Latinos in California face significant disparities in income, home ownership and education compared to their counterparts in other states with large Latino populations, such as Texas and Florida.
Our state’s housing crisis is a big part of that crisis, and one of the causes of that crisis is the perversion of a well-intentioned 1970 law, the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. It has become the most powerful legal tactic for stifling housing development, contributing to high costs and limited access. Even when a development project can clear legal hurdles, the homes ultimately approved are unaffordable for working families because a complex set of environmental regulatory obligations and fees adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of each new home or apartment.
It’s an obstacle to upward mobility for all Californians, especially young people — which in this state means mostly Latinos, who make up 40 percent of the population and more than half of residents under 18. the dream is coming back within the reach of young Californians.
The value of homeownership is profound, as it provides both housing and the long-term stability of being part of a neighborhood and school community, not to mention generational wealth and a nest egg. However, California is a tough place to make that dream come true. In 2022, only 46% of Latino households owned their homes, compared to 51% nationally. The rates were 59% in Texas, 55% in Florida and more than 70% in New Mexico.
With Median home prices in California topped $900,000 in AprilCalifornia’s housing policy choices have made homeownership a distant dream for most young residents and for most hard-working Latino families, many of whom do not inherit the wealth of home equity from their parents and who are not on track to pass on their home equity. to their children.
CEQA, intended as a progressive environmental policy, now clearly undermines the economic potential of California’s Latino population. This process began in the 1970s, when a predominantly white, upper-class environmental movement emerged as a dominant political force. CEQA was enacted to minimize environmental damage caused by public works projects such as infrastructure, but a 1972 court ruling expanded it to cover housing construction. After thousands of subsequent CEQA lawsuits, this now applies even to home improvement.
This law has strayed from its objective and must be curbed. Virtually anyone – even those who have no vested interest in the project or environment – can file a lawsuit to block housing for any reason. Applications can be submitted anonymously. Sometimes one real estate company even sues to block another’s project for competitive reasons.
State government’s Little Hoover Commission urged the legislature to exempt all filling CEQA housing, which would allow more housing to be built on underutilized land in areas that already have many homes. The commission also called for an end to anonymous CEQA lawsuits, a ban on lawsuits filed for non-environmental reasons, and clarification and acceleration of the CEQA process.
Although the California Legislature has enacted nearly 200 laws since 2017 aimed at increasing housing supply and reducing costs and bureaucratic delays, lawmakers have not curbed abuse of CEQA. They also never authorized most of CEQA’s judicial mission diversions. In its current interpretation, the law has become biased against alterations to private views, against temporary daytime construction noise, and against common urban species such as seagulls and blackbirds. Housing policies designed to overcome these barriers to CEQA, such as prioritizing high-density infill housing near public transportation is economically unfeasible throughout most of California while more affordable housing, in areas where Latino homeownership is increasing, continues to be criticized by development advocates.
The inverted mentality of current environmental policy ends up being anti-human. And anti-environment. The California Air Resources Board, whose policies are enforced through CEQA, considers jobs and people leaving a city or county “reductions in greenhouse gas emissions” – even when those jobs and people are moving to states and even countries where the environment is much more lax. standards. Job and population losses in California would most likely increase global greenhouse gas emissions. So much for California’s “leadership” on climate change.
The agencies and advocates promoting this “degrowth” agenda through CEQA share the “no growth” dogma of 1970s environmentalists, which really meant “no growth from “those people.” »The intention is racist, and the effect is racist. The housing crisis is hitting Black and Latino Californians hardest, as even CARBs and the Nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office let us now expressly recognize.
California cannot solve the housing and homelessness crisis without building millions of new homes that are truly affordable for California’s working families – and much faster, without the counterproductive legal barriers that add delays. and costs.
CEQA reform is the key. A good start would be an immediate moratorium on CEQA lawsuits based on any theory not expressly authorized by statute or regulation. The governor must simply order the agencies and urge the courts to follow the law and reject these claims.
Today’s much more diverse Legislature should also be able to do more, serving all Californians better than the sea of white leaders and judges who have been captured for so long by NIMBY environmentalists.
It is time to admit the failures of CEQA expansion and begin making the policy changes needed to restore the American dream of homeownership in a younger, more diverse California.
Soledad Ursua is an elected member of the Venice Neighborhood Council. Jennifer Hernandez is a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight. Ursúa is the lead author of the recent report and Hernandez contributes to it.The future is Latin.”
