We spend our days working on the little ways that housing can be made to be more plentiful and more affordable where it's needed most.  Typically that means working on land partnerships, careful design, talking to community members about what's needed, finding the best building methods to use, working on creative financing for projects, finding ways to save energy in new buildings, etc.  But this year, we additionally tried something new, and it's really paid off.

About 15 months ago we pitched CA Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (whose East Bay District 15 includes Richmond & Berkeley & West Oakland) on an idea to remove a barrier we've run into multiple times.  She liked it, I drafted a first version of the bill, and many people pitched in from there.  (Thank you to Wicks' staff and also to our co-sponsors, CA YIMBY, who knows a lot more about state politics than we do.)  Even with this incredibly challenging year, the bill caught on in the legislature.  Now it's going to the governor to be signed!

See below for Senator Scott Weiner presenting the bill in the state Senate for its final vote there:

So what is this amazing new law-to-be?

It's about parking at religious organizations.  Seriously - you wouldn't believe all the things we learn about in getting more and better and more affordable housing approved.

It turns out that a lot of churches have parking they never or almost never use.  And yet, even when local laws allow housing to be built on the property, they don't allow that parking to be used by residents, whether or not the church ever uses it.  In many cases, there simply isn't room or isn't budget to create even more parking on site.  So AB 1851 will allow faith-based organizations in CA the ability to (within limits) determine themselves how best to share parking between residential and religious uses on their property as long as there is some lower-income housing being created.  

Multiple New Way Homes projects will use this law in 2021.  We hope many others use it across California as well. 

And who knows, maybe someday we'll figure out how to legalize composting toilets.

  - Sibley Simon, President, New Way Homes