Fewer People Are Sleeping on San Francisco Streets. But Family Homelessness Is Up
Did Newsom’s $3.8 Billion Hotels-to-Housing Program Pay Off?
Oakland Fines Property Owners Nearly $1 Million for Cutting Down Protected Trees
Following Newsom’s Veto, Lawmaker Returns With Drug-Free Homeless Housing Bill
Homeless Funding Plan Raises Concerns as San Francisco Looks to Narrow Budget Deficit
In the Bay Area, Raising Kids Comes With Compromise
California Bill Ending Tax Break for Corporate Landlords Fails to Advance
Oakland Laborers Allege Over $300,000 in Wage Theft at Public Housing Redevelopment
With Cost of Living Rising, Cuts to Affordability Programs Put San Francisco on Edge
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"content": "\u003cp>The number of people sleeping outside on San Francisco’s sidewalks is plummeting, but families continue to struggle to find affordable, stable housing amid rising rents and a skyrocketing cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/2026-point-in-time-count-preliminary-results\">preliminary data\u003c/a> from this year’s Point in Time (PIT) Count, a federal survey of the city’s homeless residents conducted in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It found that there were 1,000 fewer unsheltered people compared to the 2024 survey, marking a 22% decrease and the lowest recorded level since 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More people are coming inside to get shelter and treatment, and we are moving in the right direction,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said during a press conference on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie campaigned on addressing street homelessness and outdoor drug use in the lead-up to his 2024 election as mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has made a number of changes to its approach to both issues since he stepped into office in January 2025, including opening a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038376/tenderloin-welcomes-mental-health-clinic-demands-broader-city-action-on-homelessness\">crisis stabilization center\u003c/a> at 822 Geary St. and, most recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12081889/not-a-jail-not-an-emergency-room-what-is-daniel-luries-new-reset-center\">the RESET Center\u003c/a>, a controversial sobering center and jail alternative where police bring people using drugs outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"San Francisco's Homeless Population\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Yvyf5\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Yvyf5/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When more than 800 people died of overdose in 2023, how could we expect San Franciscans or anyone else, for that matter, to feel like we were at our best as a city,” Lurie said at the press conference outside of Hope House, a recovery-focused transitional housing site. “I thought we had lost our way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, the city saw a 4% decline in all homelessness in the latest count, dropping from 8,323 to 7,973 people since 2024, according to the PIT data.[aside postID=news_12081889 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042906RESET-CENTER_GH_018-KQED.jpg']The tally, which takes place every two years, sends surveyors out to scan the city block by block in a single day to count the number of people who are homeless both outside, including in cars and tents, and in shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is widely considered an imperfect measure, but a valuable tool in measuring broad changes in the city’s homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the encouraging overall decrease, this year’s PIT Count found a 15% increase since 2024 in families experiencing homelessness. Many live in their vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The finding comes as rent prices and evictions in San Francisco have increased. Kunal Modi, the mayor’s homelessness chief, pointed to the city’s rising cost of living as a key reason families are struggling to stay housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s everything from the availability of affordable housing to the cost of everyday living, whether it’s gas or groceries or rising rents,” Modi said. “The homeless response system sits alongside other work around family zoning or efforts to keep people enrolled in their benefits… and we’re going to think about all of these elements working together to keep families housed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s administration has focused on clearing RVs as part of its overall approach to homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12073557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12073557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at a press conference on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in San Francisco, addressing the San Francisco Unified School District’s newly reached agreement with the teachers’ union. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In October 2025, permits were issued to large vehicles and RVs to avoid towing and citations as the city worked to move families and individuals living in campers into housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total of 132 households have moved from their vehicles to housing, and the city has cited nearly 800 large vehicles and towed 240 since the start of the program, according to city data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie, who, according to a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/mayor-lurie-still-popular-poll-120000359.html?guccounter=1\">\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> poll,\u003c/a> has a whopping 74% approval rating among the more than 1,000 registered voters surveyed, said the bump in the number of families experiencing homelessness has been tied to the RV program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most of those families [in the survey] were in shelter, but among those who weren’t, many were living in RVs,” he said. “I’m optimistic that our work around RVs has shown progress, and we are on track to have every family with a permitted vehicle in shelter or housing by the end of this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest PIT Count recorded a roughly 85% decline in tents and other shelter structures outside, compared to the nearly 650 people identified in tents in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike previous years where the PIT Count took place overnight, this year’s survey was conducted in the early morning. Some homelessness advocates argued that the data was manipulated “for political gain” because the count took place when many working homeless people were out at service jobs or other responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The PIT Count results can also be skewed by the Lurie administration’s refusal to halt sweeps during the count,” reads a statement from the Coalition on Homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings come as the city has ramped up efforts to clear sidewalk encampments and move or arrest people on sidewalks who are using drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"San Francisco's Homeless Population\" aria-label=\"Stacked Bars\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-8a3tf\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8a3tf/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"460\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie campaigned on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059460/bay-area-cities-expand-homeless-shelters-winning-over-neighbors-is-the-hard-part\">promise to build 1,500 shelter beds\u003c/a> within his first six months in office. But the mayor later pivoted, saying instead that the city needs the “right kind of beds,” such as treatment beds and transitional housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has closed some non-congregate shelter options under Lurie’s administration, but overall has added a net total of 408 shelter beds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some homelessness advocates have criticized Lurie’s focus on short-term shelter, saying that the city must do more to focus on preventing homelessness and providing long-term housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Municipalities that overinvest in shelter see a short-term decrease in street counts, but without investment in prevention and housing, street counts will undoubtedly balloon in future years,” the Coalition on Homelessness said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, 57% of San Francisco’s homeless population is sheltered, and there are not enough beds for everyone who wants a spot. There were 500 people on the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data--check-your-position-adult-shelter-waitlist\">waitlist for shelter\u003c/a> as of Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full survey results from January’s PIT Count will be released this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The number of people sleeping outside on San Francisco’s sidewalks is plummeting, but families continue to struggle to find affordable, stable housing amid rising rents and a skyrocketing cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/2026-point-in-time-count-preliminary-results\">preliminary data\u003c/a> from this year’s Point in Time (PIT) Count, a federal survey of the city’s homeless residents conducted in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It found that there were 1,000 fewer unsheltered people compared to the 2024 survey, marking a 22% decrease and the lowest recorded level since 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More people are coming inside to get shelter and treatment, and we are moving in the right direction,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said during a press conference on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie campaigned on addressing street homelessness and outdoor drug use in the lead-up to his 2024 election as mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has made a number of changes to its approach to both issues since he stepped into office in January 2025, including opening a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038376/tenderloin-welcomes-mental-health-clinic-demands-broader-city-action-on-homelessness\">crisis stabilization center\u003c/a> at 822 Geary St. and, most recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12081889/not-a-jail-not-an-emergency-room-what-is-daniel-luries-new-reset-center\">the RESET Center\u003c/a>, a controversial sobering center and jail alternative where police bring people using drugs outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"San Francisco's Homeless Population\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Yvyf5\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Yvyf5/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When more than 800 people died of overdose in 2023, how could we expect San Franciscans or anyone else, for that matter, to feel like we were at our best as a city,” Lurie said at the press conference outside of Hope House, a recovery-focused transitional housing site. “I thought we had lost our way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, the city saw a 4% decline in all homelessness in the latest count, dropping from 8,323 to 7,973 people since 2024, according to the PIT data.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The tally, which takes place every two years, sends surveyors out to scan the city block by block in a single day to count the number of people who are homeless both outside, including in cars and tents, and in shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is widely considered an imperfect measure, but a valuable tool in measuring broad changes in the city’s homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the encouraging overall decrease, this year’s PIT Count found a 15% increase since 2024 in families experiencing homelessness. Many live in their vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The finding comes as rent prices and evictions in San Francisco have increased. Kunal Modi, the mayor’s homelessness chief, pointed to the city’s rising cost of living as a key reason families are struggling to stay housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s everything from the availability of affordable housing to the cost of everyday living, whether it’s gas or groceries or rising rents,” Modi said. “The homeless response system sits alongside other work around family zoning or efforts to keep people enrolled in their benefits… and we’re going to think about all of these elements working together to keep families housed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s administration has focused on clearing RVs as part of its overall approach to homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12073557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12073557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/DanielLurieSFUSDStrike-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at a press conference on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in San Francisco, addressing the San Francisco Unified School District’s newly reached agreement with the teachers’ union. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In October 2025, permits were issued to large vehicles and RVs to avoid towing and citations as the city worked to move families and individuals living in campers into housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total of 132 households have moved from their vehicles to housing, and the city has cited nearly 800 large vehicles and towed 240 since the start of the program, according to city data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie, who, according to a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/mayor-lurie-still-popular-poll-120000359.html?guccounter=1\">\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> poll,\u003c/a> has a whopping 74% approval rating among the more than 1,000 registered voters surveyed, said the bump in the number of families experiencing homelessness has been tied to the RV program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most of those families [in the survey] were in shelter, but among those who weren’t, many were living in RVs,” he said. “I’m optimistic that our work around RVs has shown progress, and we are on track to have every family with a permitted vehicle in shelter or housing by the end of this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest PIT Count recorded a roughly 85% decline in tents and other shelter structures outside, compared to the nearly 650 people identified in tents in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike previous years where the PIT Count took place overnight, this year’s survey was conducted in the early morning. Some homelessness advocates argued that the data was manipulated “for political gain” because the count took place when many working homeless people were out at service jobs or other responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The PIT Count results can also be skewed by the Lurie administration’s refusal to halt sweeps during the count,” reads a statement from the Coalition on Homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings come as the city has ramped up efforts to clear sidewalk encampments and move or arrest people on sidewalks who are using drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"San Francisco's Homeless Population\" aria-label=\"Stacked Bars\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-8a3tf\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8a3tf/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"460\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie campaigned on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059460/bay-area-cities-expand-homeless-shelters-winning-over-neighbors-is-the-hard-part\">promise to build 1,500 shelter beds\u003c/a> within his first six months in office. But the mayor later pivoted, saying instead that the city needs the “right kind of beds,” such as treatment beds and transitional housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has closed some non-congregate shelter options under Lurie’s administration, but overall has added a net total of 408 shelter beds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some homelessness advocates have criticized Lurie’s focus on short-term shelter, saying that the city must do more to focus on preventing homelessness and providing long-term housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Municipalities that overinvest in shelter see a short-term decrease in street counts, but without investment in prevention and housing, street counts will undoubtedly balloon in future years,” the Coalition on Homelessness said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, 57% of San Francisco’s homeless population is sheltered, and there are not enough beds for everyone who wants a spot. There were 500 people on the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data--check-your-position-adult-shelter-waitlist\">waitlist for shelter\u003c/a> as of Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full survey results from January’s PIT Count will be released this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "did-newsoms-3-8-billion-hotels-to-housing-program-pay-off",
"title": "Did Newsom’s $3.8 Billion Hotels-to-Housing Program Pay Off?",
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"headTitle": "Did Newsom’s $3.8 Billion Hotels-to-Housing Program Pay Off? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/covid-19\">COVID-19\u003c/a> tore through California, Jennifer Hark Dietz had a decision to make. The state was making perhaps its biggest push ever to get people off the street, offering up billions of dollars for cities and organizations like hers to turn old motels into new homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was risky. The Homekey program came with up-front cash and a promise to move fast and cut red tape. But it also meant taking on old buildings with little vetting, which had the potential to put a developer in a deep financial hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, the gamble paid off. In just a few months, Hark Dietz’s nonprofit, People Assisting The Homeless, was housing people in the old 40-room Hollywood Orchid Suites in Los Angeles. She called it a “shining light” for what seemed possible with the radical new program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then came a pale pink Travelodge in the suburb of Gardena. The city of LA had already bought the motel for $9 million, and Hark Dietz said her team didn’t have a chance to vet or tour the site. They’d only seen online photos and basic inspection reports before they took it over in December 2020. A city consultant estimated that it would take about $50,000 to start moving people into the roadside motel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course,” she said, “we know now that’s not the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than five years and nearly $3 million later, the motel — which turned out to need all new windows, plumbing and electrical, among other issues — was still vacant earlier this year. There was plywood over some of the windows, and someone had graffitied a ghost on one side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082684\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082684\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Live Oak Apartments in Ukiah on Feb. 26. Live Oak offers its residents access to common spaces, such as a community garden and meeting rooms for visitors. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The boom-or-bust results in Los Angeles underscore how little is known publicly about a generational project with a high price tag and even higher stakes. Some projects were huge successes. Others were total failures. Dozens remain stuck in limbo. CalMatters found there’s been little public accountability for any of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the summer of 2020, Homekey awarded more than $3.8 billion to local governments to convert motels and other buildings into homeless housing, thrusting many local governments into a new role running multimillion-dollar real estate projects. Cities and counties could hire outside contractors to help or do the work themselves, skipping some of the usual building process for the sake of speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was unlike anything the state had ever done, largely because it sprang from desperation. Homekey launched during peak COVID, five months before vaccines were available, and after cities had already moved thousands of unhoused people into motels through \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/05/california-homeless-project-roomkey/\">Project Roomkey\u003c/a>, another Newsom program. But those rooms were temporary, and officials were scrambling to prevent a mass exodus back to the streets.[aside postID=news_12082132 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']With Homekey, local officials across the state bought and gutted Motel 6s, Best Westerns and roadside inns. They got more creative as the program evolved: Tiny homes sprouted in Silicon Valley, and Santa Cruz retrofitted an old dentist’s office. In Southern California, housing took shape in a former Tri-Delt sorority house, an earthquake-stricken church and a hostel that once served as a refuge for Japanese Americans returning from World War II internment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re doing here today is multiples of what any state in American history has committed to address this crisis of homelessness,” Newsom said at a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2021/05/newsom-end-homelessness-pandemic-lessons/\">2021 press conference\u003c/a> announcing a major Homekey expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program came with little built-in oversight. Earlier this year, state lawmakers killed a bill to audit Homekey. No state agency has publicly analyzed the program in detail to find out what’s working and what’s not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge now: A new and more complex phase is already underway with up to $2 billion from the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2025/06/prop-1-mental-health-awards/\">voter-approved Prop. 1\u003c/a> mental health bond. But no one has publicly accounted for how many of the program’s original projects stalled out and how many succeeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what happened, CalMatters filed more than 100 public records requests with cities and counties that were awarded Homekey funds. We asked for key details on 250 projects announced through the end of 2024, covering all but a handful of projects for which less public data was available. Those state and local records — along with dozens of visits to Homekey sites, plus interviews with people who built and lived in them — create a first-of-its-kind window into how it all played out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among our findings:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Homekey made producing housing simpler. But it came at a cost\u003c/strong>. Homekey provided billions of dollars in housing funding up front, allowing some developers to sidestep the usual webs of investors and lenders and finish much faster than normal. But fewer funders also means less oversight. With rushed vetting, some projects got bogged down in delays, blown budgets or worse. At least one Homekey developer was forced out of business by an unwieldy project. Another is facing fraud charges.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>When Homekey worked, those involved stress that it \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>really\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> worked.\u003c/strong> Nearly 13,500 people now live at Homekey sites, according to the state Housing Department. For small and rural communities, such as Glenn County, the program provided crucial cash for their first-ever homeless housing. Officials from Mendocino County to Ventura say they were able to stabilize people longer term by adding stronger ties to public services and extra investment in resources such as counseling.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Those successes magnify the opportunities squandered. \u003c/strong>Projects involving about 3,000 homes — roughly 1 in 5 promised by the program — weren’t finished as of the end of last year. Another 2,000 units have people living in them on a temporary basis but haven’t been converted into permanent housing, the program’s main goal. In 10 instances involving 500 more units, the state publicized grants that later were canceled or that never materialized because local officials or developers backed out.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>A lack of transparency raises familiar questions about the program’s future\u003c/strong>. State officials stress that they have extended deadlines and improved vetting for the program’s latest bond-funded iteration, Homekey+. But they refused to publicly provide details about that vetting process. And as homeless services providers have long warned, there remains no guaranteed state funding to keep existing or planned Homekey projects going.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Yes, many Homekey projects opened late or over budget. But, officials emphasize, they still opened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said he considers the program a “phenomenal success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of projects all across the state of California that they’re trying to manage and organize and operate,” he said when CalMatters asked about it at a recent press conference. “And I imagine each one of them brings its own opportunities and own challenges as we move forward and implement at a scale we’ve never implemented in the state’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taryn Sandulyak knows that better than most. The Bay Area developer thought Homekey might be her big break, but it ultimately put her out of business. She sees a fundamental mismatch at the heart of the program. It wanted high quality, high speed and low budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can only have two of those,” Sandulyak said. “You really can’t ever have three. That’s the issue with Homekey, is they give you not quite enough money to do it, and they want you to do it really, really fast and really, really well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chasm between Homekey successes and failures isn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all story. But it does provide an outline of what it will take to make good on California’s big effort to finally make a dent in its homelessness crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Failing was not an option’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the west side of Ventura, just as the surf town creeps up into the hills toward Ojai, sits what used to be one of the city’s worst nuisance properties: a nearly 100-year-old apartment building once known, in a nod to local drug slang, as the “Booyah Mansion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s housing authority, Ventura Housing, cobbled together enough money in 2019 to buy the building. But it didn’t have enough cash to fix all 300-something code violations at the crime-ridden property — until Homekey came along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had some scary stuff go on here,” said Karen Flock, Ventura Housing’s real estate development director. “This property failing was not an option.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082685\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082685\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Live Oak Apartments in Ukiah on Feb. 26. Live Oak offers its residents access to common spaces, such as a community garden and meeting rooms for visitors. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now known as El Portal, the 29-unit apartment complex today serves as a lifeline for a mother with 9-year-old twins, one severely autistic. It’s a refuge for a woman who lived for six years in a city-funded Tuff Shed. Another neighbor still keeps his shopping cart from the street in his apartment as a reminder of what he’s been through, and why he can never go back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ventura and other cities and counties that were able to pull off Homekey projects relatively on time and on budget credit a variety of factors for their success. Some grantees provided services themselves rather than contracting them out, better integrating public resources. Others raised extra money for on-site social services or worked closely with first responders to head off concerns about crime and stabilize residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Lambert, CEO of Ventura Housing, said the crucial thing was realizing early that Homekey money alone isn’t nearly enough. Instead, the city combined it with other public and private funding, staffing and resources. Projects that failed or got stuck in limbo often fell apart after they ran out of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homekey works,” Lambert said, “because of all the stuff added on top of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Look up Homekey projects in your city or county\" aria-label=\"Table\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-kiDgD\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kiDgD/8/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"550\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For housing researchers such as Ryan Finnigan, deputy director of research at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, the real strength of Homekey was not the building minutiae. It was an attempt to challenge the state’s status quo of painstakingly slow housing development while people kept pouring onto the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re not willing to try a new approach,” he said, “then we’re not going to learn as much about how we can be more creative, how we can work with more urgency than the current systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fraught and full of delays as the construction process can be, getting a project completed is often just the first hurdle for Homekey. Once a project opens its doors, it typically needs significant resources in addition to the state funding. Mendocino County credits much of its project’s success to extra services for residents, which aren’t paid for by the state grant, said Megan Van Sant, a senior program manager for the county who oversees the Homekey site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the former Best Western hotel now known as Live Oak Apartments, there’s a therapist on retainer for tenants, plus a dog trainer paid to work with problem pets. Both try to help residents resolve any issues that come up before they escalate into grounds for an eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To provide those extras, the county runs the project itself, rather than contracting with an outside service provider as many Homekey projects do. Two county staffers work full-time inside the building, using their connections to do everything from enrolling residents in Medi-Cal to pairing them with mental health services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that is expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Resident Sherry Collins inside her room at Live Oak Apartments in Ukiah on Feb. 26. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the state should continue to support these projects,” Van Sant said. “The state asked communities to do these projects, and they cost more to do well than what you can earn in rent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherry Collins, 66, moved into the project three years ago, at a time when she was terrified of what would come next. Her husband had died, her health was failing, she couldn’t work, and she couldn’t afford to keep living in her cabin in the tiny coastal city of Fort Bragg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now she feels like she’s home. Collins decorated the window of her room with little red and pink hearts and adopted a kitten with extra toes, whom she named Mr. Handsome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She continues to deal with health challenges after losing a leg to diabetes about a year ago. The building has only four units accessible for people with disabilities, making it a challenge to accommodate everyone, but one recently opened up for Collins, where she can more comfortably shower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have been awesome to me,” Collins said. “They’re more like family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Never-ending projects\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Sandulyak, Homekey was too good to refuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years earlier she had co-founded Firm Foundation Community Housing, which helped Bay Area churches turn their parking lots and backyards into tiny homes for homeless residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homekey was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically scale up that vision by using millions in state funds to house dozens of people in Vallejo. It would be the small nonprofit’s most ambitious project by far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082687\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082687\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The official ribbon cutting at the grand opening of Broadway Village in Vallejo on March 5. \u003ccite>(Nathan Weyland for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sandulyak never suspected that by applying for Homekey, she had doomed her organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firm Foundation was awarded $12 million in 2022 to build a 47-unit modular apartment building called the Broadway Project. Over the next four years, nearly everything that could go wrong did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some problems had nothing to do with Homekey. The general contractor went bankrupt, and the nonprofit tapped to operate the facility squabbled with the city, leaving the project in limbo for a year. The state wouldn’t let Firm Foundation pick a new partner to run the housing, which Sandulyak says further delayed the opening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other problems were directly related to Homekey. By design, the program forced cities to take a much more hands-on role with housing development than they were used to. Vallejo wasn’t prepared for that responsibility. It fumbled its attempt to get a key federal grant and failed to set up important safeguards that protect affordable housing projects from financial risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, Sandulyak had $2 million in bills and no way to pay them. With construction three-quarters done, the project ran out of money. Firm Foundation was forced to stop work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became such a nightmare that the Vallejo City Council asked for an independent audit to find out what went wrong and why. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28094481-vallejo-broadway-affordable-housing-report/\">audit blamed\u003c/a> both the city and Firm Foundation for allowing the project to run out of money before it was finished. Firm Foundation vastly underestimated the project’s cost, and the city bungled efforts to secure additional funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, the audit found, the very nature of Homekey helped set the project up for failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12023514\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A kayaker floats down the Napa River past the Navy Yard of Mare Island in the city of Vallejo, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One big problem was the timeline. Homekey required projects to finish construction within one year of their award, and to move people in 90 days after that. To meet those deadlines, Firm Foundation created budgets before the architectural drawings were even done, contributing to serious cost underestimates, the audit found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The audit also found a lack of oversight at the Broadway Project, which it said is typical of Homekey projects. Normally, a single affordable housing project uses funding from multiple sources, including the city, the county, the state, federal funds, tax credits, private banks and more. The more funders and investors, the more eyes watching and holding the developer accountable. With Homekey, the city applying for the grant typically takes on all those risks by itself, the audit found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent Thursday morning, Sandulyak gathered with city officials and her construction partners in front of a crowd to celebrate what they, at times, had thought would be impossible: the Broadway Project was finally open. Behind them rose the terracotta-colored wall of the sleek, new, modular apartment building. A red ribbon waited in front of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the count of three, Sandulyak helped Vallejo’s assistant city manager snip the ribbon. The crowd cheered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project ended up coming in two and a half years late and 70% over budget. Despite those setbacks, the audit found it \u003cem>still \u003c/em>cost less per unit and was built more quickly than the region’s average affordable housing project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it cost Sandulyak everything. She laid off three of her four employees, and she plans to lay off the last one and dissolve her organization. The nonprofit is still on the hook for more than $1 million in unpaid bills related to the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931-1536x1060.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference of housing & homelessness with new legislation and funding and bills signing, along with other local, state and federal leaders are gathered in San Francisco, California, United States on Sept. 19, 2024. \u003ccite>(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite her pride in the finished building, Sandulyak wonders how much more housing her nonprofit could have built — if only she’d never applied for Homekey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, 52 people now have somewhere to call home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m unshaken in my belief that that is worth it,” Sandulyak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those people is 62-year-old Terrence White, a former refinery worker who was forced into early retirement by an injury and can’t afford market-rate rent. Now, he pays $294 a month and finally has his own place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels wonderful,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Homekey gold rush\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During the frantic first two years of Homekey, when many experienced affordable housing developers were sitting out the untested new program, an LA company called Shangri-La Industries stepped in to help fill the void. It scored nearly $115 million in contracts to build 500 homes for homeless Californians in cities from Salinas to San Bernardino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28097013-holmes-indictment/\">federal indictment\u003c/a> and a separate civil lawsuit allege that millions in state funds instead went to fund a lavish lifestyle for the company’s chief financial officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the charges attributed in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28097094-shangri-la-v-holmes/\">court records\u003c/a> to Shangri-La’s former CFO, Cody Holmes: $46,000 in monthly rent for a Beverly Hills house with a pool. Designer gifts for a girlfriend, including a $127,000 diamond necklace and a $111,000 crocodile Birkin bag. A $5,000-a-month lease on a Ferrari Portofino. Another $53,000 for Coachella passes, and $44,000 for flights on private jets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082689\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Quality Inn & Suites building, a former Shangri-La project, stands vacant in Thousand Oaks on Feb. 26. \u003ccite>(Julie Leopo-Bermudez for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All this while many of the desperately needed motel rooms sat empty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homekey set a low bar for contractors to qualify: They had to have worked on at least two affordable housing projects that included at least one homeless tenant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shangri-La easily cleared that hurdle. But had any state or local officials done more digging, they might have seen warning signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shangri-La’s construction business was sued twice for breach of contract in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28094732-shangri-la-2018-breach-contract-complaint/\">2018\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28094731-shangri-la-2019-contract-fraud-complaint/\">2019\u003c/a>, court records show, after two firms alleged that it failed to pay them. The company was also a contractor on a troubled LA veteran housing project, where records first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/shows/greater-la/stories/30-million-motel-homeless-shelter-prop-hhh-taxpayer-oversight-la\">reported by KCRW\u003c/a> show Shangri-La partners sold the property to themselves, increasing the project’s budget by $8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Homekey, federal \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/beverly-hills-man-arrested-brentwood-man-charged-separate-criminal-cases-linked-fraud\">prosecutors allege\u003c/a> that Holmes “knowingly submitted fake bank records” to the state Housing Department to boost Shangri-La’s credentials — financial claims that state officials apparently failed to verify with the banks. Holmes has pleaded not guilty, and an attorney representing him declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the company took on the Homekey projects, property records show that entities connected to Shangri-La or its partners paid around $13 million for actress Milla Jovovich’s Beverly Hills mansion, adding to a portfolio that included a $7 million oceanfront home in Long Beach purchased two years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082690\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082690\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Quality Inn & Suites building, a former Shangri-La project, stands vacant in Thousand Oaks on Feb. 26. \u003ccite>(Julie Leopo-Bermudez for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a separate \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28093061-hcd-vs-shangri-la-complaint/\">civil fraud case\u003c/a>, state prosecutors allege in court records that Shangri-La went behind the state’s back and took out undisclosed loans on the Homekey buildings, giving up control of the sites and violating their contract with the state. That became a major problem when the company defaulted on the loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For several of the properties, no one had filed crucial paperwork to ensure that they remained affordable housing. After the buildings ended up in foreclosure, some were scooped up by companies with no commitment to homeless housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homekey contracts tasked local officials with vetting projects and reviewing contractors’ organizational documents, budgets and other key details. But records show state officials also reviewed Shangri-La’s financials, and once they paid out the Homekey money, they failed to verify that paperwork was completed to restrict the buildings to affordable housing.[aside postID=news_12068047 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/20251211_YOUTHHOMELESSNESS_DECEMBER_GH-5-KQED.jpg']The state Housing Department and several local governments that hired Shangri-La for Homekey projects declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andy Meyers, the former CEO of Shangri-La, acknowledged in an interview that he had “a lack of control” over his company. He has sued Holmes for fraud. He also blamed the local and state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My CFO had a lot of wrongdoing,” he said. “But it was a confluence of events that caused each project to go bad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meyers said officials’ failure to file the proper affordable housing restrictions, which were also required by his lender, triggered a financial disaster that led his company to default on some of the properties. On two projects that Shangri-La did open in San Bernardino and Salinas, he estimated that the company incurred around $11 million in unexpected costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have spent so much money following their guidelines and following their timetables,” he said, “and they never followed their guidelines or timetables.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez rallied support for a Homekey project in his hometown of King City. He thought Shangri-La made sense for four projects in the county, since it had already opened one Homekey site in Salinas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it didn’t take long for constituents to start asking why rooms were sitting empty behind chain-link fences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028078\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A person drives a tractor through a field of crops on farmland near Salinas on Feb. 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The longer it went on without seeing any movement, the flag started to get raised,” Lopez said. “I was starting to hear less and less communication and more sort of finger pointing\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials like Lopez had to start from scratch, raising millions more dollars to revive the projects as encampments swelled. It took 10 different deals totaling $16 million to open the King City project in March, three years behind schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full trail of Shangri-La’s deceit stretches from the state’s agricultural heartland to the edge of the Southern California desert. A $27 million Thousand Oaks hotel project sits abandoned today, robbing a region of 77 homes while it had a decade-long housing waitlist. Another $16 million project scrapped in Salinas would have provided 58 homes. Officials still plan to salvage 200 homes in other parts of Monterey County. The only two Shangri-La projects that stayed open during the legal battle, two motels in Southern California, were full of people who were plunged into messy foreclosure disputes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carrie Harmon, San Bernardino County’s director of community development and housing, said in an email that “the county entered into this effort in good faith, relying on representations that later proved to be inaccurate.”[aside postID=news_12082518 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/OAKRIDGE_11_qed-1.jpg']Even some of those whose Homekey projects went well say they’re not surprised that things went sideways. In Mendocino County, Van Sant said the state’s oversight was limited to quarterly progress reports. Once the money was spent, the state stopped asking for any information at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They gave us a bunch of money, made us do some paperwork, and then they’re out of here,” Van Sant said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Colleen Robinson, public officials’ failure to see the red flags with Shangri-La was life-changing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson, now 62, survived years on the street after losing her job and fleeing a bad relationship. The All Star Lodge in downtown San Bernardino was her chance to start over. Shangri-La did manage to renovate and open that project in late 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years later, the bank foreclosed. Because no one had put the affordable housing restriction on the property, the new owner told Robinson and other tenants that it was going to quadruple the rent. She said the new owner neglected the building; weeds and stray cats reclaimed the parking lot, police sirens blared, and neighbors died with little explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This would give hell a run for its money,” Robinson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harmon said the county was still trying to buy the building and figure something out, but Robinson didn’t wait around to see how the saga ended. On a Thursday in February, she packed up and boarded a Greyhound bus for Iowa, where one of her children lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Homeless veterans still waiting\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some Homekey projects still haven’t opened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County has three badly delayed Homekey projects, one of which will be more than four years late when it is slated to finally be finished at the end of next year. For that project, the county obtained more than $6 million to convert rustic vacation cabins under a grove of redwood trees into housing for homeless veterans. The state initially set a completion deadline of 2023, but the project ran out of money before it crossed the finish line, forcing construction to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were many reasons why, but one stands out: underestimating the cost, said Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County’s Housing for Health division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082694\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An unfinished motel conversion in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 27. The project is expected to finish more than a year after the original deadline, city records show. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The developers had never undertaken a project this large, and that inexperience contributed to the budgeting error, Ratner said. But so did the design of Homekey, which capped what the state was willing to pay per unit at about half what it takes to build affordable housing in some parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea was that projects would be cheaper because they were converting existing buildings, while also cutting out extra layers of bureaucracy that add time and expense. That led developers to low-ball budgets, which came back to bite them when the savings weren’t as great as anticipated, Ratner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the budgeting error was made, neither the state nor the county caught it, Ratner said. The county assumed that the state would scrutinize all Homekey applications and throw out any that didn’t seem viable, Ratner said. But it appears that in reality, the state was relying on the counties to do that vetting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County had little experience analyzing whether a construction project was adequately budgeted. Typically, the county relies on other funders, such as construction lenders and tax credit investors, to do that job. But those investors weren’t present here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether he and his colleagues had done their due diligence to make sure the projects were realistic, Ratner was straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11682474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11682474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach.jpg\" alt=\"Visitors enjoy the beach below West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County has the second-highest poverty rate in the state, after Los Angeles.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1226\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-800x511.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-1020x651.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-1200x766.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-1180x753.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-960x613.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-240x153.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-375x239.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-520x332.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors in Santa Cruz enjoy the beach below West Cliff Drive. Santa Cruz County has the second-highest poverty rate in the state, after Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I would say no,” Ratner said. “I can’t say yes with a straight face at this juncture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other projects just never happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A $14 million Homekey award was supposed to help breathe new life into the Hotel Travelers, a rundown, century-old building in Oakland’s Chinatown, as housing for people returning from incarceration. But once the developer got a look at the building, that plan fell apart. An inspection revealed such severe issues with the building’s construction that the developer determined it would be “morally untenable” to proceed. Oakland returned the grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, CalMatters found at least 10 cases where a Homekey award was announced, only for the grantee to later withdraw their application, return or redirect the money, or have the state claw it back. Some instances had more public explanation than others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials in Fresno voted down their own project. Long Beach was unable to come up with a suitable location for $2 million worth of brand-new tiny homes left sitting in storage. Projects in Marin and Mariposa counties evaporated when real estate deals fell through, and the state rescinded its grant for a project in Salinas after a nonprofit partner pulled out.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Newsom’s legacy and a financial cliff\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Despite the vastly different outcomes at Homekey projects around the state, there’s no plan for a comprehensive audit to see what worked and what didn’t — a decision that raises the question of whether the state has done enough to grapple with Homekey as it forges ahead with the new version of the program, Homekey+.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, lawmakers nixed a public accounting proposed by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/leticia-castillo-187479\">Assemblymember Leticia Castillo\u003c/a>, a Republican from Corona.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the program has expanded housing options, critical questions remain about its long-term impact and cost-effectiveness,” a \u003ca href=\"https://ad58.asmrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Homekey-Program-Audit-Fact-Sheet.pdf\">summary\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab505\">Assembly Bill 505\u003c/a> said. “It is unclear how many Homekey-funded units remain occupied after one year, how many individuals successfully transition to stable, long-term housing, and whether Homekey’s cost per unit is competitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Framers work to build the Ruby Street apartments in Castro Valley on Feb. 6, 2024. The construction project is funded by the No Place Like Home bond, which passed in 2018 to create affordable housing for homeless residents experiencing mental health issues. \u003ccite>(Camille Cohen for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The bill was never publicly debated. It died in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state did do one \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/04/california-homelessness-spending/\">audit of multiple homeless services programs\u003c/a> in 2024. It didn’t get into Homekey delays or what actually happened to people living in the buildings, but it analyzed the costs of eight projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on that small sample, the auditor concluded that Homekey was “likely” cost-effective, with an average cost of $144,000 per unit, compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars more it can cost for new construction in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge is that when Homekey plans fell short of ambitions at job sites around the state, the consequences were often murky. In extreme cases, where cities acknowledged that projects failed to materialize, the state has clawed back grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But usually, the main penalty for blown deadlines or other missteps is that the state may hold it against a local government or developer the next time it applies for funding — a dynamic that provides no public transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happens next will be left up to a new state housing agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.bcsh.ca.gov/about/reorganization.html\">set to be launched\u003c/a> this summer, the California Housing and Homelessness Agency. That effort is expected to include a new development committee to “provide centralized, coordinated guidance to state housing policy and funding decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11877271\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11877271\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Final construction is completed on a row of housing units at LifeMoves Mountain View, a modular housing community, on June 8, 2021. The site, part of California’s Homekey program, provides temporary housing and resources to people in the city who are currently homeless. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, the state’s Housing Department maintains that it “monitors each project closely” if issues arise or deadline extensions are granted. Even with widespread delays, the agency maintains that “Homekey has helped build more and faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state said it is learning as it gives out the new Homekey+ funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After seeing so many projects miss the one-year deadline, the state doubled the timeline for new construction to two years. Homekey+ projects that \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcd.ca.gov/sites/default/files/docs/grants-and-funding/homekey/hk-plus-nofa-amendment.pdf\">serve veterans\u003c/a> now can propose bigger budgets for new builds, potentially addressing the issue of under-budgeted projects running out of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials also said they’re scrutinizing applications more closely now, including looking carefully at whether applicants are budgeting enough funds for their proposed projects, said California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are improving our own vetting process, if you will,” she said during a recent news conference, “to ensure these projects are successful in delivering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s housing department maintains that Homekey accomplished a major feat: building thousands of units despite a global pandemic, labor shortages, supply chain issues and other challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082698\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Wish stands outside El Portal apartments in Ventura on Feb. 26, 2026. \u003ccite>(Julie Leopo-Bermudez for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It is tremendously rewarding to see so many vulnerable Californians housed so quickly, and to have voters expand the successful Homekey model to house and support veterans and others facing behavioral health challenges,” Assistant Deputy Director Cari Scott said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the state’s housing policies shift, there’s one big question left for people like Van Sant in Mendocino: Will there be enough money to keep Homekey projects running?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the projects have a pay-as-you-go model, versus standard 10- or 15-year affordable housing financing — a calculation that leaves a financial cliff looming for thousands of Homekey homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If [Homekey] is going to be a long-term, permanent, successful program,” Van Sant said, “I think the state’s going to have to find a way to find some ongoing funding for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Data reporters\u003c/em> \u003cem>Erica Yee and Kate Li contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2026/05/newsom-homekey-records/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/covid-19\">COVID-19\u003c/a> tore through California, Jennifer Hark Dietz had a decision to make. The state was making perhaps its biggest push ever to get people off the street, offering up billions of dollars for cities and organizations like hers to turn old motels into new homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was risky. The Homekey program came with up-front cash and a promise to move fast and cut red tape. But it also meant taking on old buildings with little vetting, which had the potential to put a developer in a deep financial hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, the gamble paid off. In just a few months, Hark Dietz’s nonprofit, People Assisting The Homeless, was housing people in the old 40-room Hollywood Orchid Suites in Los Angeles. She called it a “shining light” for what seemed possible with the radical new program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then came a pale pink Travelodge in the suburb of Gardena. The city of LA had already bought the motel for $9 million, and Hark Dietz said her team didn’t have a chance to vet or tour the site. They’d only seen online photos and basic inspection reports before they took it over in December 2020. A city consultant estimated that it would take about $50,000 to start moving people into the roadside motel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course,” she said, “we know now that’s not the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than five years and nearly $3 million later, the motel — which turned out to need all new windows, plumbing and electrical, among other issues — was still vacant earlier this year. There was plywood over some of the windows, and someone had graffitied a ghost on one side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082684\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082684\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey2-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Live Oak Apartments in Ukiah on Feb. 26. Live Oak offers its residents access to common spaces, such as a community garden and meeting rooms for visitors. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The boom-or-bust results in Los Angeles underscore how little is known publicly about a generational project with a high price tag and even higher stakes. Some projects were huge successes. Others were total failures. Dozens remain stuck in limbo. CalMatters found there’s been little public accountability for any of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the summer of 2020, Homekey awarded more than $3.8 billion to local governments to convert motels and other buildings into homeless housing, thrusting many local governments into a new role running multimillion-dollar real estate projects. Cities and counties could hire outside contractors to help or do the work themselves, skipping some of the usual building process for the sake of speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was unlike anything the state had ever done, largely because it sprang from desperation. Homekey launched during peak COVID, five months before vaccines were available, and after cities had already moved thousands of unhoused people into motels through \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/05/california-homeless-project-roomkey/\">Project Roomkey\u003c/a>, another Newsom program. But those rooms were temporary, and officials were scrambling to prevent a mass exodus back to the streets.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>With Homekey, local officials across the state bought and gutted Motel 6s, Best Westerns and roadside inns. They got more creative as the program evolved: Tiny homes sprouted in Silicon Valley, and Santa Cruz retrofitted an old dentist’s office. In Southern California, housing took shape in a former Tri-Delt sorority house, an earthquake-stricken church and a hostel that once served as a refuge for Japanese Americans returning from World War II internment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re doing here today is multiples of what any state in American history has committed to address this crisis of homelessness,” Newsom said at a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2021/05/newsom-end-homelessness-pandemic-lessons/\">2021 press conference\u003c/a> announcing a major Homekey expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program came with little built-in oversight. Earlier this year, state lawmakers killed a bill to audit Homekey. No state agency has publicly analyzed the program in detail to find out what’s working and what’s not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge now: A new and more complex phase is already underway with up to $2 billion from the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2025/06/prop-1-mental-health-awards/\">voter-approved Prop. 1\u003c/a> mental health bond. But no one has publicly accounted for how many of the program’s original projects stalled out and how many succeeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what happened, CalMatters filed more than 100 public records requests with cities and counties that were awarded Homekey funds. We asked for key details on 250 projects announced through the end of 2024, covering all but a handful of projects for which less public data was available. Those state and local records — along with dozens of visits to Homekey sites, plus interviews with people who built and lived in them — create a first-of-its-kind window into how it all played out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among our findings:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Homekey made producing housing simpler. But it came at a cost\u003c/strong>. Homekey provided billions of dollars in housing funding up front, allowing some developers to sidestep the usual webs of investors and lenders and finish much faster than normal. But fewer funders also means less oversight. With rushed vetting, some projects got bogged down in delays, blown budgets or worse. At least one Homekey developer was forced out of business by an unwieldy project. Another is facing fraud charges.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>When Homekey worked, those involved stress that it \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>really\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> worked.\u003c/strong> Nearly 13,500 people now live at Homekey sites, according to the state Housing Department. For small and rural communities, such as Glenn County, the program provided crucial cash for their first-ever homeless housing. Officials from Mendocino County to Ventura say they were able to stabilize people longer term by adding stronger ties to public services and extra investment in resources such as counseling.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Those successes magnify the opportunities squandered. \u003c/strong>Projects involving about 3,000 homes — roughly 1 in 5 promised by the program — weren’t finished as of the end of last year. Another 2,000 units have people living in them on a temporary basis but haven’t been converted into permanent housing, the program’s main goal. In 10 instances involving 500 more units, the state publicized grants that later were canceled or that never materialized because local officials or developers backed out.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>A lack of transparency raises familiar questions about the program’s future\u003c/strong>. State officials stress that they have extended deadlines and improved vetting for the program’s latest bond-funded iteration, Homekey+. But they refused to publicly provide details about that vetting process. And as homeless services providers have long warned, there remains no guaranteed state funding to keep existing or planned Homekey projects going.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Yes, many Homekey projects opened late or over budget. But, officials emphasize, they still opened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said he considers the program a “phenomenal success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of projects all across the state of California that they’re trying to manage and organize and operate,” he said when CalMatters asked about it at a recent press conference. “And I imagine each one of them brings its own opportunities and own challenges as we move forward and implement at a scale we’ve never implemented in the state’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taryn Sandulyak knows that better than most. The Bay Area developer thought Homekey might be her big break, but it ultimately put her out of business. She sees a fundamental mismatch at the heart of the program. It wanted high quality, high speed and low budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can only have two of those,” Sandulyak said. “You really can’t ever have three. That’s the issue with Homekey, is they give you not quite enough money to do it, and they want you to do it really, really fast and really, really well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chasm between Homekey successes and failures isn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all story. But it does provide an outline of what it will take to make good on California’s big effort to finally make a dent in its homelessness crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Failing was not an option’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the west side of Ventura, just as the surf town creeps up into the hills toward Ojai, sits what used to be one of the city’s worst nuisance properties: a nearly 100-year-old apartment building once known, in a nod to local drug slang, as the “Booyah Mansion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s housing authority, Ventura Housing, cobbled together enough money in 2019 to buy the building. But it didn’t have enough cash to fix all 300-something code violations at the crime-ridden property — until Homekey came along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had some scary stuff go on here,” said Karen Flock, Ventura Housing’s real estate development director. “This property failing was not an option.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082685\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082685\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey3-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Live Oak Apartments in Ukiah on Feb. 26. Live Oak offers its residents access to common spaces, such as a community garden and meeting rooms for visitors. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now known as El Portal, the 29-unit apartment complex today serves as a lifeline for a mother with 9-year-old twins, one severely autistic. It’s a refuge for a woman who lived for six years in a city-funded Tuff Shed. Another neighbor still keeps his shopping cart from the street in his apartment as a reminder of what he’s been through, and why he can never go back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ventura and other cities and counties that were able to pull off Homekey projects relatively on time and on budget credit a variety of factors for their success. Some grantees provided services themselves rather than contracting them out, better integrating public resources. Others raised extra money for on-site social services or worked closely with first responders to head off concerns about crime and stabilize residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Lambert, CEO of Ventura Housing, said the crucial thing was realizing early that Homekey money alone isn’t nearly enough. Instead, the city combined it with other public and private funding, staffing and resources. Projects that failed or got stuck in limbo often fell apart after they ran out of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homekey works,” Lambert said, “because of all the stuff added on top of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Look up Homekey projects in your city or county\" aria-label=\"Table\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-kiDgD\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kiDgD/8/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"550\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For housing researchers such as Ryan Finnigan, deputy director of research at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, the real strength of Homekey was not the building minutiae. It was an attempt to challenge the state’s status quo of painstakingly slow housing development while people kept pouring onto the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re not willing to try a new approach,” he said, “then we’re not going to learn as much about how we can be more creative, how we can work with more urgency than the current systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fraught and full of delays as the construction process can be, getting a project completed is often just the first hurdle for Homekey. Once a project opens its doors, it typically needs significant resources in addition to the state funding. Mendocino County credits much of its project’s success to extra services for residents, which aren’t paid for by the state grant, said Megan Van Sant, a senior program manager for the county who oversees the Homekey site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the former Best Western hotel now known as Live Oak Apartments, there’s a therapist on retainer for tenants, plus a dog trainer paid to work with problem pets. Both try to help residents resolve any issues that come up before they escalate into grounds for an eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To provide those extras, the county runs the project itself, rather than contracting with an outside service provider as many Homekey projects do. Two county staffers work full-time inside the building, using their connections to do everything from enrolling residents in Medi-Cal to pairing them with mental health services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that is expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey4-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Resident Sherry Collins inside her room at Live Oak Apartments in Ukiah on Feb. 26. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the state should continue to support these projects,” Van Sant said. “The state asked communities to do these projects, and they cost more to do well than what you can earn in rent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherry Collins, 66, moved into the project three years ago, at a time when she was terrified of what would come next. Her husband had died, her health was failing, she couldn’t work, and she couldn’t afford to keep living in her cabin in the tiny coastal city of Fort Bragg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now she feels like she’s home. Collins decorated the window of her room with little red and pink hearts and adopted a kitten with extra toes, whom she named Mr. Handsome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She continues to deal with health challenges after losing a leg to diabetes about a year ago. The building has only four units accessible for people with disabilities, making it a challenge to accommodate everyone, but one recently opened up for Collins, where she can more comfortably shower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have been awesome to me,” Collins said. “They’re more like family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Never-ending projects\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Sandulyak, Homekey was too good to refuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years earlier she had co-founded Firm Foundation Community Housing, which helped Bay Area churches turn their parking lots and backyards into tiny homes for homeless residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homekey was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically scale up that vision by using millions in state funds to house dozens of people in Vallejo. It would be the small nonprofit’s most ambitious project by far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082687\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082687\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey5-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The official ribbon cutting at the grand opening of Broadway Village in Vallejo on March 5. \u003ccite>(Nathan Weyland for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sandulyak never suspected that by applying for Homekey, she had doomed her organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firm Foundation was awarded $12 million in 2022 to build a 47-unit modular apartment building called the Broadway Project. Over the next four years, nearly everything that could go wrong did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some problems had nothing to do with Homekey. The general contractor went bankrupt, and the nonprofit tapped to operate the facility squabbled with the city, leaving the project in limbo for a year. The state wouldn’t let Firm Foundation pick a new partner to run the housing, which Sandulyak says further delayed the opening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other problems were directly related to Homekey. By design, the program forced cities to take a much more hands-on role with housing development than they were used to. Vallejo wasn’t prepared for that responsibility. It fumbled its attempt to get a key federal grant and failed to set up important safeguards that protect affordable housing projects from financial risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, Sandulyak had $2 million in bills and no way to pay them. With construction three-quarters done, the project ran out of money. Firm Foundation was forced to stop work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became such a nightmare that the Vallejo City Council asked for an independent audit to find out what went wrong and why. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28094481-vallejo-broadway-affordable-housing-report/\">audit blamed\u003c/a> both the city and Firm Foundation for allowing the project to run out of money before it was finished. Firm Foundation vastly underestimated the project’s cost, and the city bungled efforts to secure additional funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, the audit found, the very nature of Homekey helped set the project up for failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12023514\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250114_Mare-Island_DMB_00333-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A kayaker floats down the Napa River past the Navy Yard of Mare Island in the city of Vallejo, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One big problem was the timeline. Homekey required projects to finish construction within one year of their award, and to move people in 90 days after that. To meet those deadlines, Firm Foundation created budgets before the architectural drawings were even done, contributing to serious cost underestimates, the audit found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The audit also found a lack of oversight at the Broadway Project, which it said is typical of Homekey projects. Normally, a single affordable housing project uses funding from multiple sources, including the city, the county, the state, federal funds, tax credits, private banks and more. The more funders and investors, the more eyes watching and holding the developer accountable. With Homekey, the city applying for the grant typically takes on all those risks by itself, the audit found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent Thursday morning, Sandulyak gathered with city officials and her construction partners in front of a crowd to celebrate what they, at times, had thought would be impossible: the Broadway Project was finally open. Behind them rose the terracotta-colored wall of the sleek, new, modular apartment building. A red ribbon waited in front of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the count of three, Sandulyak helped Vallejo’s assistant city manager snip the ribbon. The crowd cheered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project ended up coming in two and a half years late and 70% over budget. Despite those setbacks, the audit found it \u003cem>still \u003c/em>cost less per unit and was built more quickly than the region’s average affordable housing project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it cost Sandulyak everything. She laid off three of her four employees, and she plans to lay off the last one and dissolve her organization. The nonprofit is still on the hook for more than $1 million in unpaid bills related to the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2172244931-1536x1060.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference of housing & homelessness with new legislation and funding and bills signing, along with other local, state and federal leaders are gathered in San Francisco, California, United States on Sept. 19, 2024. \u003ccite>(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite her pride in the finished building, Sandulyak wonders how much more housing her nonprofit could have built — if only she’d never applied for Homekey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, 52 people now have somewhere to call home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m unshaken in my belief that that is worth it,” Sandulyak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those people is 62-year-old Terrence White, a former refinery worker who was forced into early retirement by an injury and can’t afford market-rate rent. Now, he pays $294 a month and finally has his own place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels wonderful,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Homekey gold rush\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During the frantic first two years of Homekey, when many experienced affordable housing developers were sitting out the untested new program, an LA company called Shangri-La Industries stepped in to help fill the void. It scored nearly $115 million in contracts to build 500 homes for homeless Californians in cities from Salinas to San Bernardino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28097013-holmes-indictment/\">federal indictment\u003c/a> and a separate civil lawsuit allege that millions in state funds instead went to fund a lavish lifestyle for the company’s chief financial officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the charges attributed in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28097094-shangri-la-v-holmes/\">court records\u003c/a> to Shangri-La’s former CFO, Cody Holmes: $46,000 in monthly rent for a Beverly Hills house with a pool. Designer gifts for a girlfriend, including a $127,000 diamond necklace and a $111,000 crocodile Birkin bag. A $5,000-a-month lease on a Ferrari Portofino. Another $53,000 for Coachella passes, and $44,000 for flights on private jets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082689\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey7-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Quality Inn & Suites building, a former Shangri-La project, stands vacant in Thousand Oaks on Feb. 26. \u003ccite>(Julie Leopo-Bermudez for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All this while many of the desperately needed motel rooms sat empty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homekey set a low bar for contractors to qualify: They had to have worked on at least two affordable housing projects that included at least one homeless tenant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shangri-La easily cleared that hurdle. But had any state or local officials done more digging, they might have seen warning signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shangri-La’s construction business was sued twice for breach of contract in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28094732-shangri-la-2018-breach-contract-complaint/\">2018\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28094731-shangri-la-2019-contract-fraud-complaint/\">2019\u003c/a>, court records show, after two firms alleged that it failed to pay them. The company was also a contractor on a troubled LA veteran housing project, where records first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/shows/greater-la/stories/30-million-motel-homeless-shelter-prop-hhh-taxpayer-oversight-la\">reported by KCRW\u003c/a> show Shangri-La partners sold the property to themselves, increasing the project’s budget by $8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Homekey, federal \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/beverly-hills-man-arrested-brentwood-man-charged-separate-criminal-cases-linked-fraud\">prosecutors allege\u003c/a> that Holmes “knowingly submitted fake bank records” to the state Housing Department to boost Shangri-La’s credentials — financial claims that state officials apparently failed to verify with the banks. Holmes has pleaded not guilty, and an attorney representing him declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the company took on the Homekey projects, property records show that entities connected to Shangri-La or its partners paid around $13 million for actress Milla Jovovich’s Beverly Hills mansion, adding to a portfolio that included a $7 million oceanfront home in Long Beach purchased two years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082690\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082690\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey8-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Quality Inn & Suites building, a former Shangri-La project, stands vacant in Thousand Oaks on Feb. 26. \u003ccite>(Julie Leopo-Bermudez for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a separate \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28093061-hcd-vs-shangri-la-complaint/\">civil fraud case\u003c/a>, state prosecutors allege in court records that Shangri-La went behind the state’s back and took out undisclosed loans on the Homekey buildings, giving up control of the sites and violating their contract with the state. That became a major problem when the company defaulted on the loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For several of the properties, no one had filed crucial paperwork to ensure that they remained affordable housing. After the buildings ended up in foreclosure, some were scooped up by companies with no commitment to homeless housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homekey contracts tasked local officials with vetting projects and reviewing contractors’ organizational documents, budgets and other key details. But records show state officials also reviewed Shangri-La’s financials, and once they paid out the Homekey money, they failed to verify that paperwork was completed to restrict the buildings to affordable housing.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The state Housing Department and several local governments that hired Shangri-La for Homekey projects declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andy Meyers, the former CEO of Shangri-La, acknowledged in an interview that he had “a lack of control” over his company. He has sued Holmes for fraud. He also blamed the local and state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My CFO had a lot of wrongdoing,” he said. “But it was a confluence of events that caused each project to go bad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meyers said officials’ failure to file the proper affordable housing restrictions, which were also required by his lender, triggered a financial disaster that led his company to default on some of the properties. On two projects that Shangri-La did open in San Bernardino and Salinas, he estimated that the company incurred around $11 million in unexpected costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have spent so much money following their guidelines and following their timetables,” he said, “and they never followed their guidelines or timetables.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez rallied support for a Homekey project in his hometown of King City. He thought Shangri-La made sense for four projects in the county, since it had already opened one Homekey site in Salinas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it didn’t take long for constituents to start asking why rooms were sitting empty behind chain-link fences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028078\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/021125-ICE-Schools-Salinas-LV_34-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A person drives a tractor through a field of crops on farmland near Salinas on Feb. 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The longer it went on without seeing any movement, the flag started to get raised,” Lopez said. “I was starting to hear less and less communication and more sort of finger pointing\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials like Lopez had to start from scratch, raising millions more dollars to revive the projects as encampments swelled. It took 10 different deals totaling $16 million to open the King City project in March, three years behind schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full trail of Shangri-La’s deceit stretches from the state’s agricultural heartland to the edge of the Southern California desert. A $27 million Thousand Oaks hotel project sits abandoned today, robbing a region of 77 homes while it had a decade-long housing waitlist. Another $16 million project scrapped in Salinas would have provided 58 homes. Officials still plan to salvage 200 homes in other parts of Monterey County. The only two Shangri-La projects that stayed open during the legal battle, two motels in Southern California, were full of people who were plunged into messy foreclosure disputes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carrie Harmon, San Bernardino County’s director of community development and housing, said in an email that “the county entered into this effort in good faith, relying on representations that later proved to be inaccurate.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even some of those whose Homekey projects went well say they’re not surprised that things went sideways. In Mendocino County, Van Sant said the state’s oversight was limited to quarterly progress reports. Once the money was spent, the state stopped asking for any information at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They gave us a bunch of money, made us do some paperwork, and then they’re out of here,” Van Sant said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Colleen Robinson, public officials’ failure to see the red flags with Shangri-La was life-changing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson, now 62, survived years on the street after losing her job and fleeing a bad relationship. The All Star Lodge in downtown San Bernardino was her chance to start over. Shangri-La did manage to renovate and open that project in late 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years later, the bank foreclosed. Because no one had put the affordable housing restriction on the property, the new owner told Robinson and other tenants that it was going to quadruple the rent. She said the new owner neglected the building; weeds and stray cats reclaimed the parking lot, police sirens blared, and neighbors died with little explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This would give hell a run for its money,” Robinson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harmon said the county was still trying to buy the building and figure something out, but Robinson didn’t wait around to see how the saga ended. On a Thursday in February, she packed up and boarded a Greyhound bus for Iowa, where one of her children lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Homeless veterans still waiting\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some Homekey projects still haven’t opened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County has three badly delayed Homekey projects, one of which will be more than four years late when it is slated to finally be finished at the end of next year. For that project, the county obtained more than $6 million to convert rustic vacation cabins under a grove of redwood trees into housing for homeless veterans. The state initially set a completion deadline of 2023, but the project ran out of money before it crossed the finish line, forcing construction to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were many reasons why, but one stands out: underestimating the cost, said Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County’s Housing for Health division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082694\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An unfinished motel conversion in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 27. The project is expected to finish more than a year after the original deadline, city records show. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The developers had never undertaken a project this large, and that inexperience contributed to the budgeting error, Ratner said. But so did the design of Homekey, which capped what the state was willing to pay per unit at about half what it takes to build affordable housing in some parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea was that projects would be cheaper because they were converting existing buildings, while also cutting out extra layers of bureaucracy that add time and expense. That led developers to low-ball budgets, which came back to bite them when the savings weren’t as great as anticipated, Ratner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the budgeting error was made, neither the state nor the county caught it, Ratner said. The county assumed that the state would scrutinize all Homekey applications and throw out any that didn’t seem viable, Ratner said. But it appears that in reality, the state was relying on the counties to do that vetting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County had little experience analyzing whether a construction project was adequately budgeted. Typically, the county relies on other funders, such as construction lenders and tax credit investors, to do that job. But those investors weren’t present here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether he and his colleagues had done their due diligence to make sure the projects were realistic, Ratner was straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11682474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11682474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach.jpg\" alt=\"Visitors enjoy the beach below West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County has the second-highest poverty rate in the state, after Los Angeles.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1226\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-800x511.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-1020x651.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-1200x766.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-1180x753.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-960x613.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-240x153.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-375x239.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/SantaCruzBeach-520x332.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors in Santa Cruz enjoy the beach below West Cliff Drive. Santa Cruz County has the second-highest poverty rate in the state, after Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I would say no,” Ratner said. “I can’t say yes with a straight face at this juncture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other projects just never happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A $14 million Homekey award was supposed to help breathe new life into the Hotel Travelers, a rundown, century-old building in Oakland’s Chinatown, as housing for people returning from incarceration. But once the developer got a look at the building, that plan fell apart. An inspection revealed such severe issues with the building’s construction that the developer determined it would be “morally untenable” to proceed. Oakland returned the grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, CalMatters found at least 10 cases where a Homekey award was announced, only for the grantee to later withdraw their application, return or redirect the money, or have the state claw it back. Some instances had more public explanation than others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials in Fresno voted down their own project. Long Beach was unable to come up with a suitable location for $2 million worth of brand-new tiny homes left sitting in storage. Projects in Marin and Mariposa counties evaporated when real estate deals fell through, and the state rescinded its grant for a project in Salinas after a nonprofit partner pulled out.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Newsom’s legacy and a financial cliff\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Despite the vastly different outcomes at Homekey projects around the state, there’s no plan for a comprehensive audit to see what worked and what didn’t — a decision that raises the question of whether the state has done enough to grapple with Homekey as it forges ahead with the new version of the program, Homekey+.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, lawmakers nixed a public accounting proposed by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/leticia-castillo-187479\">Assemblymember Leticia Castillo\u003c/a>, a Republican from Corona.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the program has expanded housing options, critical questions remain about its long-term impact and cost-effectiveness,” a \u003ca href=\"https://ad58.asmrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Homekey-Program-Audit-Fact-Sheet.pdf\">summary\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab505\">Assembly Bill 505\u003c/a> said. “It is unclear how many Homekey-funded units remain occupied after one year, how many individuals successfully transition to stable, long-term housing, and whether Homekey’s cost per unit is competitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020624_No-Place-Like-Home_CC_CM_12-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Framers work to build the Ruby Street apartments in Castro Valley on Feb. 6, 2024. The construction project is funded by the No Place Like Home bond, which passed in 2018 to create affordable housing for homeless residents experiencing mental health issues. \u003ccite>(Camille Cohen for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The bill was never publicly debated. It died in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state did do one \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/04/california-homelessness-spending/\">audit of multiple homeless services programs\u003c/a> in 2024. It didn’t get into Homekey delays or what actually happened to people living in the buildings, but it analyzed the costs of eight projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on that small sample, the auditor concluded that Homekey was “likely” cost-effective, with an average cost of $144,000 per unit, compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars more it can cost for new construction in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge is that when Homekey plans fell short of ambitions at job sites around the state, the consequences were often murky. In extreme cases, where cities acknowledged that projects failed to materialize, the state has clawed back grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But usually, the main penalty for blown deadlines or other missteps is that the state may hold it against a local government or developer the next time it applies for funding — a dynamic that provides no public transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happens next will be left up to a new state housing agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.bcsh.ca.gov/about/reorganization.html\">set to be launched\u003c/a> this summer, the California Housing and Homelessness Agency. That effort is expected to include a new development committee to “provide centralized, coordinated guidance to state housing policy and funding decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11877271\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11877271\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49740_009_MountainView_ProjectHomekey_06082021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Final construction is completed on a row of housing units at LifeMoves Mountain View, a modular housing community, on June 8, 2021. The site, part of California’s Homekey program, provides temporary housing and resources to people in the city who are currently homeless. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, the state’s Housing Department maintains that it “monitors each project closely” if issues arise or deadline extensions are granted. Even with widespread delays, the agency maintains that “Homekey has helped build more and faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state said it is learning as it gives out the new Homekey+ funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After seeing so many projects miss the one-year deadline, the state doubled the timeline for new construction to two years. Homekey+ projects that \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcd.ca.gov/sites/default/files/docs/grants-and-funding/homekey/hk-plus-nofa-amendment.pdf\">serve veterans\u003c/a> now can propose bigger budgets for new builds, potentially addressing the issue of under-budgeted projects running out of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials also said they’re scrutinizing applications more closely now, including looking carefully at whether applicants are budgeting enough funds for their proposed projects, said California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are improving our own vetting process, if you will,” she said during a recent news conference, “to ensure these projects are successful in delivering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s housing department maintains that Homekey accomplished a major feat: building thousands of units despite a global pandemic, labor shortages, supply chain issues and other challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082698\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/homekey9-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Wish stands outside El Portal apartments in Ventura on Feb. 26, 2026. \u003ccite>(Julie Leopo-Bermudez for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It is tremendously rewarding to see so many vulnerable Californians housed so quickly, and to have voters expand the successful Homekey model to house and support veterans and others facing behavioral health challenges,” Assistant Deputy Director Cari Scott said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the state’s housing policies shift, there’s one big question left for people like Van Sant in Mendocino: Will there be enough money to keep Homekey projects running?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the projects have a pay-as-you-go model, versus standard 10- or 15-year affordable housing financing — a calculation that leaves a financial cliff looming for thousands of Homekey homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If [Homekey] is going to be a long-term, permanent, successful program,” Van Sant said, “I think the state’s going to have to find a way to find some ongoing funding for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Data reporters\u003c/em> \u003cem>Erica Yee and Kate Li contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2026/05/newsom-homekey-records/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a>’s City Council voted Tuesday to fine a couple nearly $1 million for removing 38 legally protected trees on and around their Claremont Avenue property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fine comes after weeks of contentious back-and-forth over ecological conservation, environmental equity and the enforcement of Oakland’s tree protection laws — and years after city officials first warned the property owners about removing trees without permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Bernard, who owns a hillside lot of more than 11,700 square feet with his partner, Lynn Warner, said in the City Council meeting that some of the trees removed from his property nearly four years ago were “dead, dying, leaning,” or in “hazardous condition.” Bernard also unsuccessfully asked the city for a resolution that would allow him to replant trees after construction on the undeveloped lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 20 public speakers, however, including a mix of residents and conservation advocates, argued that the old-growth coast live oak trees that were clear-cut from the property were irreplaceable parts of the city’s ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Trees of that size are not commercially available for replacement. Even with replanting, it will take decades, even centuries, to restore the ecological and protective functions that were lost,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandparks.org/staff/blog-post-title-three-3gjwy\">Erys Gagnez\u003c/a>, a community tree specialist with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, a nonprofit that supports public park access. “The scale of the fine reflects this reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city fined Bernard and Warner $915,135.40 and placed a lien on their property that will prevent them from developing or selling the land until the fine is paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082348\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082348\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘Notice of Application’ sits on the hillside of a property on Claremont Avenue across from Garber Park in Oakland on May 4, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Councilmembers Janani Ramachandran, Noel Gallo, Kevin Jenkins, Zac Unger and Charlene Wang voted for the fine. Rowena Brown, Carroll Fife and Ken Houston voted against.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qhYIRczBrlIstIAy3DHqYByWmNC8zm7u/view?usp=sharing\">Public records \u003c/a>show that city workers responded to the site on a steep slope in the Oakland hills five times for reports of illegal tree-cutting between Feb. 2, 2021, and May 17, 2022, and that Bernard received verbal and written warnings from city employees and police for the unpermitted removals. The area is residential, but otherwise forested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a previous discussion on April 14, the council failed to reach a consensus on what penalty the couple should face. The vote ended in a tie that Mayor Barbara Lee declined to break, but Gallo was not present and was counted as a “no.” On Tuesday, his “yes” vote broke the tie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the April hearing, Ramachandran said she would refuse to approve of anything less than the full penalty. While other councilmembers considered lowering the fine, Ramachandran asserted that a lesser consequence would undermine city law.[aside postID=news_12079903 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-1247572601-1020x680.jpg']“We are called ‘Oakland’ for a reason,” Ramachandran said during the meeting. “ We have less than 4,500 oak trees in this city right now, because of the destruction and development over the decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The April hearing drew over a dozen members of the public to the podium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among them was Saumitra Kelkar, a biologist and science educator whose Instagram posts about the removals have garnered thousands of views. He said the native oak trees in the city’s hills create a unique microclimate that holds onto moisture and resists burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a natural shaded fuel break, which was going to severely impede the ability of a wildfire to travel through that area,” Kelkar said. Now that the trees are gone, he said, it’s going to be“much easier for a much faster fire to burn much hotter, and cause a lot more destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelkar, who recalled coming to the location as a college student to forage for edible mushrooms and spot native wildlife like salamanders, said it was “gut-wrenching” to revisit the site in advance of the April hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>”Even if Matthew Bernard is required to reforest that entire hillside, it’s going to take decades or centuries for the populations of [wildlife] to actually return,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public works staff determined the fine based on species and the diameter of the tree stumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A property on Claremont Avenue across from Garber Park in Oakland on May 4, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bernard and Warner would also be responsible for compensating the city for costs. The trees felled included several in a neighbor’s yard, and one on government-owned land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost all of these were native trees. City laws prevent these plants from being cut down within city limits based on size and species, even on private property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city does permit the removal of protected trees for construction, but documents from the city’s Public Works department show that the couple did not complete the required process before beginning to remove the trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramachandran told KQED that since the meeting, she’s received a flurry of messages from constituents responding to what happened. She said that out of the hundreds of messages received from Oakland residents, “not a single email, not a single phone call, not a single DM, not a single text message” favors “anything less than the full fine” for Bernard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12038313\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janani Ramachandran speaks with campaign organizers in Oakland on June 26, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bernard and Warner declined KQED’s requests for interviews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But during the April hearing, Bernard told the council that he and Warner did “everything in [their] willpower” to follow the law in the plan to develop the property. Ramachandran was not convinced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a knowing violation of our Tree Protection Ordinance, and we need to comply with our existing law and fine him the amount as recommended by city staff,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing, Fife pushed back on whether the tree protection law was being enforced fairly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fife asked, “Why a Black man should be the first to receive consequences for things that white people have been doing for centuries,” referring to the region’s history of racial segregation based on legal measures, like redlining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Councilmember Carroll Fife speaks during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland on Aug. 14, 2025, condemning President Trump’s recent remarks about Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bernard is a Nigerian immigrant. Earlier, his partner, Warner, had alleged to the council that when they initially purchased the property, other residents in the neighborhood had made racist comments and threats to Bernard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did not want to bring up race, but goddamn it, it is a part of what we’re discussing,” Fife said, though she clarified that she did not agree with Bernard’s actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fife was not available for comment before publication.[aside postID=news_12080889 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00587_TV-KQED.jpg']Ramachandran agreed that the situation and Oakland’s historical context presented racial equity issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a very racist history in the hills. I certainly would not have been able to be [a] councilmember of this district as of not that long ago,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, she said, the city council should uphold the law as it’s written, and she stands by her commitment to the full penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m Indian, my husband’s Nigerian, and our son is both,” Ramachandran continued. “And the three of us would not be able to live in my district at all, given the legacy of redlining. That doesn’t mean that we should give a pass to people that look like us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramachandran told KQED she’s considering revisions to the tree protections with the rest of the council — including a statute of limitations to help the city address violations in a timely way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I really do think that city staff messed up and dropped the ball back in 2021 when they had first found out,” she said. “Right then and there, they should have issued this notice of violation and brought it to council and brought forward the charges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/emanoukian\">\u003cem>Elize Manoukian\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "To tree or not to tree: More than 20 residents at a public hearing demanded enforcement of Oakland's tree protection laws, arguing the leafy canopies are necessary for wildfire prevention, public health and environmental equity. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a>’s City Council voted Tuesday to fine a couple nearly $1 million for removing 38 legally protected trees on and around their Claremont Avenue property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fine comes after weeks of contentious back-and-forth over ecological conservation, environmental equity and the enforcement of Oakland’s tree protection laws — and years after city officials first warned the property owners about removing trees without permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Bernard, who owns a hillside lot of more than 11,700 square feet with his partner, Lynn Warner, said in the City Council meeting that some of the trees removed from his property nearly four years ago were “dead, dying, leaning,” or in “hazardous condition.” Bernard also unsuccessfully asked the city for a resolution that would allow him to replant trees after construction on the undeveloped lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 20 public speakers, however, including a mix of residents and conservation advocates, argued that the old-growth coast live oak trees that were clear-cut from the property were irreplaceable parts of the city’s ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Trees of that size are not commercially available for replacement. Even with replanting, it will take decades, even centuries, to restore the ecological and protective functions that were lost,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandparks.org/staff/blog-post-title-three-3gjwy\">Erys Gagnez\u003c/a>, a community tree specialist with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, a nonprofit that supports public park access. “The scale of the fine reflects this reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city fined Bernard and Warner $915,135.40 and placed a lien on their property that will prevent them from developing or selling the land until the fine is paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082348\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082348\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘Notice of Application’ sits on the hillside of a property on Claremont Avenue across from Garber Park in Oakland on May 4, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Councilmembers Janani Ramachandran, Noel Gallo, Kevin Jenkins, Zac Unger and Charlene Wang voted for the fine. Rowena Brown, Carroll Fife and Ken Houston voted against.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qhYIRczBrlIstIAy3DHqYByWmNC8zm7u/view?usp=sharing\">Public records \u003c/a>show that city workers responded to the site on a steep slope in the Oakland hills five times for reports of illegal tree-cutting between Feb. 2, 2021, and May 17, 2022, and that Bernard received verbal and written warnings from city employees and police for the unpermitted removals. The area is residential, but otherwise forested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a previous discussion on April 14, the council failed to reach a consensus on what penalty the couple should face. The vote ended in a tie that Mayor Barbara Lee declined to break, but Gallo was not present and was counted as a “no.” On Tuesday, his “yes” vote broke the tie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the April hearing, Ramachandran said she would refuse to approve of anything less than the full penalty. While other councilmembers considered lowering the fine, Ramachandran asserted that a lesser consequence would undermine city law.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We are called ‘Oakland’ for a reason,” Ramachandran said during the meeting. “ We have less than 4,500 oak trees in this city right now, because of the destruction and development over the decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The April hearing drew over a dozen members of the public to the podium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among them was Saumitra Kelkar, a biologist and science educator whose Instagram posts about the removals have garnered thousands of views. He said the native oak trees in the city’s hills create a unique microclimate that holds onto moisture and resists burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a natural shaded fuel break, which was going to severely impede the ability of a wildfire to travel through that area,” Kelkar said. Now that the trees are gone, he said, it’s going to be“much easier for a much faster fire to burn much hotter, and cause a lot more destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelkar, who recalled coming to the location as a college student to forage for edible mushrooms and spot native wildlife like salamanders, said it was “gut-wrenching” to revisit the site in advance of the April hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>”Even if Matthew Bernard is required to reforest that entire hillside, it’s going to take decades or centuries for the populations of [wildlife] to actually return,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public works staff determined the fine based on species and the diameter of the tree stumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260504-OAKLANDTREES-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A property on Claremont Avenue across from Garber Park in Oakland on May 4, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bernard and Warner would also be responsible for compensating the city for costs. The trees felled included several in a neighbor’s yard, and one on government-owned land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost all of these were native trees. City laws prevent these plants from being cut down within city limits based on size and species, even on private property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city does permit the removal of protected trees for construction, but documents from the city’s Public Works department show that the couple did not complete the required process before beginning to remove the trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramachandran told KQED that since the meeting, she’s received a flurry of messages from constituents responding to what happened. She said that out of the hundreds of messages received from Oakland residents, “not a single email, not a single phone call, not a single DM, not a single text message” favors “anything less than the full fine” for Bernard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12038313\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/001_Oakland_JananiRamachandran_06262021_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janani Ramachandran speaks with campaign organizers in Oakland on June 26, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bernard and Warner declined KQED’s requests for interviews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But during the April hearing, Bernard told the council that he and Warner did “everything in [their] willpower” to follow the law in the plan to develop the property. Ramachandran was not convinced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a knowing violation of our Tree Protection Ordinance, and we need to comply with our existing law and fine him the amount as recommended by city staff,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing, Fife pushed back on whether the tree protection law was being enforced fairly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fife asked, “Why a Black man should be the first to receive consequences for things that white people have been doing for centuries,” referring to the region’s history of racial segregation based on legal measures, like redlining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Councilmember Carroll Fife speaks during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland on Aug. 14, 2025, condemning President Trump’s recent remarks about Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bernard is a Nigerian immigrant. Earlier, his partner, Warner, had alleged to the council that when they initially purchased the property, other residents in the neighborhood had made racist comments and threats to Bernard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did not want to bring up race, but goddamn it, it is a part of what we’re discussing,” Fife said, though she clarified that she did not agree with Bernard’s actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fife was not available for comment before publication.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Ramachandran agreed that the situation and Oakland’s historical context presented racial equity issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a very racist history in the hills. I certainly would not have been able to be [a] councilmember of this district as of not that long ago,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, she said, the city council should uphold the law as it’s written, and she stands by her commitment to the full penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m Indian, my husband’s Nigerian, and our son is both,” Ramachandran continued. “And the three of us would not be able to live in my district at all, given the legacy of redlining. That doesn’t mean that we should give a pass to people that look like us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramachandran told KQED she’s considering revisions to the tree protections with the rest of the council — including a statute of limitations to help the city address violations in a timely way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I really do think that city staff messed up and dropped the ball back in 2021 when they had first found out,” she said. “Right then and there, they should have issued this notice of violation and brought it to council and brought forward the charges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/emanoukian\">\u003cem>Elize Manoukian\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney is reviving a proposal to allow drug-free housing for people transitioning out of homelessness, months after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s new proposal, AB 1556, would set rules for how “recovery residences” can operate within California’s Housing First framework, the \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1556/id/3425398\">state’s policy\u003c/a> of offering permanent housing without first requiring people to meet conditions like sobriety, mental health treatment or employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should give people who are ready to take the steps to get to recovery and stability an opportunity to do so,” Haney said at a press conference in San Francisco on Monday. “People want to live in housing where they receive the support to be off of and away from drugs with people who will support them in that process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation comes after Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AB-255-Veto.pdf\">rejected \u003c/a>Haney’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058779/newsoms-veto-of-sober-housing-bill-sparks-a-backlash-in-sf\">AB 255 last year\u003c/a>. That bill would have allowed some state homelessness dollars to support sober housing programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his veto message, Newsom said recovery-focused housing is already allowed under state law and argued the bill “wrongly suggests incompatibility with Housing First.” He also raised concerns about creating a separate certification and oversight process that could cost taxpayers money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing First has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054270/trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california\">credited with reducing barriers\u003c/a> for people who might otherwise be denied housing because of substance use, mental health challenges or other issues. But some local officials and advocates argue the policy has also made it harder to fund housing where residents can live away from active drug use.[aside postID=news_12034006 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250327_SoberHousing_GC-9-1020x680.jpg']Supporters of sober housing have said those environments are especially important as cities like San Francisco continue to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034006/san-francisco-mans-housing-struggle-relapse-put-him-back-on-streets\">confront homelessness and addiction\u003c/a>, including its ongoing fentanyl crisis. But the proposal is likely to face pushback from some homelessness advocates, who have long warned that sobriety requirements can become a pathway to eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney said the new bill is meant to provide clarity for housing providers, local governments and people in recovery who want a sober living environment. According to Haney’s office, AB 1556 would allow recovery residences to maintain sobriety standards, while requiring a “non-punitive” response when someone relapses, including connecting residents to alternative housing and services rather than kicking them out of the program and pushing them back into homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing California, a statewide affordable housing advocacy group, has already listed its opposition to AB 1556, \u003ca href=\"https://housingca.org/policy/policy-priorities-2026/\">citing concerns\u003c/a> about residents being required to choose recovery housing and harm-reduction housing options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s veto last year did not dismiss recovery housing outright. Instead, he said the state should continue working on ways to support recovery-focused models without undermining Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney is reviving a proposal to allow drug-free housing for people transitioning out of homelessness, months after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s new proposal, AB 1556, would set rules for how “recovery residences” can operate within California’s Housing First framework, the \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1556/id/3425398\">state’s policy\u003c/a> of offering permanent housing without first requiring people to meet conditions like sobriety, mental health treatment or employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should give people who are ready to take the steps to get to recovery and stability an opportunity to do so,” Haney said at a press conference in San Francisco on Monday. “People want to live in housing where they receive the support to be off of and away from drugs with people who will support them in that process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation comes after Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AB-255-Veto.pdf\">rejected \u003c/a>Haney’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058779/newsoms-veto-of-sober-housing-bill-sparks-a-backlash-in-sf\">AB 255 last year\u003c/a>. That bill would have allowed some state homelessness dollars to support sober housing programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his veto message, Newsom said recovery-focused housing is already allowed under state law and argued the bill “wrongly suggests incompatibility with Housing First.” He also raised concerns about creating a separate certification and oversight process that could cost taxpayers money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing First has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054270/trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california\">credited with reducing barriers\u003c/a> for people who might otherwise be denied housing because of substance use, mental health challenges or other issues. But some local officials and advocates argue the policy has also made it harder to fund housing where residents can live away from active drug use.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Supporters of sober housing have said those environments are especially important as cities like San Francisco continue to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034006/san-francisco-mans-housing-struggle-relapse-put-him-back-on-streets\">confront homelessness and addiction\u003c/a>, including its ongoing fentanyl crisis. But the proposal is likely to face pushback from some homelessness advocates, who have long warned that sobriety requirements can become a pathway to eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney said the new bill is meant to provide clarity for housing providers, local governments and people in recovery who want a sober living environment. According to Haney’s office, AB 1556 would allow recovery residences to maintain sobriety standards, while requiring a “non-punitive” response when someone relapses, including connecting residents to alternative housing and services rather than kicking them out of the program and pushing them back into homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing California, a statewide affordable housing advocacy group, has already listed its opposition to AB 1556, \u003ca href=\"https://housingca.org/policy/policy-priorities-2026/\">citing concerns\u003c/a> about residents being required to choose recovery housing and harm-reduction housing options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s veto last year did not dismiss recovery housing outright. Instead, he said the state should continue working on ways to support recovery-focused models without undermining Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) could lose about $10 million dollars from the city’s general fund, due to budget cuts meant to address a gaping deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to city officials who presented the department’s budget outlook at a Board of Supervisors hearing on Wednesday. The proposed cuts come as San Francisco faces a nearly $643 million budget shortfall over the next two years, and the mayor’s office is looking to trim hundreds of millions of dollars in spending across city departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan alarmed some advocates, who say the city could desperately use more funding for its homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like it is a decrease in the [homelessness] budget, but it is not a decrease, and services will not be cut,” Sophia Kittler, the mayor’s budget director, said to supervisors about the funding changes at Wednesday’s hearing. She stressed that the city is not proposing any cuts to actual homeless services, and rather moving funding around to meet the goal of reducing the general fund deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a one-time revenue that is going away,” Kittler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To avoid cuts to services, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office wants to replace that revenue with an increase in funding from another source: a business tax known as Proposition C, or Our City, Our Home, that was created to support homeless services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055819\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055819\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at the Main Library in San Francisco at an event celebrating a new partnership between city officials and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library on Sept. 12, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But advocates say that if the city has a surplus of Proposition C funds, the mayor’s office should direct more money to shelters and permanent supportive housing, rather than using it to back-fill other cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does seem like, then, if it’s not a service reduction, we could be doing more, because we have money,” Supervisor Shamann Walton said at the hearing. “Since we’re not losing services, but we have surplus, we could actually be doing more to address homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was not the only supervisor to question why the city is not directing the recent surplus in Proposition C funds toward homeless services.[aside postID=news_12081330 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-SF-OVERDOSE-GETTY-SS-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“I do believe the best way to solve homelessness is actually to prevent it from happening in the first place,” Supervisor Connie Chan said. “That means to increase subsidies, particularly rental subsidies. And of course, rapid rehousing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco has steadily increased over the last two decades, as the cost of housing in the city has skyrocketed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 8,300 people were homeless in the city according to the 2024 Point-in-Time count, a federal survey, and more than 4,300 of those individuals were living in a homeless shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While city officials said last year that the number of tents on sidewalks had decreased, there are hundreds of people waiting on the list for a San Francisco shelter bed on any given day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HSH department officials said they have also cut 8 vacant positions as part of the proposed spending reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget proposal arrives a year after the city reallocated some Proposition C funding set aside for permanent supportive housing to temporary shelter, a controversial decision that marked a shift in the city’s approach to homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072189\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072189\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Department of Public Works employees clean up debris after a sweep of an encampment on Merlin Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood on Jan. 27, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Revenue generated from Proposition C came in higher than budgeted the last two fiscal years, according to Shireen McSpadden, HSH director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor’s budget proposal, which is not yet finalized, also includes one-time funding for the mayor’s homelessness plan, called the Breaking the Cycle initiative, through funds appropriated in the last budget cycle. That program funding ends in fiscal year 2027-28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McSpadden presented data showing the city’s overall shelter inventory has increased consistently in recent years, totalling nearly 5,000 emergency and transitional housing beds. During Lurie’s time as mayor, the city has opened new shelter facilities like Hope House and Jerrold Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But homelessness advocates who also spoke at the meeting pointed to how the city has simultaneously lost hundreds of non-congregate shelter beds, which offer people more space and, often, stability than a crowded shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed to the closures of shelters like the Adante and Monarch hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates and housing researchers at the hearing urged the city to invest more in the city’s permanent supportive housing inventory, pointing to evidence that many people are more likely to successfully exit homelessness once they have stable housing with support services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072185\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072185\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests sleep on cots arranged throughout the sanctuary at St. John’s the Evangelist Episcopal Church, where the Gubbio Project is operating overnight shelter during Super Bowl weekend on Feb. 2, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you put all your eggs into the basket of shelter, you see people off the street at first. Then shelters become less efficient because shelter [beds] don’t turn over,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, who leads the Coalition on Homelessness. “When you do a deep investment in housing… you have a much more efficient system because the shelter beds turn over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But experts like Ryan Finnigan, deputy director of research at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, said that permanent supportive housing can fall short when it’s under-resourced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many cases, funding for subsidized units in San Francisco has not kept up with costs for ongoing maintenance, adequate staffing and other needs to keep those housing options efficient, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are limited opportunities for people to move from shelter programs into permanent housing solutions,” Finnigan said. “Undermining the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing leads to lower effectiveness to other programs in the overall homeless system, including shelters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) could lose about $10 million dollars from the city’s general fund, due to budget cuts meant to address a gaping deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to city officials who presented the department’s budget outlook at a Board of Supervisors hearing on Wednesday. The proposed cuts come as San Francisco faces a nearly $643 million budget shortfall over the next two years, and the mayor’s office is looking to trim hundreds of millions of dollars in spending across city departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan alarmed some advocates, who say the city could desperately use more funding for its homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like it is a decrease in the [homelessness] budget, but it is not a decrease, and services will not be cut,” Sophia Kittler, the mayor’s budget director, said to supervisors about the funding changes at Wednesday’s hearing. She stressed that the city is not proposing any cuts to actual homeless services, and rather moving funding around to meet the goal of reducing the general fund deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a one-time revenue that is going away,” Kittler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To avoid cuts to services, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office wants to replace that revenue with an increase in funding from another source: a business tax known as Proposition C, or Our City, Our Home, that was created to support homeless services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055819\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055819\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250912-FREE-BOOKS-FROM-DOLLY-PARTON-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at the Main Library in San Francisco at an event celebrating a new partnership between city officials and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library on Sept. 12, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But advocates say that if the city has a surplus of Proposition C funds, the mayor’s office should direct more money to shelters and permanent supportive housing, rather than using it to back-fill other cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does seem like, then, if it’s not a service reduction, we could be doing more, because we have money,” Supervisor Shamann Walton said at the hearing. “Since we’re not losing services, but we have surplus, we could actually be doing more to address homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was not the only supervisor to question why the city is not directing the recent surplus in Proposition C funds toward homeless services.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I do believe the best way to solve homelessness is actually to prevent it from happening in the first place,” Supervisor Connie Chan said. “That means to increase subsidies, particularly rental subsidies. And of course, rapid rehousing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco has steadily increased over the last two decades, as the cost of housing in the city has skyrocketed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 8,300 people were homeless in the city according to the 2024 Point-in-Time count, a federal survey, and more than 4,300 of those individuals were living in a homeless shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While city officials said last year that the number of tents on sidewalks had decreased, there are hundreds of people waiting on the list for a San Francisco shelter bed on any given day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HSH department officials said they have also cut 8 vacant positions as part of the proposed spending reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget proposal arrives a year after the city reallocated some Proposition C funding set aside for permanent supportive housing to temporary shelter, a controversial decision that marked a shift in the city’s approach to homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072189\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072189\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260127-SUPERBOWLHOMELESSNESS-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Department of Public Works employees clean up debris after a sweep of an encampment on Merlin Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood on Jan. 27, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Revenue generated from Proposition C came in higher than budgeted the last two fiscal years, according to Shireen McSpadden, HSH director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor’s budget proposal, which is not yet finalized, also includes one-time funding for the mayor’s homelessness plan, called the Breaking the Cycle initiative, through funds appropriated in the last budget cycle. That program funding ends in fiscal year 2027-28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McSpadden presented data showing the city’s overall shelter inventory has increased consistently in recent years, totalling nearly 5,000 emergency and transitional housing beds. During Lurie’s time as mayor, the city has opened new shelter facilities like Hope House and Jerrold Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But homelessness advocates who also spoke at the meeting pointed to how the city has simultaneously lost hundreds of non-congregate shelter beds, which offer people more space and, often, stability than a crowded shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed to the closures of shelters like the Adante and Monarch hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates and housing researchers at the hearing urged the city to invest more in the city’s permanent supportive housing inventory, pointing to evidence that many people are more likely to successfully exit homelessness once they have stable housing with support services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072185\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072185\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020226SUPER-BOWL-HOMELESSNESS-_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests sleep on cots arranged throughout the sanctuary at St. John’s the Evangelist Episcopal Church, where the Gubbio Project is operating overnight shelter during Super Bowl weekend on Feb. 2, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you put all your eggs into the basket of shelter, you see people off the street at first. Then shelters become less efficient because shelter [beds] don’t turn over,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, who leads the Coalition on Homelessness. “When you do a deep investment in housing… you have a much more efficient system because the shelter beds turn over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But experts like Ryan Finnigan, deputy director of research at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, said that permanent supportive housing can fall short when it’s under-resourced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many cases, funding for subsidized units in San Francisco has not kept up with costs for ongoing maintenance, adequate staffing and other needs to keep those housing options efficient, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are limited opportunities for people to move from shelter programs into permanent housing solutions,” Finnigan said. “Undermining the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing leads to lower effectiveness to other programs in the overall homeless system, including shelters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "in-the-bay-area-raising-kids-comes-with-compromise",
"title": "In the Bay Area, Raising Kids Comes With Compromise",
"publishDate": 1777557602,
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauren Fierro and her husband spent years contemplating whether to have children. There were lots of uncertainties, but the biggest was whether they could afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Fierro discovered she was pregnant, her husband thought it was time to buy a home, but she wasn’t so sure. They started weighing their options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staying in Oakland meant taking on a mortgage they could barely afford. Leaving meant giving up the walkable neighborhoods, proximity to restaurants and other amenities she’d grown to appreciate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lived walking distance to the farmers market, so it’s incredibly convenient, and we didn’t really want to give that up,” Fierro said, adding that to leave their apartment, ”It had to be for the perfect location, perfect house.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Bay Area families have faced the same question: leave in search of affordability or stay and absorb the cost of living in one of the nation’s most expensive regions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/\">public school enrollment data\u003c/a> shows many families have moved inland, fueling growth in certain districts within more affordable counties like Sacramento, Placer and Fresno. Meanwhile, many Bay Area districts are shrinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Median Home Price in the Bay Area and Central Valley\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-oDGOJ\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/oDGOJ/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"600\" height=\"463\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And families are still trying to make the Bay Area work — often by sacrificing space, walkability, commute times or financial flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elk Grove realtor Charles Velasco has seen that tension play out in real time. During the pandemic, when work-from-home policies allowed desk employees to untether from their offices, he noticed a spike in Bay Area families looking for more affordable, family-friendly housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data bears that out, with Elk Grove seeing a 2.4% spike in enrollment since 2020, and it was the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/declining-school-enrollment-california/756174\">fastest-growing school district in the state\u003c/a> last year. The county’s median home price — $550,000, or more than $1 million less than San Francisco’s — was an obvious draw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"School Enrollment in the Bay Area and Central Valley\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-xcC48\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xcC48/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"600\" height=\"447\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people were realizing they’re paying $3,000 to $6,000 a month in rent in the Bay Area,” he said. “With a low interest rate, they could buy out in Elk Grove.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as mortgage rates have risen and employers have implemented stricter in-office requirements, Velasco said he has seen fewer families looking to leave the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For families considering staying in the region, that leaves a familiar question: What are they willing to compromise to continue living here?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kiara and Gabriel Medina\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Homeowners, bought in 2025\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 35%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: Martinez\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Commute\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kiara Medina and her husband always wanted to be homeowners. Last year, they started looking. At the time, they were living with her husband’s family in Brentwood, but they were eager to live on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/home-values/403105/bay-area-ca/\">Zillow\u003c/a>, the median sale price for a single-family home in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area is a little more than $1 million. Medina and her husband knew they didn’t want to spend more than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079730 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kiara Medina waters her front yard at her home in Martinez on April 9, 2026. The couple, Kiara and Gabriel Medina, bought their single-family Martinez home to start their own family. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 28-year-old grew up in the East Bay and still has family in Brentwood, so she and her husband wanted to find something nearby. The couple saw a listing in Martinez for an older home with warped floors and termite damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it was within their budget and the perfect size to start a family, so they decided to buy. The neighborhood was near restaurants, shops and a historic downtown district. What’s more, it was filled with young families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There [were] just so many young families, young moms pushing strollers, young dads carrying their kids,” she said. “If you go to the farmers market, there’s a huge spectrum of ages, but a ton of young people with young kids, which was very encouraging and promising.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079729\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079729\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabriel Medina brushes out spider webs in his front yard at his home in Martinez on April 9, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, the quaint city on the shore of the Carquinez Strait became a popular destination for eager homebuyers looking for an affordable option. Average home prices surged from about $584,000 in 2017 to $874,000 in June 2022, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/home-values/12592/martinez-ca/\">Zillow\u003c/a>. Average home prices have since dropped to $761,000 as more people return to the office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medina and her husband hope to have children soon. When they do, she’s grateful they live only a 30-minute drive from her family. But Medina now faces a three-hour round-trip commute three days a week to San Francisco. It’s worth it, she said, for the opportunity to own a home and gain equity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are like, why the heck do you live in Martinez? That commute must be atrocious. And I do it with a smile on my face because I willingly chose not to rent in San Francisco or in Oakland or in Berkeley,” she said. “We chose to buy because that’s what we wanted our future to look like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Aparna and Andy Simmons\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Homeowners, bought in 2024\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 23%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: East Oakland\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Walkability \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aparna and Andy Simmons were ready to buy a home in 2024, after spending four years renting an apartment in San Francisco’s Cole Valley neighborhood. They had gotten married the year before and wanted to have children soon. Buying a home seemed like the next logical step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had hoped to find one in the city, but with a budget of under $1 million, they were quickly priced out of their preferred areas. As they looked, they would send listings to their other recently married friends, hoping they could all find homes nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081897\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andy Simmons (right) watches his wife Aparna Simmons (left) hold their son Kiran Cole (center) in their home in Oakland on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We all got married at the same time, within a few months of each other, and wanted to have kids around the same time,” she said, “just having that community and having our kids grow up with friends — like built-in friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the timing didn’t work out. Some friends weren’t quite ready to commit to buying a home. So they decided to look on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They found a home in Redwood Heights, a small neighborhood in the hills of East Oakland. The home had everything they wanted for their family: a backyard for a future pet, a pool and great views of San Francisco. Most importantly, it had space for their son, Kiran, who was born in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079723\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079723\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andy Simmons (left) holds his son Kiran Cole’s (right) foot in their home in Oakland on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the neighborhood isn’t as conveniently located as Simmons would like it to be. When they first moved there almost two years ago, she wasn’t worried about their ability to continue seeing their friends, who live all over the Bay Area. Both of them work from home and have no trouble driving to activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Aparna Simmons said she is reevaluating her priorities. Some features of the home, like the pool, aren’t as important as living in a neighborhood where they can walk to restaurants, parks, farmers’ markets, yoga classes and other activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I realize that is something we really want in our next place,” she said. “There’s things here that we’re like, ‘OK, this isn’t as important actually,’ and we prefer having it be walkable instead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Logan and Heidi Truman\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Renters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 11%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Space\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some might say the Truman family has an unconventional living situation. Logan and Heidi Truman, and their two sons, aged 11 and 13, cram into a studio apartment in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heidi Truman found the rent-controlled studio near Golden Gate Park when she started a year-long residency program there at UC San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then that year turned into a full-time position,” Logan Truman said. “And so she stayed, and then I moved in. It just was easier to stay and make it work than to try and figure something else out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081782\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heidi Truman (left) and husband Logan talk in their kitchen in the studio apartment they share with their sons in San Francisco on March 26, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When they had children, they managed within the tight space. Logan Truman converted a walk-in closet into a room for the boys, with a closet on one end and a bunk bed on the other. He built a fold-up wall bed in their living room, which becomes their bedroom at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have considered moving elsewhere, to a home with more space, but the best solution always seems to be to stay put. Because their apartment is rent-controlled, yearly increases are incremental, and they’re protected from big price jumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can afford it,” he said. “So, we take the money that we earn above that, and we’re aggressively saving and maybe someday we can retire and own our own place, but not yet. We stay where we’re at, we keep working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logan Truman said sacrificing space has taught his family how to live modestly and value experiences over material objects. Rather than buy books, they borrow from the library. If they want to go camping or skiing, they rent their equipment. They’re judicious about the appliances they keep in their kitchen: an Instant Pot, a toaster and a kettle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081787\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081787 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Logan and Heidi Truman and their son, Baron, 11, stand in the walk-in closet converted to a bedroom at their studio apartment in San Francisco on March 26, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Owning fewer items helps them save money, and it benefits the environment, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They spend some of the money they save on family vacations. They recently took a seven-day cruise to Alaska with both sets of grandparents. Before that, they spent two weeks in Britain. Eventually, they’d like to travel to Scandinavia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logan Truman said their living situation has made his children more grounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve told them that there’s no room for animosity in the house — it just doesn’t fit,” he said. “So we have to get along. You can’t get away from anybody. You have to be respectful, you have to be courteous, you have to be kind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kate Knuttel and Matt Quisenberry\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Renters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: almost 50%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: American Canyon\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Affordability\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kate Knuttel and her partner, Matt Quisenberry, wanted to move to American Canyon, even if it meant living paycheck-to-paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until two years ago, they and their four children crowded into a two-bedroom, one bathroom rental in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were three kids in one room and then us and the baby in the other room,” she said. “We were all very close. Luckily, there wasn’t too much fighting over the bathroom at that point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079726\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079726\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kate Knuttel (left) talks to her daughter Chloe (right), 6, about dinner time in their home in American Canyon on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her kids had some friends who lived nearby, but Knuttel didn’t feel safe letting them play in the street unsupervised. She and her partner yearned to find a place near other young families where her kids could thrive. And, they were starting to feel the pinch of living in a small space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, before her youngest daughter was born, she and her partner, Matt Quisenberry, looked into buying a home in American Canyon, where he grew up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they looked into how much their monthly mortgage payments would be, it was more expensive than their rent. So, they scrapped their plans for homeownership and opted to rent there instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079727\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079727\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Knuttel-Quisenberry home is decorated their children’s photos and art in American Canyon on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They found a single-family home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms — a perfect set-up for their teenage children, who wanted more space for themselves. The kids enrolled in American Canyon schools and found others to play with in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so fortuitous to get to this spot,” she said. “We’re so close to everything because it’s a small town. The kids have friends, they can run around in the street. It’s really great, and it feels amazing to have this and it’s not ours forever, but yeah, it feels good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their living situation is not without its challenges. Because American Canyon is so suburban, Knuttel said there aren’t many things to do in the area. Their rent is also more expensive than what they were paying in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079728\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079728\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Quisenberry (right) helps his kids Landon (left) and Chloe (center) examine a small insect found in strawberries in American Canyon on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Quisenberry and Knuttel make just enough for the family to get by, but not enough to save.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past two years, Knuttel and Quisenberry said they have spent more than they make. So, they’ve become proficient at managing debt. They use 0% credit cards to give them more time to pay off expenses. But they feel certain this period will pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once [our youngest daughter is] in public school, we will be out of that decline,” Quisenberry said. “We’re just waiting it out. We’re continuing to acquire debt, but we’re managing it more intelligently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lauren Fierro and Jimmy Phillips\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Homeowners, bought in 2025\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 26.2%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: East Oakland\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Affordability\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079719\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Lauren Fierro (left) and Jimmy Phillips (right) on a shelf with baby shoes in their home in Oakland on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In September, Fierro and Phillips found what they were looking for: a storybook-style home in East Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fierro admires its charm and quirky character, but it’s the neighborhood that captured her heart. On the first Friday of every month, neighbors host block parties and regularly check in on Fierro and her baby, Audrey, who was born in January, sharing clothes and toys their children have since outgrown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their neighborhood gave her family the best of both worlds: The safety and security of living near other young families and proximity to downtown Oakland. But that convenience came at a cost.[aside postID=news_12078480 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/AffordabilitySeriesIntro_Lede.jpg']Their mortgage is more expensive than what they were paying in rent. Their utility bill is higher, too. Their 100-year-old home lacks insulation, which became a problem when a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000299/a-delight-mare-bay-area-sizzles-march-heat-wave-could-shatter-records\">recent heat wave\u003c/a> disrupted the region’s normally temperate climate. They bought a portable air conditioner for Audrey’s room so the baby didn’t overheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We try to be really mindful about the amount of power and gas that we use, and we also just try to be mindful about really living within our means,” Fierro said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their family doesn’t eat out or go on trips as often as they did before moving into the house. Though Fierro and Phillips came from big families and would like to have more children, they said it would be impossible on top of their other living expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, they are doing whatever they can to continue living in the city. It’s not affordable, Fierro said, and it often feels like an unfair burden to shoulder so their daughter can have access to a supportive neighborhood and a big city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a price that we shouldn’t have to pay, but we are making work because we want this desperately for her,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Fewer Bay Area residents are choosing to have kids. For the ones who do, many have to choose between location, price and size to make it affordable.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauren Fierro and her husband spent years contemplating whether to have children. There were lots of uncertainties, but the biggest was whether they could afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Fierro discovered she was pregnant, her husband thought it was time to buy a home, but she wasn’t so sure. They started weighing their options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staying in Oakland meant taking on a mortgage they could barely afford. Leaving meant giving up the walkable neighborhoods, proximity to restaurants and other amenities she’d grown to appreciate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lived walking distance to the farmers market, so it’s incredibly convenient, and we didn’t really want to give that up,” Fierro said, adding that to leave their apartment, ”It had to be for the perfect location, perfect house.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Bay Area families have faced the same question: leave in search of affordability or stay and absorb the cost of living in one of the nation’s most expensive regions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/\">public school enrollment data\u003c/a> shows many families have moved inland, fueling growth in certain districts within more affordable counties like Sacramento, Placer and Fresno. Meanwhile, many Bay Area districts are shrinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Median Home Price in the Bay Area and Central Valley\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-oDGOJ\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/oDGOJ/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"600\" height=\"463\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And families are still trying to make the Bay Area work — often by sacrificing space, walkability, commute times or financial flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elk Grove realtor Charles Velasco has seen that tension play out in real time. During the pandemic, when work-from-home policies allowed desk employees to untether from their offices, he noticed a spike in Bay Area families looking for more affordable, family-friendly housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data bears that out, with Elk Grove seeing a 2.4% spike in enrollment since 2020, and it was the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/declining-school-enrollment-california/756174\">fastest-growing school district in the state\u003c/a> last year. The county’s median home price — $550,000, or more than $1 million less than San Francisco’s — was an obvious draw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"School Enrollment in the Bay Area and Central Valley\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-xcC48\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xcC48/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"600\" height=\"447\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people were realizing they’re paying $3,000 to $6,000 a month in rent in the Bay Area,” he said. “With a low interest rate, they could buy out in Elk Grove.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as mortgage rates have risen and employers have implemented stricter in-office requirements, Velasco said he has seen fewer families looking to leave the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For families considering staying in the region, that leaves a familiar question: What are they willing to compromise to continue living here?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kiara and Gabriel Medina\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Homeowners, bought in 2025\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 35%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: Martinez\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Commute\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kiara Medina and her husband always wanted to be homeowners. Last year, they started looking. At the time, they were living with her husband’s family in Brentwood, but they were eager to live on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/home-values/403105/bay-area-ca/\">Zillow\u003c/a>, the median sale price for a single-family home in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area is a little more than $1 million. Medina and her husband knew they didn’t want to spend more than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079730 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01248_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kiara Medina waters her front yard at her home in Martinez on April 9, 2026. The couple, Kiara and Gabriel Medina, bought their single-family Martinez home to start their own family. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 28-year-old grew up in the East Bay and still has family in Brentwood, so she and her husband wanted to find something nearby. The couple saw a listing in Martinez for an older home with warped floors and termite damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it was within their budget and the perfect size to start a family, so they decided to buy. The neighborhood was near restaurants, shops and a historic downtown district. What’s more, it was filled with young families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There [were] just so many young families, young moms pushing strollers, young dads carrying their kids,” she said. “If you go to the farmers market, there’s a huge spectrum of ages, but a ton of young people with young kids, which was very encouraging and promising.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079729\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079729\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS01213_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabriel Medina brushes out spider webs in his front yard at his home in Martinez on April 9, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, the quaint city on the shore of the Carquinez Strait became a popular destination for eager homebuyers looking for an affordable option. Average home prices surged from about $584,000 in 2017 to $874,000 in June 2022, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/home-values/12592/martinez-ca/\">Zillow\u003c/a>. Average home prices have since dropped to $761,000 as more people return to the office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medina and her husband hope to have children soon. When they do, she’s grateful they live only a 30-minute drive from her family. But Medina now faces a three-hour round-trip commute three days a week to San Francisco. It’s worth it, she said, for the opportunity to own a home and gain equity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are like, why the heck do you live in Martinez? That commute must be atrocious. And I do it with a smile on my face because I willingly chose not to rent in San Francisco or in Oakland or in Berkeley,” she said. “We chose to buy because that’s what we wanted our future to look like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Aparna and Andy Simmons\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Homeowners, bought in 2024\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 23%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: East Oakland\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Walkability \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aparna and Andy Simmons were ready to buy a home in 2024, after spending four years renting an apartment in San Francisco’s Cole Valley neighborhood. They had gotten married the year before and wanted to have children soon. Buying a home seemed like the next logical step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had hoped to find one in the city, but with a budget of under $1 million, they were quickly priced out of their preferred areas. As they looked, they would send listings to their other recently married friends, hoping they could all find homes nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081897\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-affordibiltyyoungparents00338_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andy Simmons (right) watches his wife Aparna Simmons (left) hold their son Kiran Cole (center) in their home in Oakland on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We all got married at the same time, within a few months of each other, and wanted to have kids around the same time,” she said, “just having that community and having our kids grow up with friends — like built-in friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the timing didn’t work out. Some friends weren’t quite ready to commit to buying a home. So they decided to look on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They found a home in Redwood Heights, a small neighborhood in the hills of East Oakland. The home had everything they wanted for their family: a backyard for a future pet, a pool and great views of San Francisco. Most importantly, it had space for their son, Kiran, who was born in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079723\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079723\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00287_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andy Simmons (left) holds his son Kiran Cole’s (right) foot in their home in Oakland on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the neighborhood isn’t as conveniently located as Simmons would like it to be. When they first moved there almost two years ago, she wasn’t worried about their ability to continue seeing their friends, who live all over the Bay Area. Both of them work from home and have no trouble driving to activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Aparna Simmons said she is reevaluating her priorities. Some features of the home, like the pool, aren’t as important as living in a neighborhood where they can walk to restaurants, parks, farmers’ markets, yoga classes and other activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I realize that is something we really want in our next place,” she said. “There’s things here that we’re like, ‘OK, this isn’t as important actually,’ and we prefer having it be walkable instead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Logan and Heidi Truman\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Renters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 11%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Space\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some might say the Truman family has an unconventional living situation. Logan and Heidi Truman, and their two sons, aged 11 and 13, cram into a studio apartment in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heidi Truman found the rent-controlled studio near Golden Gate Park when she started a year-long residency program there at UC San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then that year turned into a full-time position,” Logan Truman said. “And so she stayed, and then I moved in. It just was easier to stay and make it work than to try and figure something else out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081782\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heidi Truman (left) and husband Logan talk in their kitchen in the studio apartment they share with their sons in San Francisco on March 26, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When they had children, they managed within the tight space. Logan Truman converted a walk-in closet into a room for the boys, with a closet on one end and a bunk bed on the other. He built a fold-up wall bed in their living room, which becomes their bedroom at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have considered moving elsewhere, to a home with more space, but the best solution always seems to be to stay put. Because their apartment is rent-controlled, yearly increases are incremental, and they’re protected from big price jumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can afford it,” he said. “So, we take the money that we earn above that, and we’re aggressively saving and maybe someday we can retire and own our own place, but not yet. We stay where we’re at, we keep working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logan Truman said sacrificing space has taught his family how to live modestly and value experiences over material objects. Rather than buy books, they borrow from the library. If they want to go camping or skiing, they rent their equipment. They’re judicious about the appliances they keep in their kitchen: an Instant Pot, a toaster and a kettle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081787\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081787 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260326-AffordabilitySeriesIntroTrumanFamily-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Logan and Heidi Truman and their son, Baron, 11, stand in the walk-in closet converted to a bedroom at their studio apartment in San Francisco on March 26, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Owning fewer items helps them save money, and it benefits the environment, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They spend some of the money they save on family vacations. They recently took a seven-day cruise to Alaska with both sets of grandparents. Before that, they spent two weeks in Britain. Eventually, they’d like to travel to Scandinavia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logan Truman said their living situation has made his children more grounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve told them that there’s no room for animosity in the house — it just doesn’t fit,” he said. “So we have to get along. You can’t get away from anybody. You have to be respectful, you have to be courteous, you have to be kind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kate Knuttel and Matt Quisenberry\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Renters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: almost 50%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: American Canyon\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Affordability\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kate Knuttel and her partner, Matt Quisenberry, wanted to move to American Canyon, even if it meant living paycheck-to-paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until two years ago, they and their four children crowded into a two-bedroom, one bathroom rental in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were three kids in one room and then us and the baby in the other room,” she said. “We were all very close. Luckily, there wasn’t too much fighting over the bathroom at that point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079726\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079726\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00015_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kate Knuttel (left) talks to her daughter Chloe (right), 6, about dinner time in their home in American Canyon on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her kids had some friends who lived nearby, but Knuttel didn’t feel safe letting them play in the street unsupervised. She and her partner yearned to find a place near other young families where her kids could thrive. And, they were starting to feel the pinch of living in a small space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, before her youngest daughter was born, she and her partner, Matt Quisenberry, looked into buying a home in American Canyon, where he grew up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they looked into how much their monthly mortgage payments would be, it was more expensive than their rent. So, they scrapped their plans for homeownership and opted to rent there instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079727\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079727\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00034_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Knuttel-Quisenberry home is decorated their children’s photos and art in American Canyon on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They found a single-family home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms — a perfect set-up for their teenage children, who wanted more space for themselves. The kids enrolled in American Canyon schools and found others to play with in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so fortuitous to get to this spot,” she said. “We’re so close to everything because it’s a small town. The kids have friends, they can run around in the street. It’s really great, and it feels amazing to have this and it’s not ours forever, but yeah, it feels good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their living situation is not without its challenges. Because American Canyon is so suburban, Knuttel said there aren’t many things to do in the area. Their rent is also more expensive than what they were paying in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079728\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079728\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260331-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00443_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Quisenberry (right) helps his kids Landon (left) and Chloe (center) examine a small insect found in strawberries in American Canyon on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Quisenberry and Knuttel make just enough for the family to get by, but not enough to save.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past two years, Knuttel and Quisenberry said they have spent more than they make. So, they’ve become proficient at managing debt. They use 0% credit cards to give them more time to pay off expenses. But they feel certain this period will pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once [our youngest daughter is] in public school, we will be out of that decline,” Quisenberry said. “We’re just waiting it out. We’re continuing to acquire debt, but we’re managing it more intelligently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lauren Fierro and Jimmy Phillips\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Homeowners or Renters: Homeowners, bought in 2025\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Percentage of Income Spent on Housing: 26.2%\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Location: East Oakland\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We Sacrificed to Make It Work: Affordability\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079719\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260325-AFFORDIBILTYYOUNGPARENTS00105_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Lauren Fierro (left) and Jimmy Phillips (right) on a shelf with baby shoes in their home in Oakland on March 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In September, Fierro and Phillips found what they were looking for: a storybook-style home in East Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fierro admires its charm and quirky character, but it’s the neighborhood that captured her heart. On the first Friday of every month, neighbors host block parties and regularly check in on Fierro and her baby, Audrey, who was born in January, sharing clothes and toys their children have since outgrown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their neighborhood gave her family the best of both worlds: The safety and security of living near other young families and proximity to downtown Oakland. But that convenience came at a cost.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Their mortgage is more expensive than what they were paying in rent. Their utility bill is higher, too. Their 100-year-old home lacks insulation, which became a problem when a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000299/a-delight-mare-bay-area-sizzles-march-heat-wave-could-shatter-records\">recent heat wave\u003c/a> disrupted the region’s normally temperate climate. They bought a portable air conditioner for Audrey’s room so the baby didn’t overheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We try to be really mindful about the amount of power and gas that we use, and we also just try to be mindful about really living within our means,” Fierro said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their family doesn’t eat out or go on trips as often as they did before moving into the house. Though Fierro and Phillips came from big families and would like to have more children, they said it would be impossible on top of their other living expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, they are doing whatever they can to continue living in the city. It’s not affordable, Fierro said, and it often feels like an unfair burden to shoulder so their daughter can have access to a supportive neighborhood and a big city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a price that we shouldn’t have to pay, but we are making work because we want this desperately for her,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-bill-ending-tax-break-for-corporate-landlords-fails-to-advance",
"title": "California Bill Ending Tax Break for Corporate Landlords Fails to Advance",
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"headTitle": "California Bill Ending Tax Break for Corporate Landlords Fails to Advance | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A bill that would have ended tax breaks for owners of 50 or more single-family homes has stalled in the state legislature, despite an earlier promise from the governor to curb corporate overreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to explain how a bill like this doesn’t move forward,” said Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, who introduced the bill. “Cracking down on corporations buying up homes and gaming the tax code is not a fringe idea; it’s overwhelmingly popular and deeply bipartisan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, if an individual or company sells a home and then buys another soon after, they can defer paying taxes on the profits from that sale. AB 1611 would have eliminated that benefit for owners of 50 or more single-family homes — whether they own the homes directly or indirectly. The Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee voted to hold the bill on Monday, essentially killing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a unique moment of alignment, both President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom in recent months have expressed support for reining in corporate purchases of single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/stopping-wall-street-from-competing-with-main-street-homebuyers/\">signed an executive order\u003c/a> directing agencies to promote home sales to individual owner-occupants and the Treasury Secretary to review rules related to large investors acquiring single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, that same week in his State of the State speech, criticized institutional investors “snatching up homes by the hundreds and thousands at a time, crushing the dream of home ownership, and forcing rents too damn high for everyone else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069110\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom, above right, speaks during his State of the State address on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Over the next few weeks, we will work with the Legislature to combat this monopolistic behavior, strengthen accountability, and level the playing field for working families,” Newsom said. “That means more oversight and enforcement and potentially changing the state tax code to make this work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office declined to comment on the bill’s failure, saying the office doesn’t typically comment on pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The governor called on the Legislature to act in his State of the State. This bill was us doing exactly that,” Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A coalition of business and real estate associations led by the California Apartment Association had opposed it. Debra Carlton, a lobbyist and spokesperson for the association, said her organization shares “the goal of improving housing affordability” with the author, but warned about the bill’s “unintended consequences.”[aside postID=news_12069094 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP.jpg']“AB 1611 would have impacted not just investment activity in housing, but also public pension systems and millions of Californians who rely on them,” she said. “Preserving stable, long-term investment in housing is essential to both affordability and economic security.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28081280-ab-1611/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a March 25 letter\u003c/a>, the coalition — which includes the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Business Properties Association, the California Mortgage Bankers Association and the California Building Industry Association — wrote that many public pension systems, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, pool their retirement savings in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Eliminating the tax benefit would remove “a tool that these retirement systems use to provide safe returns for individuals and families,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview on Monday before AB 1611 was held in committee, Carlton told KQED that Haney’s bill would do nothing to promote affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And if Mr. Haney claims that it’s going to help our budget, this is budget dust,” she said. “This is nothing. It’s really going to, I think, harm the shareholders overall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the National Rental Home Council, a lobbying group for large landlords of single-family homes, said before the bill stalled that it would have chilled housing investment at a time when the state urgently needs more options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Single-family rentals provide hardworking Americans with access to quality homes in good neighborhoods. We look forward to working with lawmakers to advance proposals that increase housing investment, promote responsible development, and support pathways to homeownership,” the spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001627\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001627\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Single-family homes in Alameda on Jan. 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-Milpitas, last year introduced a separate bill, AB 1240, which would ban investors who own more than 1,000 single-family homes from purchasing additional properties and turning them into rentals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill narrowly cleared the Assembly and is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>I think there is way too much protection of the Wall Street landlord class,” Lee said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “This is an issue that has incredible bipartisan support of all Americans and of regular Americans and Californians alike who do not want to see Wall Street and private equity move in and swoop in and take over the housing market in that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Referring to AB 1611, Lee said, “I think it’s an incredible travesty, and it’s a big disappointment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Despite an earlier promise from Gov. Gavin Newsom to curb corporate overreach, a bill to eliminate a tax break for owners of 50 or more single-family homes failed to advance out of a key committee this week.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A bill that would have ended tax breaks for owners of 50 or more single-family homes has stalled in the state legislature, despite an earlier promise from the governor to curb corporate overreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to explain how a bill like this doesn’t move forward,” said Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, who introduced the bill. “Cracking down on corporations buying up homes and gaming the tax code is not a fringe idea; it’s overwhelmingly popular and deeply bipartisan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, if an individual or company sells a home and then buys another soon after, they can defer paying taxes on the profits from that sale. AB 1611 would have eliminated that benefit for owners of 50 or more single-family homes — whether they own the homes directly or indirectly. The Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee voted to hold the bill on Monday, essentially killing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a unique moment of alignment, both President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom in recent months have expressed support for reining in corporate purchases of single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/stopping-wall-street-from-competing-with-main-street-homebuyers/\">signed an executive order\u003c/a> directing agencies to promote home sales to individual owner-occupants and the Treasury Secretary to review rules related to large investors acquiring single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, that same week in his State of the State speech, criticized institutional investors “snatching up homes by the hundreds and thousands at a time, crushing the dream of home ownership, and forcing rents too damn high for everyone else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069110\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom, above right, speaks during his State of the State address on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Over the next few weeks, we will work with the Legislature to combat this monopolistic behavior, strengthen accountability, and level the playing field for working families,” Newsom said. “That means more oversight and enforcement and potentially changing the state tax code to make this work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office declined to comment on the bill’s failure, saying the office doesn’t typically comment on pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The governor called on the Legislature to act in his State of the State. This bill was us doing exactly that,” Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A coalition of business and real estate associations led by the California Apartment Association had opposed it. Debra Carlton, a lobbyist and spokesperson for the association, said her organization shares “the goal of improving housing affordability” with the author, but warned about the bill’s “unintended consequences.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“AB 1611 would have impacted not just investment activity in housing, but also public pension systems and millions of Californians who rely on them,” she said. “Preserving stable, long-term investment in housing is essential to both affordability and economic security.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28081280-ab-1611/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a March 25 letter\u003c/a>, the coalition — which includes the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Business Properties Association, the California Mortgage Bankers Association and the California Building Industry Association — wrote that many public pension systems, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, pool their retirement savings in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Eliminating the tax benefit would remove “a tool that these retirement systems use to provide safe returns for individuals and families,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview on Monday before AB 1611 was held in committee, Carlton told KQED that Haney’s bill would do nothing to promote affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And if Mr. Haney claims that it’s going to help our budget, this is budget dust,” she said. “This is nothing. It’s really going to, I think, harm the shareholders overall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the National Rental Home Council, a lobbying group for large landlords of single-family homes, said before the bill stalled that it would have chilled housing investment at a time when the state urgently needs more options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Single-family rentals provide hardworking Americans with access to quality homes in good neighborhoods. We look forward to working with lawmakers to advance proposals that increase housing investment, promote responsible development, and support pathways to homeownership,” the spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001627\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001627\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/006_KQED_AlamedaAffordableHousing_01122023_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Single-family homes in Alameda on Jan. 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-Milpitas, last year introduced a separate bill, AB 1240, which would ban investors who own more than 1,000 single-family homes from purchasing additional properties and turning them into rentals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill narrowly cleared the Assembly and is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>I think there is way too much protection of the Wall Street landlord class,” Lee said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “This is an issue that has incredible bipartisan support of all Americans and of regular Americans and Californians alike who do not want to see Wall Street and private equity move in and swoop in and take over the housing market in that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Referring to AB 1611, Lee said, “I think it’s an incredible travesty, and it’s a big disappointment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Oakland Laborers Allege Over $300,000 in Wage Theft at Public Housing Redevelopment",
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"content": "\u003cp>In East Oakland, several construction workers allege that they are owed more than $300,000 in total wages for their roofing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/labor\">labor\u003c/a> on a large, publicly funded affordable housing development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Partially funded by the Oakland Housing Authority, the renovation project took place last year at Lion Creek Crossings, which has hundreds of affordable housing units near the Coliseum BART station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 21 workers said that they were underpaid for weeks, and in some cases months, by Milestone Roofing, a subcontractor of Alameda-based Saarman Construction Ltd. Since last October, more than 10 of those laborers have filed complaints with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office to try to recover pay, according to a legal aid group assisting them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference on Monday, organized by the nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, some of the workers said they struggled to support their families and were forced to deplete their savings while receiving partial or no paychecks from Milestone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was extremely difficult when rent came due — especially when it came to paying for gas just to get to work,” said Jesus Martinez, 32, in Spanish. “At the same time, it was incredibly frustrating not having an income — particularly because I was dependent on this job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez, the father of a 9-year-old girl, estimates his due wages at $18,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081538\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His father, 54-year-old Eusebio Martinez, a foreman in the project, said he himself lost sleep and saw his diabetes worsen because of the alleged wage theft. Despite fielding questions from other roofers who were not receiving their full paychecks, Martinez said he got no clear answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stress made me sick…. I had such severe anxiety that the doctor prescribed medication for it,” said the elder Martinez, who has worked as a roofer for 25 years. “Wage theft is unfair; it is undignified. I felt frustrated. I had no money to bring home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of Monday’s announcement, more than a dozen workers and supporters marched to Saarman’s offices to deliver a follow-up letter demanding they be properly paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, a Milestone Roofing representative said the Tracy-based company is investigating the accuracy of the workers’ allegations.[aside postID=news_12046137 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250626-OAKLAND-DAY-LABORERS-MD-06-KQED.jpg']“Negotiations with Saarman Construction, the contracting party, are ongoing,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company is “not in a position to offer further comment” until those matters are settled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>General contractor Saarman Construction said the workers alleging underpayment were hired by its subcontractor Milestone Roofing, not Saarman. The construction firm, founded more than 40 years ago, said that it’s also reviewing the allegations against Milestone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take wage compliance on all our projects seriously and expect all our subcontractors to do the same,” the company said. “We are working to verify the facts and are engaging with counsel for the workers to address their claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson with the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws, confirmed it has received complaints involving Saarman Construction and Milestone Roofing, but declined to comment further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roofers worked in two phases of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.relatedcalifornia.com/our-company/properties/lion-creek-crossings\">Lion Creek Crossings\u003c/a> project, involving 261 affordable housing units at the site of an older public housing complex called Coliseum Gardens. The transit-oriented development now features a large public park and community center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexx Campbell, a senior staff attorney with Legal Aid at Work who represents some of the roofers claiming unpaid wages, said the city referred their query to the project’s private developer, Related California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campbell said that Related California seems to have deflected any responsibility to Saarman, which oversaw the project, and its subcontractor Milestone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He added that the workers, undertaking difficult and often dangerous roofing tasks, were entitled to a prevailing wage of $74.78 per hour that they failed to receive. Employers in public works projects are required to pay \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/public-works/prevailing-wage.html\">prevailing wage\u003c/a> rates set by state regulators, which are higher than the minimum wage for all other workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campbell pointed to the publicly funded nature of the project, saying that “it used taxpayer money, and when that happens, it’s even more important that the employers who hire workers to work on that kind of project follow the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland Housing Authority said in a statement that projects like Lion Creek Crossings provide meaningful job opportunities for Oakland workers and hundreds of affordable homes, adding that its development partners hire construction firms that operate separately from the housing authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) takes concerns about wage compliance seriously and expects all contractors and subcontractors working on developments that receive public funding to follow all applicable labor laws,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081534\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081534\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Saarman and Milestone have been involved in previous worker complaints, including other public works projects, Campbell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, Saarman Construction agreed to pay a $150,000 settlement to resolve a 2018 lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by three workers who alleged that the company failed to pay them and others both prevailing and overtime wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would think that the city of Oakland, the Oakland Housing Authority, would want to see workers on a project like this, on a public housing project, be paid properly,” Campbell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In East Oakland, several construction workers allege that they are owed more than $300,000 in total wages for their roofing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/labor\">labor\u003c/a> on a large, publicly funded affordable housing development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Partially funded by the Oakland Housing Authority, the renovation project took place last year at Lion Creek Crossings, which has hundreds of affordable housing units near the Coliseum BART station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 21 workers said that they were underpaid for weeks, and in some cases months, by Milestone Roofing, a subcontractor of Alameda-based Saarman Construction Ltd. Since last October, more than 10 of those laborers have filed complaints with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office to try to recover pay, according to a legal aid group assisting them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference on Monday, organized by the nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, some of the workers said they struggled to support their families and were forced to deplete their savings while receiving partial or no paychecks from Milestone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was extremely difficult when rent came due — especially when it came to paying for gas just to get to work,” said Jesus Martinez, 32, in Spanish. “At the same time, it was incredibly frustrating not having an income — particularly because I was dependent on this job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez, the father of a 9-year-old girl, estimates his due wages at $18,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081538\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His father, 54-year-old Eusebio Martinez, a foreman in the project, said he himself lost sleep and saw his diabetes worsen because of the alleged wage theft. Despite fielding questions from other roofers who were not receiving their full paychecks, Martinez said he got no clear answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stress made me sick…. I had such severe anxiety that the doctor prescribed medication for it,” said the elder Martinez, who has worked as a roofer for 25 years. “Wage theft is unfair; it is undignified. I felt frustrated. I had no money to bring home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of Monday’s announcement, more than a dozen workers and supporters marched to Saarman’s offices to deliver a follow-up letter demanding they be properly paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, a Milestone Roofing representative said the Tracy-based company is investigating the accuracy of the workers’ allegations.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Negotiations with Saarman Construction, the contracting party, are ongoing,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company is “not in a position to offer further comment” until those matters are settled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>General contractor Saarman Construction said the workers alleging underpayment were hired by its subcontractor Milestone Roofing, not Saarman. The construction firm, founded more than 40 years ago, said that it’s also reviewing the allegations against Milestone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take wage compliance on all our projects seriously and expect all our subcontractors to do the same,” the company said. “We are working to verify the facts and are engaging with counsel for the workers to address their claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson with the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws, confirmed it has received complaints involving Saarman Construction and Milestone Roofing, but declined to comment further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roofers worked in two phases of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.relatedcalifornia.com/our-company/properties/lion-creek-crossings\">Lion Creek Crossings\u003c/a> project, involving 261 affordable housing units at the site of an older public housing complex called Coliseum Gardens. The transit-oriented development now features a large public park and community center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexx Campbell, a senior staff attorney with Legal Aid at Work who represents some of the roofers claiming unpaid wages, said the city referred their query to the project’s private developer, Related California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campbell said that Related California seems to have deflected any responsibility to Saarman, which oversaw the project, and its subcontractor Milestone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He added that the workers, undertaking difficult and often dangerous roofing tasks, were entitled to a prevailing wage of $74.78 per hour that they failed to receive. Employers in public works projects are required to pay \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/public-works/prevailing-wage.html\">prevailing wage\u003c/a> rates set by state regulators, which are higher than the minimum wage for all other workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campbell pointed to the publicly funded nature of the project, saying that “it used taxpayer money, and when that happens, it’s even more important that the employers who hire workers to work on that kind of project follow the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland Housing Authority said in a statement that projects like Lion Creek Crossings provide meaningful job opportunities for Oakland workers and hundreds of affordable homes, adding that its development partners hire construction firms that operate separately from the housing authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) takes concerns about wage compliance seriously and expects all contractors and subcontractors working on developments that receive public funding to follow all applicable labor laws,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081534\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081534\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Saarman and Milestone have been involved in previous worker complaints, including other public works projects, Campbell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, Saarman Construction agreed to pay a $150,000 settlement to resolve a 2018 lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by three workers who alleged that the company failed to pay them and others both prevailing and overtime wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would think that the city of Oakland, the Oakland Housing Authority, would want to see workers on a project like this, on a public housing project, be paid properly,” Campbell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "With Cost of Living Rising, Cuts to Affordability Programs Put San Francisco on Edge",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mohamed Hadjab has worked as a security guard in downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> for nearly seven years. But as the cost of living has gone up, remaining in the city where he works has gotten harder and harder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During difficult times, he’s turned to organizations like La Raza Community Center for support covering basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When my wife had surgery, I couldn’t work full time,” he told KQED after speaking at a hearing on affordability in San Francisco at the Budget and Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. “They helped support me with a few months of rent, utilities and diapers for my three kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many organizations like the one Hadjab turned to are facing cuts to essential programs as the city stares down a \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/March_Update_FY_26-27_through_FY_29-30_FINAL.pdf\">$643 million budget deficit\u003c/a> over the next two years. Mayor Daniel Lurie has directed departments to cut $400 million, including $100 million in personnel expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has already issued 127 pink slip notices to workers across more than a dozen departments, and up to 500 total layoffs are expected over the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081019\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081019\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisors Danny Sauter (left) and Alan Wong (right) attend a meeting in the legislative chamber where city budgets are being discussed at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As part of the spending reductions, the city is looking to slash \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15407759&GUID=6538ABB9-D75F-4651-BBE0-B501E1C9108B\">$8.5 million\u003c/a> from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development budget, which funds community-based programs and also supports residents with homebuying opportunities, rental programs and other affordable housing funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials in the office say they have around $104 million across 12 grant funding portfolios for the upcoming fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who led the affordability hearing, is pushing back against the proposed cuts to the city’s community-based programs.[aside postID=news_12080289 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-SLEEP-PODS-MD-01-KQED_1.jpg']“I have seen firsthand how these organizations worked to stabilize working families in my district,” Chen said. “Without them, I fear that we will see increased homelessness, job loss.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofit workers and service providers are also fighting the proposed cuts, which they said will only make the increasingly expensive city less affordable to low- and middle-income families, who help run many of the city’s essential services, by cutting off safety nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders at La Raza said they are facing over $660,000 in proposed cuts to programs like their Family Resource Center, which provides basic needs for low-income and many immigrant families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco has increasingly become one of the most expensive cities to live in … I’ve witnessed my community, the Latino, low-income and hard-working community, continue to be pushed out and displaced from this city,” said Ethena Caldas, chief of staff at La Raza, at Wednesday’s hearing. “We help sustain these families with food, diapers, financial assistance, housing stabilization and enrollment in services that will sustain them in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget is still up for negotiation, and Lurie has until June 1 to submit his proposal to the full Board of Supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor has acknowledged that the proposed cuts will be difficult. But he has repeatedly said that reductions will be necessary to balance the budget, especially in light of state and federal funding cuts that have impacted the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081022 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosemary Gardner, of the SF LGBT Center, speaks at a press conference hosted by SF People’s Budget Coalition, where community organizations speak out against major budget cuts to organizations that support low-income families at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The city has to stop spending more money than we have. Temporary fixes may buy time, but tackling the structural deficit is the best thing we can do to set up our city for a broad-based, durable recovery,” Lurie said at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting. “Federal and state cuts to health care and safety net funding have set us back, and our deficit will reach one billion dollars in the coming years if we do not act further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Affordability has increasingly become a buzzword for Democrats looking to connect with their base leading up to the midterm elections this November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our office has been continuing to advocate to push forward family affordability, affordability across San Francisco for all of our residents,” said Dan Adams, director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. “It’s a difficult conversation to talk about diminishing budgets, but I want to emphasize our ongoing commitment to affordability and advancing that as a goal for the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Average rents in San Francisco, currently around \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-francisco-ca/?bedrooms=1\">$3,600 for a one-bedroom\u003c/a>, are among the fastest-growing in the country amid a boom in artificial intelligence companies, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Status_of_the_San_Francisco_Economy_January_2026.pdf\">San Francisco Office of the Controller\u003c/a>. Housing prices are also increasing faster than the state average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081023\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081023 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronika McClain speaks at a press conference hosted by SF People’s Budget Coalition, where community organizations speak out against major budget cuts to organizations that support low-income families at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the federal government has slashed funding for basic needs services like CalFresh and MediCal, which help thousands of San Franciscans make ends meet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last December, Lurie successfully passed one of his key legislative efforts, the Family Zoning Plan, which allows the city to build taller and more dense buildings, particularly in residential neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the plan clears the way for developers to finally build the thousands of units that the city needs in order to remain in good standing with state mandates, while increasing housing supply to drive down the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say that the plan encourages market-rate development over affordable or public housing, risking repeating histories of displacement and gentrification that have happened during the city’s past development booms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081020\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisor Shamann Walton (center), representative of district 10, speaks at a meeting in the legislative chamber where city budgets are being discussed at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The family zoning plans also encourage developers to build small units, and the requirements for larger units are insufficient,” Jeantelle Laberinto of the Racial Equity in All Planning Coalition advocacy group said at the Wednesday hearing. “Despite being touted as a main solution to the housing needs of families, the recently passed family zoning plan under our current housing element is not going to deliver the affordable housing our families need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chen said she’s still seeking answers about the city’s longer-term strategy for its lowest-income residents who will lose access to services that keep the city affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is especially important that we are considering any significant impact to the social safety net and the most vulnerable population that it serves,” she said. “The budget that we all agree to, it is a statement of our San Francisco values.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many organizations like the one Hadjab turned to are facing cuts to essential programs as the city stares down a \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/March_Update_FY_26-27_through_FY_29-30_FINAL.pdf\">$643 million budget deficit\u003c/a> over the next two years. Mayor Daniel Lurie has directed departments to cut $400 million, including $100 million in personnel expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has already issued 127 pink slip notices to workers across more than a dozen departments, and up to 500 total layoffs are expected over the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081019\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081019\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00033_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisors Danny Sauter (left) and Alan Wong (right) attend a meeting in the legislative chamber where city budgets are being discussed at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As part of the spending reductions, the city is looking to slash \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15407759&GUID=6538ABB9-D75F-4651-BBE0-B501E1C9108B\">$8.5 million\u003c/a> from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development budget, which funds community-based programs and also supports residents with homebuying opportunities, rental programs and other affordable housing funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials in the office say they have around $104 million across 12 grant funding portfolios for the upcoming fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who led the affordability hearing, is pushing back against the proposed cuts to the city’s community-based programs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I have seen firsthand how these organizations worked to stabilize working families in my district,” Chen said. “Without them, I fear that we will see increased homelessness, job loss.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofit workers and service providers are also fighting the proposed cuts, which they said will only make the increasingly expensive city less affordable to low- and middle-income families, who help run many of the city’s essential services, by cutting off safety nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders at La Raza said they are facing over $660,000 in proposed cuts to programs like their Family Resource Center, which provides basic needs for low-income and many immigrant families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco has increasingly become one of the most expensive cities to live in … I’ve witnessed my community, the Latino, low-income and hard-working community, continue to be pushed out and displaced from this city,” said Ethena Caldas, chief of staff at La Raza, at Wednesday’s hearing. “We help sustain these families with food, diapers, financial assistance, housing stabilization and enrollment in services that will sustain them in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget is still up for negotiation, and Lurie has until June 1 to submit his proposal to the full Board of Supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor has acknowledged that the proposed cuts will be difficult. But he has repeatedly said that reductions will be necessary to balance the budget, especially in light of state and federal funding cuts that have impacted the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081022 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00663_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosemary Gardner, of the SF LGBT Center, speaks at a press conference hosted by SF People’s Budget Coalition, where community organizations speak out against major budget cuts to organizations that support low-income families at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The city has to stop spending more money than we have. Temporary fixes may buy time, but tackling the structural deficit is the best thing we can do to set up our city for a broad-based, durable recovery,” Lurie said at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting. “Federal and state cuts to health care and safety net funding have set us back, and our deficit will reach one billion dollars in the coming years if we do not act further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Affordability has increasingly become a buzzword for Democrats looking to connect with their base leading up to the midterm elections this November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our office has been continuing to advocate to push forward family affordability, affordability across San Francisco for all of our residents,” said Dan Adams, director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. “It’s a difficult conversation to talk about diminishing budgets, but I want to emphasize our ongoing commitment to affordability and advancing that as a goal for the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Average rents in San Francisco, currently around \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-francisco-ca/?bedrooms=1\">$3,600 for a one-bedroom\u003c/a>, are among the fastest-growing in the country amid a boom in artificial intelligence companies, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Status_of_the_San_Francisco_Economy_January_2026.pdf\">San Francisco Office of the Controller\u003c/a>. Housing prices are also increasing faster than the state average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081023\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081023 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00771_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronika McClain speaks at a press conference hosted by SF People’s Budget Coalition, where community organizations speak out against major budget cuts to organizations that support low-income families at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the federal government has slashed funding for basic needs services like CalFresh and MediCal, which help thousands of San Franciscans make ends meet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last December, Lurie successfully passed one of his key legislative efforts, the Family Zoning Plan, which allows the city to build taller and more dense buildings, particularly in residential neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the plan clears the way for developers to finally build the thousands of units that the city needs in order to remain in good standing with state mandates, while increasing housing supply to drive down the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say that the plan encourages market-rate development over affordable or public housing, risking repeating histories of displacement and gentrification that have happened during the city’s past development booms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081020\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260422-SFAFFORDABILITYHEARING00092_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisor Shamann Walton (center), representative of district 10, speaks at a meeting in the legislative chamber where city budgets are being discussed at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The family zoning plans also encourage developers to build small units, and the requirements for larger units are insufficient,” Jeantelle Laberinto of the Racial Equity in All Planning Coalition advocacy group said at the Wednesday hearing. “Despite being touted as a main solution to the housing needs of families, the recently passed family zoning plan under our current housing element is not going to deliver the affordable housing our families need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chen said she’s still seeking answers about the city’s longer-term strategy for its lowest-income residents who will lose access to services that keep the city affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is especially important that we are considering any significant impact to the social safety net and the most vulnerable population that it serves,” she said. “The budget that we all agree to, it is a statement of our San Francisco values.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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