Dear Friends --

California YIMBY is advancing its most ambitious legislative agenda yet -- one that tackles the three biggest impediments to ending California's housing shortage: legalizing housing where it's most needed, streamlining approvals, and reducing costs.

If we can pass this package -- and fend off the hostile amendments that are coming -- it would legalize millions of market-feasible homes and help end California's housing shortage.

Our goal is clear: by 2028, enact the full suite of reforms needed to unleash the construction of millions of new homes. California YIMBY's legislative package -- paired with the Fast Track Housing Package -- would eliminate permitting delays, upzone transit-rich areas, and begin controlling costs. It's a huge leap forward.

How do we know these bills matter? NIMBYs are already mobilizing to kill them. And they'll likely succeed -- unless the entire pro-housing movement shows up. That means all of us, including you.

At a high level, here is what we are prioritizing:

Building back better, faster, and more sustainably.
Build more homes near transit.
Renewing the dream of homeownership.

Buzz words are nice. But what does this actually mean? Here are our highest-impact sponsored bills:

AB 253 (Ward): This bill would allow applicants to hire third party licensed architects and engineers to review permit applications when cities drag their feet.
- This would end post-entitlement delays for single-family homes, ADUs, and missing middle projects, speeding projects through the permitting pipeline.

AB 609 (Wicks): This bill would exempt infill housing developments from the usual delays and litigation associated with environmental review.
- This would mean no more housing development fights over CEQA, period.

SB 79 (Wiener): This bill would allow midrise multifamily housing near transit stations and empower transit agencies to build housing on their land.
- This would allow hundreds of thousands of units of transit-oriented housing to be built, providing transit agencies with needed ridership and funding.

SB 677 (Wiener): This bill could expand access to streamlined permitting and massively improve SB 9, the 2021 bill legalizing duplexes and lot splits statewide.
- This would make it as easy to build a duplex or small-lot home as it is to build an ADU, everywhere in the state.

Alongside our major reforms, we're sponsoring a range of well-crafted bills that address overlooked constraints and help strengthen California's housing framework:

AB 413 (Fong): This bill would direct HCD to translate materials like the ADU handbook into other commonly spoken languages.
AB 595 (Carrillo): This bill would direct the state to study the creation of a state-level LIHTC program, unlocking more affordable homeownership opportunities.
AB 1061 (Quirk-Silva): This bill would end the exclusion of SB 9 duplex and lot split housing developments in historic districts.
AB 1154 (Carrillo): This bill would make it even easier to build Junior ADUs and small ADUs.
AB 1308 (Hoover): This bill would allow applicants to hire third party licensed architects and engineers to conduct inspections when cities drag their feet.
SB 9 (Arreguín): This bill would clarify existing state law, ensuring that cities never impose unworkable owner-occupancy requirements on ADUs.
SB 315 (Grayson): This bill would increase transparency in calculating parks fees and limit the most extreme and unjustifiable fees.

In addition to our sponsored bills, California YIMBY is supporting a broad slate of pro-housing legislation -- most notably Assemblymember Buffy Wicks' Fast Track Housing Package, a landmark effort to accelerate housing approvals statewide.

If enacted as introduced, this package would eliminate the most persistent permitting bottlenecks and establish California as a national leader in housing permit reform—unlocking hundreds-of-thousands of new homes.

What can you do to support us in these efforts? Here are a few ways:

Join us for the 2025 YIMBY Lobby Day on May 20, where you can meet with your state representatives and make the case for pro-housing legislation.
Ensure that any relevant groups you are a part of have submitted a letter of support for our bills. You can find template letters here—submitting a support letter is easy.
Follow California YIMBY on social media and heed the call when we ask YIMBYs to call or email their representatives on behalf of pro-housing legislation.

There is nothing inevitable about the California housing shortage. With your support, we are going to end it.

Best,
Nolan

M. Nolan Gray
Senior Director of Legislation and Research
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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