid of the nation’s only law that lets voters veto public housing projects, a provision added to the state constitution in 1950 to keep Black families out of white neighborhoods.

Most everyone in the Capitol agrees the provision should be repealed, both for its racist roots and because it makes it much harder to build affordable housing in a state where the median price for a single-family home is nearly $800,000.

But the latest repeal attempt has hit a snag — not because of organized opposition, but for lack of financial support. It costs a lot to change the California Constitution, and supporters have not found anyone willing to pay for it.

While the state Legislature can pass and repeal laws, it can't change the constitution unless voters also approve it. Putting a proposal on the ballot is pointless unless it is accompanied by a statewide campaign aimed at persuading people to vote for it. Those campaigns can cost $20 million or more because California has some of the nation's most expensive media markets.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/housing-advocates-seek-funding-to-repeal-california-law/ar-AAUGOBb

[SunSeeker]

1. California may he a blue state, but it is also full of NIMBYs. And in this instance, they're right.

Nobody wants a low income housing project in their neighborhood, so no amount of campaigning will persuade California’s NIMBYs to vote for it. California will never be able to build new housing projects. And they shouldn't. The poor should not be warehoused. They should be given income subsidies to be able to afford the market rent.

There are also lots of other ways to create affordable housing, like requiring any new apartment or housing development to set aside a certain amount as affordable housing. That way, the poor are interspersed in communities and have access to the better schools in those better off communities.

In CA, like the rest of the US, schools get a lot of their funding from property taxes. That is why schools are dilapidated in poor areas, and rich areas have gleaming campuses with all the latest technology. When you compare an elementary school in East L.A., with its many housing projects, to one in Newport Beach, it is like you are on two different planets. Concentrating the poor in certain areas via housing projects only exacerbates this disparity.

The poor don't want to live in housing projects, and shouldn't have to.