California, epicenter of the nation's housing crisis, is finally getting a housing agency

[usonian]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-13/la-me-calmatters-housing-agency-california

Not paywalled for me.
If so, use the archive: https://archive.is/kun9Q

By Ben Christopher
July 13, 2025

And a cabinet-level secretary.

Benefits?
The chief selling point of the reorganization has been to simplify the state’s hydra of affordable housing financing systems. The article lists four, plus another three, including programs for veterans.

After years of soaring rents, increasingly out-of-reach home prices and an enduring homelessness crisis that touches every corner of the state, California is finally creating a state agency exclusively focused on housing issues.

You might wonder what took so long.
Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a proposal to split up the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency — an awkward grab bag of disparate bureaucratic operations — into two fresh agencies: one just for housing and homelessness-related departments and one for everything else.

The Legislature had until July 4 to veto the plan. It didn’t (though some Republicans tried). Now the work of setting up California’s first housing agency begins.

Supporters of the bureaucratic reshuffle say the move is long overdue. In surveys, Californians regularly name housing costs and homelessness as among the state’s top concerns. That alone warrants the creation of a new Cabinet-level advisor to the governor, said Ray Pearl, executive director of the California Housing Consortium, which advocates for affordable housing development.

More at the link.