2025 California housing bills target affordability, homelessness and red tape

Come Jan. 1, California will be seeing a few dozen bills aimed at creating affordable housing in the state. The bills range in purpose from preventing homelessness to housing construction regulation accountability and oversight. Here is a rundown of the housing bills set to take effect in 2025:

SB 1037 - More housing in more communities

Proposed by Sen. Scott Wiener, this targets local governments by applying penalties up to $50,000 per month on those that block or delay approved housing.

“The purpose of the bill is to ensure adequate remedies are available to ensure that state laws mandating streamlined ministerial approvals related to housing development projects, and the timely adoption of housing element revisions, are promptly and faithfully followed,” reads the bill summary.

AB 3093 - Creating new low income categories

This bill is a result of recommendations by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (CHD,) stating that a lower income bracket is needed to prevent homelessness. Currently, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation categorizes those earning less than 50% of Area Median Income (AMI) as “very low income.” This bill will split the category into very low income being 30-50% AMI and extremely low income being 0-15% AMI, requiring the HCD to serve the needs of the lowest income households.

SB 1395 - Shelter Crisis

Proposed by Sen. Josh Becker, this bill will allow CEQA exemptions for actions taken to facilitate homeless shelters, making it easier to provide services to those experiencing homelessness and homeless shelter construction.

"California has fewer housing units affordable and available to households earning below 50 percent of Area Median Income than any other state, the fourth highest rate of homelessness and the highest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the nation,” reads the bill analysis. “The longer unhoused residents go without shelter, the less likely they'll be able to return to self-sufficiency. As California invests in more permanent housing, more must be done to bring unsheltered people indoors and save lives.”

AB 3035 - Affordable housing for farmers

AB 3035 will improve access to affordable housing for agricultural workers and make it easier for farmworkers to build housing. The bill puts aside red tape by streamlining the approval process for farmworker housing in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties in addition to raising the maximum number of housing units from 36 to 150.

“Farmworkers are the backbone of California’s nation-leading agricultural industry and play a critical role in ensuring the stability of the state, nation and world’s food supply,” reads the bill analysis. “Investing in their well-being is investing in California’s success. All families deserve access to safe and stable housing.”

Other Bills

There are numerous other bills taking effect in 2025. Those targeted towards ending homelessness include requiring the Interagency Council on Homelessness to create a funding plan for affordable housing and making changes to the regional housing needs determination to ensure availability of extremely low income housing.

In addition to SB 1037, there are seven other bills holding government entities accountable with increased oversight, reports on housing disapprovals, adding an affordable housing element to planning and zoning reports and requiring reports on fair housing.

Bills looking at streamlining and increasing productions remove red tape delaying affordable housing construction, create more CEQA exemptions, add a density bonus law for residential care facilities and allow ministerial approval for subdivisions and accessory dwelling units.

There are a handful of bills focused on housing protections - increasing regulations upon landlords for security deposit usage, creating more transparency on credit reporting for tenancy and requiring increased repair and maintenance.

Lastly, there are two bills allocating funding towards creating tribal housing programs.

“California's new laws tackle today's biggest emerging challenges head-on,” reads a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Through partnership with the Legislature, we’re strengthening public safety, building more housing, and providing more resources for our communities. These practical reforms protect what matters most while creating more opportunities for all Californians.”