Press Release: Pro-Housing Nonprofits Prevail in Lawsuit, Cupertino Stipulates To Builder's Remedy

Contact: Jessamyn Garner

San Francisco, CA— YIMBY Law and the California Housing Defense Fund have won a stipulated judgment against the City of Cupertino for the city’s late housing element. In a victory for housing, Cupertino has agreed to honor a state-law “builder’s remedy” for affordable housing projects that filed applications with the City after it failed to revise its housing element in time for last winter’s deadline. The judgment took effect with court approval this week.

“Cupertino recognizes it must plan for housing,” noted Sonja Trauss, Executive Director at YIMBY Law. “The City missed its legal deadline, and that has consequences. Fortunately, the consequences of today’s settlement will be more housing.”

The settlement commits Cupertino to revise its housing plan in accordance with the state’s Housing Element Law. This law requires cities to audit their own zoning ordinances, and other land-use restrictions, to prove that a certain number of homes can be legally built in the next eight-year cycle. Cupertino’s state-set target for the 2023–2031 cycle is 4,588 new homes, including 1,880 that would be affordable for lower-income households.

California law requires each city to update a general-plan component called a “housing element” every eight years. Bay Area cities, including Cupertino, were required to revise their housing elements by January 31, 2023. Eleven months later, almost half of Bay Area cities are still out of compliance.

The state agency tasked with reviewing housing elements, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), determined on December 15 that Cupertino’s latest draft housing element requires further revisions to comply with the law.

“We’re confident that Cupertino can bring its housing element into compliance,” said Dylan Casey, Executive Director of the California Housing Defense Fund. “The builder’s remedy should help create some affordable housing in the short term while the City works to come up with a viable long-term plan.”

Press Release: YIMBY Law Files Lawsuit Against the City of Los Angeles, Argues 100% Affordable Housing Project Must Be Approved

Contact: Jessamyn Garner

Los Angeles, CA — YIMBY Law has filed suit against the city of Los Angeles for illegally delaying a 100% affordable housing project located on Winnetka Ave. The project falls under the original form of Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1 (ED1) which streamlines 100% affordable housing projects. The lawsuit aims to ensure these homes and similar projects are approved and streamlined as permitted in ED1.

"YIMBY Law and our coalition partners tried to work with the city, and HCD sent them a letter reinforcing our stance that this project must be approved," said Jessamyn Garner, Communications Director at YIMBY Law. “They still chose to break the law, so we’re suing. The city can’t be allowed to continue these obstructionist practices.”

“By denying this project and other projects that fall under the same policy, the city has said no to affordable housing worth over $750,000,000 that would have helped hundreds of people live in stable, affordable homes without the city having to spend a dime,” said Laura Foote, Executive Director of YIMBY Action. “The idea that the city would say no to low-cost housing at a time when Los Angeles is in dire need of affordable housing is offensive to the voters who put these leaders in office to address the housing crisis.”

ED1 created a path to streamline the Winnetka project as well as similar projects representing over 1,500 total affordable homes. Instead, the city is illegally subjecting them to the same laborious and expensive process that has killed dozens of affordable housing projects in the past.

If these homes are not approved, not only will Los Angeles go without hundreds of much-needed affordable homes, but this decision will also stymie similar efforts to build affordable housing in the future by creating additional barriers and ambiguity in the application and review process.

“Los Angeles can’t keep delaying affordable housing,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director at YIMBY Law. “We’ve spoken with them about the legal and moral implications of going back on their own policy. The city still broke the law, and now they have to be held accountable.”

Statement: YIMBY Law and YIMBY Action Support Homeless Housing in Millbrae, CA. YIMBY Law Defends Homes in Lawsuit

Contact: Jessamyn Garner

San Francisco, CA— YIMBY Law and YIMBY Action support San Mateo County’s effort to convert a hotel into permanent supportive housing in Millbrae, CA. On January 8th, 2024, YIMBY Law answered a lawsuit filed by the City of Millbrae against San Mateo County wherein the city uses Article 34 of the California Constitution to argue the project should not move forward without a vote. YIMBY Law aims to defend the homes and ensure dozens of unhoused families and seniors have stable, affordable homes. YIMBY Law and YIMBY Action condemn the City of Millbrae for attempting to halt the project.

“Some Millbrae officials will pretend they’re being reasonable here, but there’s no getting around it: they’re using an archaic, racist law to block affordable homes for our unhoused neighbors,” said Jess Hudson, volunteer leader at Peninsula for Everyone, a chapter of YIMBY Action. “As a resident of Millbrae, I’m disgusted by this decision to waste city funds in order to leave our most vulnerable out in the cold. The families and seniors waiting to be housed in my neighborhood deserve access to stable, affordable homes just like everyone else.”

On September 12, 2023, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved the plan to purchase and convert a La Quinta Inn and Suites into permanent supportive housing for unhoused families and seniors. The plan would use state funds from Project Homekey to finance the project.

The proposal was met with swift and livid opposition from NIMBYs who used common yet offensive talking points to express their opinions. Many cited safety concerns for the neighborhood and surrounding schools, despite not having evidence that these concerns are substantiated. The City of Millbrae supported the opposition by filing a lawsuit to block the plan on November 13, 2023. On January 8, 2024, YIMBY Law answered the lawsuit to defend the project and ensure dozens of unhoused families and seniors have access to affordable homes in the community. 

The City of Millbrae is using Article 34, a provision in the California constitution that passed as a state ballot measure in 1950, in its argument to attempt to block these homes. The provision requires local governments to put projects up for a community vote before developing, buying, or funding “low-rent housing.” Article 34 serves as a de facto ban on public or social housing in the state, though voters will have the choice to repeal it on the November ballot thanks to a YIMBY-supported bill authored by Senator Ben Allen and passed in 2022.

Article 34 was a reaction to the federal Housing Act of 1949, which banned racial segregation in public housing. Many white communities expressed racist fears about public housing and neighborhood integration when the law passed, and Article 34 has since blocked countless affordable homes from being built in California. It has also created expensive and often prohibitive barriers for nonprofit developers that rely on public funding to build and operate affordable housing communities.

If the City of Millbrae prevails in its lawsuit and Article 34 is not repealed in November 2024, this project along with others like it will continue to face exorbitant fees and barriers by requiring expensive and time-consuming community approval. This will effectively block thousands of affordable homes from being built or converted for the people who need it most. This is particularly egregious in light of California’s classist and racist history of housing policies that have blocked poor Californians and especially Californians of color from buying and renting affordable homes in the state.

YIMBY Action and its California chapters will support the effort to repeal Article 34 in the November election. YIMBY Law will continue to defend the county’s efforts to convert the site into permanent supportive housing for San Mateo County’s unhoused families and seniors.

“Our unhoused neighbors deserve access to stable, affordable homes, full stop,” said Leora Tanjuatco Ross, Organizing Director of YIMBY Action. “Article 34 is a racist scar in our state constitution. It’s time to get rid of it so we can achieve housing abundance and affordability in California.”