August 20, 2021

The California State Assembly Appropriations Committee this week sent SB 9 to the full Assembly for a vote in the coming days. A broad movement is urging a NO vote on SB 9, which will turn homeownership into a contact sport dominated by pension funds, rental giants and other deep pockets.

“SB 9 and SB 10 are fatally flawed bills, and they’re feeling well-deserved heat,” said Livable California board member and urban planner Keith Gurnee. “This is no solution.”

On Aug. 18, the generally pro-development Los Angeles City Council strongly opposed SB 9 and SB 10, bringing that powerhouse into the fray. A poll this month by former Obama pollster David Binder found that 71% of California voters oppose SB 9, and 75% of voters oppose SB 10 — landslide levels.

Larry Gross, CEO of the respected tenants’ rights group Coalition for Economic Survival, says the bills “secure increased developers’ profits … but do not provide for a single unit of affordable housing.” Meanwhile, newspaper ads by Housing is a Human Right are urging the public to fight both bills.

L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez said, in voting against both bills: “Sacramento has lost its credibility in L.A. with land use. If they want to provide tools to continue to build, then talk to us about doing it, before they introduce bills to destroy our neighborhoods.”

L.A. City Councilmember Paul Koretz, who led the debate against SB 9 and SB 10, said the bills are “cleverly marketed as helping build affordable housing and protect the environment. But they do the opposite.”

If SB 9 is signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, its unprecedented profit incentives will draw deep pocket investors into the single-family market, particularly in tree-lined Black and Latino homeowner strongholds in South L.A., City of San Fernando, and other affordable areas.

Urban planner Isaiah Madison of South L.A., an activist and board member of Livable California,  says, “We reject the notion that these bills are equity tools. Instead they speed up the forces of gentrification by rewarding speculation-induced displacement.”

San Fernando City Councilmember Cindy Montanez, CEO of TreePeople, spoke to 1,100 attendees at an anti-SB 9/SB 10 town hall, urging them to contact their assembly member, another indicator that Latino homeowners will push back if their hard-won communities are preyed upon.