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How to Restore the California Dream
Removing Obstacles to Fast and Affordable Housing Development

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Lawrence J. McQuillan
Senior Fellow
California has become the national poster child for high housing costs and homelessness. Although no single lawmaker or regulator is to blame for California’s housing crisis, a complex array of regulatory obstacles enacted by politicians at various levels of government and pushed by special interest groups over decades have made California ill-equipped to accommodate the state’s growth. The effect has been a supply of housing that does not keep up with demand, resulting in skyrocketing housing costs, strained budgets, homelessness, and an outflow of people from the Golden State.

This Golden Fleece Briefing dares to state an unavoidable truth: housing prices and accessibility are determined by the interaction of supply and demand, and government regulations have constrained the supply side of the equation, exacerbating California’s housing and homelessness crises. Bureaucratic red tape impacts every stage of the development process, and there is no shortage of actors trying to maintain the status quo because they benefit from it financially or in other ways. Despite much hand-wringing and pronouncements by politicians to “fix the problem,” state and local governments have made the problem worse, especially for lower-income residents.

In July 2019, San Francisco Mayor London Breed asked, “Why does it take so damn long to get housing built?” 

In his new Briefing for the Winter 2020 California Golden Fleece® Award, the Independent Institute's Senior Fellow Lawrence J. McQuillan answers her question and offers much-needed solutions. Fixing the housing problem requires a multi-pronged approach.

To find out more about the California Golden Fleece® Awards, the Independent Institute, and how you can be a part of real solutions, visit us online or follow us on Twitter @CAGoldenFleece.
Read the Briefing Here
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