Global Courant 2023-05-15 14:03:31
The California Reparations Task Force is calling on state legislatures to require all cities and counties with supposedly segregated neighborhoods to submit all of their real estate ordinances to a state agency for approval based on whether they maintain “racial segregation in housing” or Reduce.
The task force, created by state legislation signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved its final recommendations last weekend to the California legislature, which will decide whether to pass the measures and send them to the governor’s office to become law. signed.
The recommendations include several proposals designed to address “housing segregation” and “unjust property taking” that have contributed to alleged systemic racist actions against black Californians. One of the most controversial housing proposals is one that would seemingly transfer control of local land-use decisions to a government agency that would pass ordinances based on whether they maintain or reduce segregation.
“In California, housing zoning ordinances have been used for decades to prevent African Americans from moving into neighborhoods, perpetuating housing segregation,” the recovery commission said. writes in the final report to present its proposals. “Various laws were also used to prevent additional housing from being built, effectively excluding African Americans.”
Kamilah Moore, chair of the California Reparations Task Force, and Amos Brown, vice chair, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2022. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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To address local zoning laws that “reinforce and recreate this systemic housing segregation,” the task force continues, the legislature must identify California cities and counties that have historically delineated neighborhoods — areas that have been flagged as high-risk investments where residents therefore seek financial services such as loans. is denied. or insurance—and whose “current levels of racial segregation in housing are statistically comparable to the degree of segregation in that city or county when it was redefined.”
After these areas are identified, the task force calls on the legislature to “require identified cities and counties to submit all residential land use ordinances for review and approval by a state agency, with the agency rejecting the ordinance (or requiring amendment) ) if the agency believes the proposed ordinance will maintain or exacerbate levels of residential racial segregation.”
In other words, if a city or county with a neighborhood that is considered segregated wants to make an official real estate change, that change must be approved by a government agency based on whether it makes the area more racially diverse become.
The task force recommends scrapping this “additional review and approval” process of the highlighted cities and counties only if the city or county “eliminates some degree of residential segregation in its geographic territory.”
However, the recovery commission also proposes an alternative option for such places: creating an “administrative appeals committee to review challenges to development permit or zoning decisions” and base decisions on whether development permits and zoning are deemed “to preserve housing or to strengthen”. racial segregation.”
Cheryl Grills, right, and Lisa Holder, both members of the California Reparations Task Force (Screenshot from Twitter account of California Black Media)
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In addition to an official review process, the task force also proposes to increase homeownership among black Californians by providing assistance through direct financial aid or subsidized down payments, below-market rate mortgages, and homeowners insurance.
Another recommendation is to provide a so-called “right of return” for black residents “displaced” by development projects, “racially restrictive covenants,” “state-sanctioned violence” and “racial terror” to return to those areas to live. .
“The task force recommends that the legislature take action to support the right of return for those displaced by agency action, restrictive covenants and racial terror who have displaced African Americans from their homes,” the committee writes. “The right of return should favor the victims of these purges and their descendants when renting or owning real estate in the redevelopment area. The right of return should extend to all agency-supported housing and business opportunities in the redevelopment project area .”
The task force additionally wants state legislators to “give priority to rental housing, homeownership and business opportunities for those who are displaced or excluded from renting or owning real estate in brokerage-assisted housing and business opportunities developed in or adjacent to communities formerly under restrictive agreements.” This preference, according to the report, should extend to the families and descendants of those allegedly displaced by “government development.”
The commission’s final recommendations include numerous other housing-related proposals, such as repealing policies that restrict people with criminal records from renting real estate, funding housing-focused anti-racism education programs, and establishing certification programs for diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI). for affordable housing contractors, providers and decision makers.
The California State Capitol on July 17, 2022 in Sacramento. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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California is no stranger to controversial housing policies, especially those where the state tries to wrest control from local authorities. Indeed, California has imposed quotas on local governments to make land available for housing, particularly for lower-income families, and to streamline permitting for these projects. Most of the state’s 482 cities comply, but not all, particularly in the suburbs.
Many of the communities trying to thwart the housing mandate are mostly Democratic areas around San Francisco, but the one getting the most flak from Newsom’s office is the city of Huntington Beach, a Republican area in Orange County that openly opposes the quotas. .
“The city has a duty to protect the quality and lifestyle of the neighborhoods current owners have already bought into and for the future sustainability of Huntington Beach,” Councilor Pat Burns wrote in a letter to colleagues earlier this year. “Massive redevelopment in existing residential areas not only poses a threat to quality and quality of life, but also to the value of the adjacent and adjacent buildings.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, a Republican, echoed that sentiment at a meeting last month.
“People don’t want an urban community here,” he said. “I believe that if we just go along with it, it will have a serious negative impact on the quality of life of our community.”
Flanked by Councilman Casey McKeon, left, and city attorney Michael Gates, Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland speaks at a press conference on Feb. 14, 2023, about state-mandated housing targets. (Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
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Days later Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Department of Housing and Community Development jointly announced a motion amendment of a March lawsuit seeking to hold Huntington Beach responsible for violating the state’s housing elements law. The law obliges municipalities to draw up housing plans that include sufficient development opportunities.
California is seeking fines and injunctions, as well as suspension of the city’s authority to issue building permits and a court order mandating approval of certain residential projects until the city complies with the law.
“Huntington Beach continues to fail its residents,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement at the time. “Every city and county must do its part to reduce the high housing and rental costs that affect families in this state. California will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure that everyone builds their fair share of housing and enforces state housing laws. the state does not transgress. at the expense of the community.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks in Sacramento, January 10, 2023. (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas, File)
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“California is in the middle of a housing crisis, and Huntington Beach has shown time and time again that they are part of the problem by defiantly refusing any opportunity to provide essential housing for its own residents,” added Bonta. “The city’s refusal last week to adopt a housing element in accordance with state law is just the latest in a series of deliberately illegal actions by the city — decisions that exacerbate our housing crisis and harm taxpayers and residents of Huntington Beach. .. We will use every legal instrument available to hold the city accountable and enforce the state’s housing laws.”
However, several California cities do not have certified, compliant housing elements, according to the the state’s home trackerleading Strickland to accuse Newsom’s government of picking his city.
“The fact that the Attorney General singles out Huntington Beach only reinforces the city’s arguments in court that the state is not following the law with these housing mandates,” the mayor said in a statement last month. “These mainstream press releases announcing legal action against Huntington Beach may make headlines, but they don’t intimidate or deter the city, and they have no effect in court, where these conflicts of law will ultimately be decided.”
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Earlier this month, Newsom sued the city of Elk Grove for failing to approve homeless housing projects.
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
