Show your solidarity and support for the communities most affected by California’s severe housing crisis. Owning a home has always been a major part of achieving The American Dream and has been the main avenue to accumulate wealth. But today, homeownership has become completely out of reach for many people.

Families of color have never recovered from the disproportionate financial impact of the recent Great Recession. Not too long ago, white families enjoyed 6 times the wealth of families of color. Today, according to the Pew Institute, this disparity has grown to more than 20 times. Minority homeownership is the lowest it has been since 1996. 

A bill introduced on March 19, 2020 by California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D- Santa Barbara) expands the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) activists use to deny minorities access to their neighborhoods. CEQA is already NIMBY’s favorite and most effective weapon that denies minorities access to homes in their communities. A Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) study revealed that 14,000 potential housing units were opposed by CEQA lawsuits.

SB 950, if it passes, will make it next to impossible for much needed housing to be built amidst the state’s worst housing and homelessness crisis. 

Fixing this crisis and restoring the dream of homeownership for California’s hardworking minority families requires many solutions, including CEQA streamlining, but expanding CEQA will only make the issue worse. For more information, we urge you to review our video, A California for Everyone, on CEQA misuse at TheTwoHundred.org/videos.

TheTwoHundred.org advocates for closing the growing racial wealth gap through homeownership and home building in California through its statewide coalition of community leaders, opinion makers and minority advocates.  We need your signature to make our voices heard! 

Signed, 

John Gamboa

Vice-Chair, The Two Hundred

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Letter to be sent to Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson:

 

To Senator Jackson,

Re: SB950 is the new redlining 

Homeownership is called the American Dream. Why do you author legislation that denies this dream to families of color? 

Do you hate us? We care for your children, we clean your homes, we mow your lawns, we wash your cars and care for your elderly parents. We do any and all of the jobs you don’t want to do yourself - all at low wages with few, if any, benefits.

We do all this and yet you author legislation that increases the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that Not In My Back MY Yard (NIMBY) white activists use to deny us access to their neighborhoods. CEQA is already NIMBY’s favorite and most effective weapon that denies us access to homes in their communities. It doesn’t need to be reinforced by your bill. A Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) assisted study revealed 14,000 housing units were opposed by CEQA lawsuits.

Families of color have never recovered from the disproportionate financial impact of the recent Great Recession. Not too long ago, white families enjoyed six times the wealth of families of color. Today, according to the Pew Institute, this disparity has grown to more than 20 times. The pandemic crisis we are all enduring is having a much greater disproportionate impact on communities of color. Minority unemployment has always been high, but it is now stratospheric.

The economy will eventually recover, but recovery for white families looks much different than for families of color. According to Richard Green, a USC Professor and Real Estate & Urban Economist, if all discrimination ended today it would take over 20 decades for families of color to equal the wealth of whites. SB 950, if it passes, will make it next to impossible for communities of color to catch up. Is this what you want? Is this what you intend by sponsoring SB 950?

Please reconsider and withdraw your bill. Covid-19 has shown us that we are almost all in this together. We should begin by acting like it.

Sincerely,

John Gamboa