It’s hard to believe it's been two years since this Substack launched, and we’re grateful for all our subscribers, readers, social media sharers and colleagues who say nice things about the posts and podcasts when I see them at housing events.
We managed to produce 20 pieces of original content and launched a brand new podcast, which feels pretty good considering the challenges. Below we highlight podcasts and posts you might have missed, some good articles worth reading or issues we’re tracking, and offer a small preview of 2024.
Thanks for being part of the Substack - help spread the word to other housers you think would enjoy it!
ICYMI Posts
We put out a lot of posts I’m proud of this year, but I want to highlight two in particular that get at some of the biggest challenges in housing and housing politics.
And here’s the full list of this year’s content:
Housing is Not Beer | Let’s leave our ideologies at home and pay attention to our actual housing system
Social Housing in California: Part 2 | Maintaining the momentum for true housing system change in California
The WWGFH Summer 2023 Housing Digest | An occasional, highly-filtered and not even close to comprehensive review of interesting housing things in and for California housers
Housing Systems Depend on Infrastructure. Including for Housing Data. | A key path to a better housing system runs through housing data and information
Housing Tenure 101: A Where We Go From Here Explainer | The housing subject with the worst name is too important to keep ignoring
Housing Stability and Housing Mobility are Both Essential. Can They Work Together? | Building a housing system that keeps you housed and helps you move.
Conversion is the Most Important Word in Housing | We need to change land use, change ownership, and change our minds. But we need to do it carefully. Welcome to the 2023 housing word of the year.
So What Do We Do Now? Implementation and Housing: Part 1 | Housing policy isn’t designed to be implemented. It's designed to pass.
2023 California Housing Priorities: Hopes and Dreams Edition | My wish list for California housing - and California housers.
ICYMI Podcast Episodes: Housing After Dark
A big shout out to all the guests who took the plunge with us on our new podcast, Housing After Dark. We covered a lot of ground with a lot of great housers.
Words Worth Reading + Spaces We’re Watching
We do housing politics here, and it takes courage to really get into who owns housing. Appreciate the Equity Atlas digging into this amongst electeds.
I appreciate Ben Christopher coming in to replace the fabulous Manuela Tobias at CalMatters. Here’s his year-in-review, and a well-researched piece on how San Diego hacked ADU rules to build multifamily housing. Also shout out to economic reporter Jeanne Kuang, who’s been doing important housing work as well (on Evictions and Affordable Housing discussed below). Excited for their housing team to grow!
We need way more attention to the role of infrastructure in our housing system. This story about buildings waiting for underground transformers is telling. So is concern about “renovictions” from gas store replacements, or about the need for housing policy to support home repairs. This is also a story about climate retrofit, fire risk, and more. Housing can’t stop at housing.
I understand why this sort of suburban build-to-rent exists - most of our urban housing system is build to rent, from luxury to Affordable, so this is just what American housing has been allowed to become. But it is not the answer.
We also need reforms to our Affordable Housing system, which too often is not affordable.
Evictions are back and this is a problem. If you really want to reduce homelessness, we need a system that doesn’t put people in the street at such high rates. We will never be able to rehouse people at the rates we make them homeless.
Love this experiment with direct cash assistance (instead of vouchers) from colleagues at HUD - I will talk more about how important cash assistance is to a better housing system, and this kind of voucher reform is critical. If you’re imagination of a just housing system doesn’t include direct federal assistance to help people pay for housing, you will be sadly disappointed what happens on the ground without it.
I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Chris Elmendorf, but his work is worth reading. I appreciate his willingness to get into the weeds, and to somehow get the weeds into the Chronicle - especially when it opens the door to critique of the land use law reform movement he is part of. This Op-Ed on AB1287 is important.
School district housing is fascinating, important, and a space to watch for sure. Especially with the Center for Cities + Schools continuing to step into the void.
I’m also excited for SB4, which will make religious organizations important players in housing development. We need our large institutions like universities, schools, and religious groups to be pillars in a new housing economy. But getting there will be difficult, even with better policy. I hope folks have the stomach for proper implementation.
Changes are happening inside the Realtors. They are super important to housing, but like with all other parts of the industry there is critical reform needed that can only happen from within.
And finally, my favorite housing story of 2023 thats really about 2024 and beyond
Congrats to the housers of California - we have a new head houser! Thanks to Tomiquia Moss for being willing to take on this challenge. More in 2024 on how we can support her.
A 2024 Teaser
We’re going to start out hot with our now 3rd(!) annual List of Things I Want to See in California Housing. We’ll also be dropping the Bigger Ideas version of this, tentatively called a List of Ways to Redesign Our Housing System or something else suitably sexy.
We’re super jazzed about Year 2 (Season 2?) of Housing After Dark, as we get deeper on housing’s insurance crisis and other wonkish subjects, and keep it real talking about friendships across the housing divides, and ways to really change how we think about California’s housing system.
We’ll be following housing events in the State legislature and in the lead up to a historic and terrifying 2024 election. I will finally follow through on a now two year-old promise to you all to do a piece on housing and fiscal issues - what I like to think about as the Fiscal New Deal. I will also follow through on a promise to myself to write about how the Affordable v. Market-rate Housing debate is a morass, once I can figure out how to write it without alienating everyone who reads this newsletter.
As always, we welcome ideas, recommendations and support of any kind. If you have nominations for Housing After Dark guests, or would like to discuss being a guest author (either solo or jointly), please be in touch.
Finally, I just want to extend a particular thanks to the immensely talented Tina Lee, who quietly came on board last year to edit both words and sounds for this little production. She makes the podcast possible, and she’s become a central part of Schafran Strategies. I’m so excited to collaborate with her in 2024, and to see where we can go from here.
I hope everyone had a restful holidays full of escapist fiction, and we look forward to being back with you in 2024.
Alex