Santa Rosa is getting new homes ready for tenants, while Santa Barbara is arguing over rent rules. And honestly, that split tells you a lot about the housing choices California cities are making right now.
This is California Housing Today — a quick look at the pro-growth fights, housing tradeoffs, and local decisions shaping the state today.
Alright, let’s get into it.
Let’s start with the building side of that split — in Santa Rosa.
From Law Kelly:
Tenants will soon be selected to fill 33 affordable apartments in downtown Santa Rosa, as part of Burbank Housing's two-phase Caritas Homes development. The project aims to provide 126 units in total to address the housing shortage in North Bay. The first building of the Caritas Homes development is set to be completed by July 1, with half of the first phase's residents being chosen through an April 21 lottery
Thirty-three apartments? That matters a lot if your family gets one of those keys. But it also shows the scale problem. Santa Rosa needs wins like this — and then a lot more of them, much faster.
Now, flip over to the rent-rule debate. From Sal Rodriguez at Pacific Research Institute:
Rent control is a bad idea politicians just can’t let go of. From Santa Monica to New York City, cities have discovered time and again that government decree is no guarantee of housing affordability. But that hasn’t stopped California cities like Pasadena, Santa Ana and Santa Barbara from making moves to demonstrate for themselves that rent control doesn’t work.
Yep — this is the loop California keeps replaying: put a cap on the symptom, and dodge the shortage underneath it. If Santa Barbara wants affordability, it needs more homes, not just another layer of rules on the homes it already has.
Links to every story we covered today are in the show notes, so if one caught your attention, you can dig in there.
That’s California Housing Today for Saturday, April 25th. This is a Lantern Podcast.