By ONME Newswire
Although Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several bills this month to combat the emergency housing crisis after defeating the recall, the sluggish start for housing developers to ramp up production may take a while.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated California's housing crisis; Newsom's bill signing abolished California's 100-year plus old zoning ordinances that are among the most restrictive in the most progressive cities, revealing the true underlining of structural racism for many decades.
In this episode of News Too Real, producer host, Julia Dudley Najieb reviews part 1 from Ethnic Media Services (EMS) briefing this month: California Housing Crisis Continues as Gov. Newsom Signs Several Bills This Month to Begin to Combat the Calamity.
Speakers featured in the EMS briefing took a look at the implications of COVID-19 on housing equality and community development, how opportunity and restrictive zoning laws are closely connected, and policies and legislation to increase affordable housing stock.
These featured experts included, Carolina Reid, associate professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the Faculty Research Advisor for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation; Samir Gambhir, program manager for the Equity Metrics Program at the Othering and Belonging Institute; Ned Resnikoff, policy manager for the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at University of California San Francisco. Finally Matthew Lewis, Communications Director at California Yimby, is a YIMBY homeowner who believes there’s plenty of room on his block for more neighbors.
Carolina Reid is an associate professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the Faculty Research Advisor for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Before joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, Carolina worked for a year at the Center for Responsible Lending. Before that, Carolina served as the Research Manager for the Community Development Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for six years. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MA and PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle.
Samir Gambhir works as a geographic information systems (GIS) researcher and manager of Opportunity Mapping program at the Othering & Belonging Institute. Prior to joining the Othering & Belonging Institute, Samir worked as GIS Manager for Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR), Toronto. Prior to CGHR, he worked as Senior GIS Researcher at The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University under John's leadership. He graduated from The Ohio State University in 2003 with a Masters degree in City and Regional Planning.
Ned Resnikoffis the policy manager of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. He is a policy analyst who most recently worked as a fiscal and policy analyst at the California Legislative Analyst Office in Sacramento. Before that, Ned was a journalist with bylines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, NBC News, and other publications. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.
Matthew Lewis is the communications director at California Yimby. From 2008 through 2012, he was Director of Communications for the ClimateWorks Foundation, an international philanthropic effort launched by the Hewlett and Packard Foundations. During his tenure at ClimateWorks, he co-founded Climate Nexus. He also co-led the Risky Business Project, an effort to quantify and communicate the economic risks of climate change in the U.S. Matthew is a YIMBY homeowner who believes there’s plenty of room on his block for more neighbors.
