California’s ongoing housing affordability crisis could be solved with less red tape and more construction, according to Nolan Gray, a policy expert with pro-housing group California YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard), and Jim Righeimer, former Costa Mesa mayor and developer.
Righeimer said the main solution to California’s housing affordability crisis is increased construction.
“We just need more roofs, meaning more units,” Righeimer told Siyamak Khorrami on EpochTV’s “California Insider.”
“The question is, how do you do that?” he said, noting that requiring developers to subsidize new construction tends to be more difficult in locations with less housing demand and lower cost of living, because the profit margin is much lower. In contrast, on the coast, there is a lot of demand for new construction, and developers can easily afford the extra cost. Those areas, however, generally don’t end up being affordable for low-income residents….