California’s 2025 legislative session delivered meaningful progress on housing, but mounting regulatory and cost barriers continue to undermine the state’s competitiveness, according to Orange County Business Council President and CEO Jeffrey Ball.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of SB 79 represents a modest step towards addressing California’s housing crisis, but it is not enough to fix the state’s broken housing system and will not result in the necessary affordable housing being built.
SB 485, authored by Assemblymember Eloise Reyes, has passed the Legislature and now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom, establishing new protections to ensure that Chief Public Defenders cannot be removed from their posts without cause.
Mayor Kevin McCarty of Sacramento announced the construction of 135 tiny homes at the Roseville Road Shelter‐and‐Service Campus, providing a cost-effective solution to the city’s homelessness crisis and complementing other initiatives such as safe parking and motel conversions.
Governor Gavin Newsom has announced the creation of the State Action for Facilitation on Encampments (SAFE) Task Force to coordinate state agencies to remove homeless encampments and expand access to shelter and supportive services in California’s ten largest cities.
Sacramento has successfully met the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone, a milestone celebrated by regional and federal officials as a public health and environmental achievement.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is considering a proposal to develop more of the North Natomas basin, which is a floodplain surrounded by levees that were originally so weak that a grant to expand regional sewer contained a $6 million penalty if that capacity were used to serve North Natomas, and the land speculators controlling North Natomas were able to get the penalty waived and receive $43 million in levee improvement grants, which is bad for the public realm and the environment.
Local leaders gathered to mark the grand opening of Powell’s Landing, a new permanent supportive housing project that offers 69 units for adults experiencing or at risk of homelessness, featuring on-site support services and amenities, and is being held up as an example of public-private collaboration in addressing homelessness and housing insecurity.
Joseph Allen Davis, 19, of Sacramento, was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, after police determined he was the shooter in an April 2025 shooting at Rainbow City Park in Davis.
California has seen a decrease in homelessness, with the city and county of Los Angeles experiencing a 4% drop in total homelessness, but recent budget cuts threaten continued progress.
The trial of a man accused of murdering five of his infant children between 1992 and 2001 has been postponed once again, despite an emotional victim impact statement from his daughter, and is now scheduled to begin on October 20.
A coalition of California and national civil rights leaders called on Governor Gavin Newsom to commute the death sentences of all 574 individuals currently on California’s death row, citing systemic injustice, racial bias, and irreparable harm.
California lawmakers have eliminated new funding for the HHAP program in fiscal year 2025–26, potentially halting progress in addressing homelessness and forcing local governments to scale back services and programs.
The housing crisis is a growing problem in the US, with millions of middle-class people struggling to afford homes, and it is not just a free market issue, but a systemic one caused by decades of artificial scarcity and artificial barriers to home ownership.
The Sacramento Police Department was found liable for violating the constitutional rights of George Floyd protesters, but the court declined to issue a permanent injunction to mandate reforms, leaving the plaintiffs and their supporters feeling that justice remains elusive.
Governor Gavin Newsom responded to Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ claims of California’s governance problems by pointing out that the highest murder rates in the country are in red states, and that California’s homicide rate is lower than Arkansas’ and other red states.
California’s joint budget plan for fiscal year 2025–26 does not include funding for the state’s primary program to address homelessness, HHAP, and instead only includes $50 million for the Department of Housing and Community Development’s operations.
Hope Landing, a newly converted permanent supportive housing complex in Sacramento’s Arden area, provides 124 units for seniors exiting homelessness and offers a full suite of on-site services to help them build long-term independence.
California is making progress in addressing its housing crisis with the passage of Senate Bill 79 and efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act, but the cost of building affordable housing remains a major obstacle.
California YIMBY leaders Nolan Gray and Brooke Pritchard discussed the state’s housing crisis, the need for statewide solutions, and the potential of Senate Bill 79 to promote dense housing near high-quality transit hubs and limit urban sprawl.