The ongoing housing crisis in Los Angeles County may soon become the subject of a new dedicated government agency after the California State Assembly voted on Wednesday to approve SB 679. 

If signed into law, the bill would authorize the county to create an entity called the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (or LACAHSA) that seeks to address the crisis through a consolidated approach the bill’s author, Democratic State Senator Sydney Kamlager, described as “clear, focused, [and] integrated” when compared to the current system’s diffuse and ineffective nature. 

A recent LA Times editorial op-ed mentioned that the bill was amended to include provisions for union contractors in line with the city’s Project Labor Agreement as well as an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which is often used cynically as a means of preventing such developments. The editorial also pointed out that funding for the agency, to which the bill allocates a total of $20 million in state monies, would likely have to come by way of a special 2024 ballot measure as it is now too late for a signature drive to have it included in the citywide November election.

Both leading mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso have addressed the crisis at length during the campaign, though neither has said if they support SB 679 explicitly. A large part of the problem is that the majority of lots in LA County’s 88 incorporated cities are zoned majorly if not exclusively for single-family development, as evidenced by Baldwin Park, where some 81% of all land falls under that criteria. The county must overcome this reality as it faces a revised state demand to rezone for some 255,000 units of affordable housing by the year 2024. As Baldwin Park Mayor Emmanuel Estrada explained to LAist: “It's due time for zoning codes to be changed and reimagined. One of the problems is funding, and we don't have the money to do so.”

The bill must now go before the State Senate for an expected final approval before it reaches Gavin Newsom’s desk for signature. A governing board and 11-member oversight committee would be formed following its enactment. Proponents say its establishment will have a tremendous impact on LA's ability to stem the steady flow of homelessness that continues to grow year after year.

“We simply do not have enough affordable homes in L.A. County to chip away at the homelessness crisis,” Katie Tell, a chief external affairs officer for People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), told LAist. “SB 679 is a critical step in helping us develop and build the affordable homes that we need.”