This story was updated Jan. 30 to include news from California.
Pew
California state Sen. Scott Wiener has a simple explanation for the Golden State’s affordable housing crisis: “Decades of bad housing policy.”
The Democrat particularly blames cities’ longtime embrace of single-family zoning, which he says has contributed to a housing shortage that’s pushing up rents and home prices and encouraging sprawl. “It’s not sustainable,” Wiener recently told Stateline.
As state lawmakers look for ways to bring down housing costs, a growing number are taking aim at the American dream of a family home surrounded by a white picket fence.
