California State Sen. Scott Wiener’s real estate deregulation bill, SB 50, is facing mounting opposition from elected officials in nearly three dozen cities. On May 7, the Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to oppose Wiener’s troubling legislation. With that vote, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles City Council, the Long Beach City Council, and 32 other city governments are sending a strong message to Gov. Gavin Newsom and members of the California State Senate and Assembly to stop SB 50.
“Elected officials throughout California understand the negative, street-level impacts that SB 50 will cause in our cities,” says Housing Is A Human Right Director René Christian Moya. “Gov. Newsom and state legislators must listen to them — and stop SB 50 right now.”
To date, according to the League of California Cities, 35 municipalities oppose SB 50: Burlingame, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Chino Hills, Cupertino, Diamond Bar, Downey, Fremont, Glendale, Glendora, Hermosa Beach, La Mirada, Lafayette, Laguna Niguel, Lakewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Mountain View, Novato, Paramount, Pasadena, Pinole, Palo Alto, Rancho Cucamonga, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Clarita, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solana Beach, Sunnyvale, Vista, West Covina, and West Hollywood.
In addition, the Central Valley Division of League of California Cities, Los Angeles County Division of League of California Cities, and the South Bay Cities Council of Governments also oppose SB 50.
Housing justice activists say SB 50 is a trickle-down housing bill that will fuel gentrification and displacement in middle- and working-class neighborhoods, but will make billions in revenue for Wiener’s political patrons in the real estate industry. Wiener has long relied on campaign contributions from Big Real Estate to get elected and stay in power. For his 2016 and 2020 state senate campaigns, he’s hauled in more than $725,000 from developers, landlords, real estate attorneys, architects, and others.
Shockingly, as Mission Economic Development Agency Director of Policy and Advocacy Norma Garcia pointed out at a recent hearing held by State Senate Governance and Finance Committee, SB 50 has not been studied by the state for its impacts on middle- and working-class communities. For such sweeping legislation, State Sen. Scott Wiener has not done due diligence.
Housing Is A Human Right, the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, promotes the 3 Ps to urgently address California’s housing affordability crisis: protect tenants; preserve communities; and produce housing. SB 50, which advances a trickle-down housing agenda, does none of those things in a substantive, long-term way.
Instead, State Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 50 pushes new luxury housing for a housing affordability crisis. It makes no sense, other than giving a lucrative handout to Wiener’s campaign contributors in the real estate industry. Housing Is A Human Right continues to strongly oppose Wiener’s bill.