San Benito County Housing Articles

California’s COVID-era rent relief program, long saddled with delays, criticisms and legal woes, appears to be running out of money. What does that mean for the more than 100,000 renters still awaiting help?

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveils a plan to shore up the California insurance market for homeowners. Insurers would return to wildfire zones, but would have an easier path to rate increases.

The San Benito County Board of Supervisors approved amendments to the county’s affordable housing ordinance, which include a requirement for future housing developments within 10 miles of an incorporated city to offer affordable units. The board voted 5-0 this week …

With state officials approving Gilroy’s eight-year housing plan on Aug. 21, the city now plans to start implementing the programs that were adopted by the City Council in May. “Housing is one of our top priorities, and we’re committed to …

Two different state courts have ruled recently that the human noise created by future tenants in housing projects are a form of pollution that cities must address. Lawmakers and the governor are working to reverse that novel interpretation of environmental …

Three of the biggest housing bonds in state history are bound for the 2024 ballot. But with no shortage of crises facing the state, California can only borrow so much and voters may succumb to “bond fatigue.”

Renter protections and eviction bans put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic have expired. By keeping them in place, California could slow the spread of homelessness. But that's not happening.

Twin Oaks Hollister residents will celebrate the first anniversary of The Cannery Club, their private community clubhouse, from 12-3pm on Aug. 12. Twin Oaks, located at 2071 Red Oak Drive in Hollister, comprises 168 homes, of which about half are …

For the second time this year, state officials told Gilroy that its long-term housing plan still needs work before it can be considered valid. In a July 6 letter to city officials, Paul McDougall, senior program manager for the California …

The homeless population fell by a third in Texas over the past decade as it surged in California. The cost of living is a big reason Texas is doing a better job at alleviating homelessness.

Los Angeles’ new homelessness solution is meant to quickly get people out of encampments and into housing—as the city grapples with the state’s largest population of unhoused residents. But the program is struggling to house people and connect them with …

A Superior Court judge on June 27 denied a temporary restraining order that would have halted a construction project currently underway in Monterey County, which would add three residential buildings with 45 units for 360 seasonal agricultural workers. Residents of …

The California Coastal Commission has broad authority to protect the state's shoreline. Now, some want to curtail its power over affordable housing proposals.

Gov. Gavin Newsom poured ‘unprecedented’ money into homelessness, but providers say his use of one-time grants does not allow for long-term solutions to the state’s biggest crisis. That's what happened in Grass Valley.

After weeks of negotiations, the governor and top Democrats in the Legislature say they have a budget deal. Legislators will start voting today on bills related to the agreement, which sets spending and policy across a wide range of issues …

Zoning laws that restrict new housing development cause environmental damage, racial and class segregation, and force people into cars creating traffic. Now, a new movement wants to abolish zoning in the United States.

Zoning laws determine what can be built and where. These laws have shaped California, but are they really just tools for social engineering? The history of zoning is closely tied to racial segregation, as well as the state's shortage of …

As groups representing landlords and real estate pour millions of dollars into political coffers to influence housing policy, tenant groups are celebrating recent victories.

More than 170,000 people are homeless in California. Some Democrats want to make the state the nation’s first to declare housing a human right with a state constitutional amendment, but opponents worry it would be costly.

‘You small, pathetic man,’ Gavin Newsom wrote in a Twitter post suggesting he’d pursue criminal charges against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over recent migrant flights to Sacramento.