State of CaliforniaCandidate for GovernorNewsom Replacement

California is facing an affordable housing crisis. There is simply not enough room. Californian families are struggling to pay their rent or mortgages. The price of a starter home has become out of even single middle class working people like me. Over 161,000 Californians are homeless. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator a worker needs to earn over $25 hour to pay for a roof over their family’s head. So what can I do about it as Governor? 1. Prevent Families from Becoming Homeless I will continue emergency mortgage and rental assistance until it’s absolutely safe for people to return to their lives. I will provide a housing subsidy to close the gap between California’s stagnant wages and inflated cost of living. Our friends and neighbors need some breathing room while I act to address the core problems in our housing market. 2. Build Affordable Housing On Transit Corridors I will work with local governments to update their zoning around transit corridors, emphasizing high density housing and walkable neighborhoods. I will support innovative public-private partnerships to build housing on former industrial sites, again focused on high density housing. Not only does this add homes to our market, but improves the environment of the whole area. I will fully fund public transit expansion to support housing development and reduce carbon emissions, and I will ensure those funds are managed appropriately. 3. Righting Past Injustice I will immediately begin the process of advancing housing discrimination reparations. Not only is it the right thing to do to correct historic injustice to non-white Californians who were excluded from the housing market, it provides them with housing security and the potential for home ownership now.

Addressing homelessness and housing are intrinsically linked. We must address them together. I've outline a strong program to promote affordable high density housing development. In the long term this will ease the housing market pressure to allow easier transition from streets and shelters. But being homeless is a traumatic experience that usually begins with trauma on top of that. We must provide support to unhoused people as they work their way back to a normal life. Housing Our Unhoused I have proposed a housing gap subsidy to all Californians which will especially impact our working unhoused population, jumpstarting them into transitional housing while they rebuild. Californians are kind, compassionate people and I will represent that. I will expand mental health and drug addiction counseling availability, including legalizing the medical use of psychadelics as our neighbors in Oregon have done, and partnering with organizations that have pioneered the use of cannabis to treat addiction.