Build Homes Where It's Affordable to Get Around
The Issue
California’s housing affordability crisis is creating transportation affordability problems. A lack of affordable housing near jobs and daily destinations pushes families into homes farther away, forcing them into long and expensive car commutes, and leaving them more exposed to climate risk.
The Solution
California must add millions more homes over the coming decades. Where those homes are built matters for affordability: households in compact, walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods—even in smaller communities and rural towns—spend significantly less on transportation than those in car-dependent areas. Building in these communities can also improve quality of life while protecting natural and working lands and sensitive habitat from development. The Transportation Agency has significant authority to shape where and how this growth happens, making an all-of-government approach especially important.
Here are three transportation related actions your administration can take:
Build Affordable Housing on Underutilized Public Lands
affordable homes on transit agency land alone
ACTION Direct Caltrans and local transportation agencies to publish a full inventory of publicly owned lands in infill areas across communities of all sizes, identify priority sites, and set specific affordable-housing development targets. Remove barriers and fast-track transfers or ground leases for development on Caltrans property.
WHY IT MATTERS Caltrans and local transportation agencies own significant underutilized property, much of it well-located near transit and urban cores. Building on the Excess Sites Program and Surplus Land Act, the incoming administration should expand the effort to all publicly owned lands and make it easier to turn these sites into housing.
Value Homes over Highways
homes and businesses demolished for highway expansion in 6 years
ACTION Direct Caltrans to evaluate alternatives to future highway widening projects that demolish homes or divide and pollute communities, and require projects already underway to be reevaluated for current housing and equity impacts. Require California Transportation Commission (CTC) approval before any future project can displace housing.
WHY IT MATTERS Highway widening has removed homes and displaced families, often in communities that were already disadvantaged and disproportionately affected by the state’s highway system. These communities have borne the long-term impacts of highways, including traffic pollution, noise, and the division of neighborhoods. Continuing to remove housing for highway projects compounds these harms.
Align Land Use Goals Across State Government
new California homes are built in are built in an area prone to wildfire
ACTION Elevate the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) as the state’s key body for aligning transportation, housing, economic development, fair housing, anti-displacement, conservation, habitat connectivity, and climate goals when they conflict or point in different directions. Use public infrastructure funding to incentivize better alignment with these shared goals.
WHY IT MATTERS State agencies often optimize their grants, initiatives, and regulations around their individual missions, which can create competing priorities and investments that work against broader state goals. The SGC was created to help reconcile these differences, but has not had the authority or influence to play that role effectively. Elevating the SGC and giving it greater influence over public funding could help the state make better use of its resources and achieve its goals.