Dear friends,

The YIMBY movement is on a roll, with the national focus on the housing shortage and affordability crisis – and the need for sensible reforms to bring on housing abundance. What we do here in California still matters – and we need your help to make sure Governor Newsom continues to sign these reforms into state law.

Barack Obama and Kamala Harris have called for reforms to make it easier to tackle our country’s housing shortage. With your help and your activism, the California legislature delivered – passing nine of our priority and sponsored bills before the session ended, including SB 937.

Now these bills need the Governor’s signature. Gavin Newsom has a strong track record of signing transformative housing reforms into law, including SB 9 and SB 10 in 2021, AB 2011 and AB 2097 in 2022, and SB 423 in 2023.

We're hopeful that the Governor will once again sign our bills for the 2024 session. But we also know that NIMBYs are mobilizing to urge the Governor to veto these bills. It's still important to show the Governor that Californians strongly support our legislation to tackle the housing shortage – and close off the last chance for NIMBYs to stop it this year.

Will you send a message to Governor Newsom today, and urge him to sign SB 937 to help lower construction costs and tackle our affordability crisis?

SEND A MESSAGE >>

SB 937 is a cornerstone of our 2024 legislative agenda. Authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, SB 937 helps lower the cost of the impact fees that cities charge builders when they build new housing.

The bill achieves this by delaying when fees are collected by local jurisdictions until the building is complete, rather than at the building permitting stage – which allows builders to cover the costs with lower-interest mortgages, rather than high-interest construction loans. The bill will save tens of thousands of dollars per home – just on financing costs.

Forcing builders to cover the cost of local fees at the permitting stage, rather than when the building is complete, can be catastrophic – especially when both interest rates and construction costs are so high.

But we can help home builders overcome these high costs with good public policy. SB 937 requires jurisdictions to delay collecting their fees until new homes have a "certificate of occupancy."

Delaying payment allows fees to be paid from the building's revenues (rents or mortgages) – which have much lower (or no) interest rates than construction loans, and thereby reduce financing costs for homebuilding.

SB 937 passed the State Senate and the State Assembly with strong support. We have no reason to believe the Governor would veto this bill, and every reason to believe he would sign it. But California YIMBY didn't rack up legislative victories by resting on assumptions. We do something. We organize. NIMBYs are also mobilizing right now to try and stop this bill. Let’s show the Governor we have his back.

Send a message to Governor Newsom encouraging him to sign SB 937 and help get more housing built to tackle our affordability crisis!

Thank you for taking action for housing abundance in California.

Matthew

Matthew Lewis
Communications Director
California YIMBY

California YIMBY is a movement dedicated to ending our state’s housing crisis and building a more inclusive, affordable, and accessible state for ALL Californians. If you were forwarded this email, you can join our movement here. DONATE NOW » Want to keep track of housing issues and the YIMBY movement? Sign up for the HomeWork, our newsletter here.

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