California has 40,000 affordable housing units ready to break ground. One setback is holding them up
Tens of thousands of affordable housing units across California are stuck in financial purgatory, according to a new report.
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San Diego County Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer, left, and Paloma Aguirre, right, walk next to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, center, after he was denied a visit to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego on Feb. 20, 2026. Padilla's visit comes amid reports of inhumane conditions at the detention center following the Trump Administration’s surge of immigration enforcement efforts. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
San Diego County filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday alleging the Trump administration illegally blocked a public health inspection of the Otay Mesa Detention Center. bit.ly/4dgj0Xb
📸 Adriana Heldiz
A light rail train passes a San Jose apartment complex on May 10, 2019. A new law encourages housing construction near transit stations. Photo by Dai Sugano, Bay Area News Group
Opinion | The time may be right to think about bringing back a narrowly tailored version of tax-increment financing... bit.ly/4liZKu9
📝 William Fulton & Bill Higgins
📸 Dai Sugano
An appeals court panel concurred with regulators that prior reimbursements paid to solar panel owners unduly shifted costs onto homeowners without panels. Panels on a building in San Francisco in 2023. Photo by Semantha Norris, CalMatters
A California appeals court this week sided with state utility regulators in a case seen as crucial to the spread of solar panels on the rooftops of California homes. bit.ly/4sCmkQS
📸 Semantha Norris
A person exits a vote center the California Museum in Sacramento on Nov. 4, 2025. Photo by Jungho Kim for CalMatters
Opinion | Let’s not let flaws in the current system or the pressures of national political maneuvering lead us back to the equally flawed, previous electoral systems that badly needed reform to begin with. bit.ly/4bpGZB0
📝 Alan Zundel
📸 Jungho Kim
California gubernatorial candidates stand on the stage during the candidate debate in San Francisco on Feb. 3, 2026. Photo by Laure Andrillon, AP Photo
Opinion | The lack of a clear frontrunner at this stage of the quadrennial game is not only an unusual phenomenon, but it creates a raft of potential scenarios as those in the dectet scramble for places in the November runoff. bit.ly/4lkMvJv
📝 Dan Walters
📸 Laure Andrillon, AP
A voter casts a ballot in Sacramento on Nov. 5, 2024. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
A 2025 poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies showed a majority of Californians surveyed support voter ID at the polls — 54% overall approved of showing proof of citizenship each time a vote is cast. bit.ly/4sE5L7j
📸 Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
Construction workers building an apartment complex site for an affordable housing project in Bakersfield on May 29, 2024. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
No state in the country has enough affordable homes, but California is one of the worst off: Only Oregon and Nevada have fewer available homes per household. bit.ly/4byZ4gV
📸 Larry Valenzuela
CalMatters/The Markup is looking for an ambitious reporter to cover technology in California and beyond.
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The rubble of homes that burned down on Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, as a result of the Palisades Fire. Jan. 9, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters
A proposed settlement means some State Farm policyholders whose premiums rose won’t see additional increases, and others should even get refunds. bit.ly/4dah6r4
📸 Ted Soqui
UCSF-Fresno staff member checks the blood sugar of a farmworker during a check-up in an equipment barn during a Rural Mobile Health program visit at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
California Democrats introduced legislation to restore Medi-Cal for all income-qualifying residents of any age, including undocumented immigrants. Gov. Newsom scaled back that program because of state budget deficits. bit.ly/47lR7t4
📸 Larry Valenzuela
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrest an immigrant during an early morning raid in Compton on June 6, 2022. Photo by Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo
Opinion | Thousands of workers, parents, citizens and community members have been swept up, not for what they did but for how they look. And people are dead because they refused to look away. bit.ly/4rnwDaD
📝 George Galvis
📸 Damian Dovarganes, AP
An inmate at San Quentin State Prison on March 17, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters
Opinion | The evidence shows that elder parole is working. The people it covers pose minimal risk. The process that evaluates them is rigorous. Ignoring all of this comes at a huge cost... bit.ly/47nFyBD
📝 Keith Wattley
📸 Martin do Nascimento
Framers work to build the Ruby Street apartments in Castro Valley on Feb. 6, 2024. The construction project is funded by the No Place Like Home bond, which passed in 2018 to create affordable housing for homeless residents experiencing mental health issues. Photo by Camille Cohen for CalMatters
For many developers and affordable housing advocates, that bottleneck represents an especially frustrating inconsistency of California public policy. bit.ly/4uf2RaR
📸 Camille Cohen
A close view shows a person using a laptop displaying a news website with a headline and photo on the screen. Another laptop sits nearby on the desk, and the scene is set in a modern office environment with glass walls and overhead lighting.
A conservative organization with decades of influence in California has quietly turned attention, and millions of dollars, to a national initiative of right-leaning news operations, records show. bit.ly/4aYdk2K
📸 iStock
Kostas Linardos appears before Placer County Superior Court Judge Suzanne I. Gazzaniga in Roseville on Jan. 23. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
Though state law authorizes the DMV to investigate drivers involved in a crash that kills or badly injures someone, agency records suggest the DMV rarely uses that power. bit.ly/40lJ1wI
📸 Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
Why California cops and firefighters are pushing for a new perk on top of their pensions
This year, the unions that represent CHP officers and state firefighters are seeking a different end-of-career incentive: The opportunity to accumulate one big check in addition to that annual pension. bit.ly/4bi8yfq
📸 Florence Middleton
A podcaster gave Newsom a gun. Are California laws keeping him from taking it home?
Last year, conservative podcaster Shawn Ryan gave Gavin Newsom a SIG Sauer handgun, which the governor has yet to take home. To do so, Newsom would have to navigate a complicated web of California gun laws. bit.ly/3N2x9wF
📸 Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
How conflicts of interest can continue for years with little consequence: bit.ly/4aWLOTf
Opinion | Free speech or conspiracy? How courts limit protesters' First Amendment rights
Prosecutors are charging protesters with conspiracy, seeking to limit opposition to government policies. More courts are allowing it.
The field is set: Meet the candidates officially running for California governor
Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter and Tom Steyer are among 8 Democrats and 2 Republicans vying for California governor in the June 2 open primary.
GOP's Darrell Issa won't seek reelection in newly redrawn congressional district
The 12-term San Diego area congressman will retire rather than run in a district that was redrawn after Prop. 50 to favor Democrats.
From left, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former California State Controller Betty Yee at the California gubernatorial candidate debate in San Francisco on Feb. 3, 2026. Photo by Laure Andrillon, AP Photo
It’s official: Eight Democrats and two Republicans say they have filed paperwork for the June 2 primary ballot in the California governor’s race bit.ly/4lhWSxV
📸 Laure Andrillon, AP
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 10, 2021. Photo by Ting Shen-Pool, Getty Images
Longtime Republican Rep. Darrell Issa will not seek reelection, he announced Friday. His decision comes four months after his San Diego-area congressional district was redrawn to favor Democrats. bit.ly/4aUU99V
📸 Ting Shen
Opinion | Democratic angst and gerrymandering threaten these political reforms
California's Democratic leaders likely won't want to keep the top-two primary system or the independent redistricting commission after this year.
Why California cops and firefighters are pushing for a new perk on top of their pensions
California Highway Patrol officers and Cal Fire firefighters are asking the state for a new retirement option that would complement their CalPERS pensions. It might reduce payroll costs to the state.
Employees load an apartment unit, built at Factory_OS in Vallejo, onto a trailer at the facility on July 26, 2019. The company builds modular housing in the Bay Area. Photo by Yalonda M. James, San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Opinion | A new study by UC-Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation declares that factory-built housing could reduce costs for apartments... bit.ly/4lhPRwX
📝 Dan Walters
📸 Yalonda M. James
A student bikes past the "Sit-in to Stop Genocide" at Stanford University in Stanford on Nov. 6, 2023. Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters
Opinion | At this moment, when constitutional protections are ignored unless they benefit those in power, the use of conspiracy laws effectively erodes social movements and destabilizes the ability to organize. bit.ly/40fuDpS
📝 Bobbie Stein
📸 Juliana Yamada
An illustration in green, red, blue and yellow tones that shows a desktop computer screen with an open window tab that resembles a Pokemon battle scene. At one end of the screen is a pixelated student and at the other is a wolf that represents a chatbot. The illustration includes a bubble text that reads "where can students get free food on campus?" alongside other bubbles of text with red exclamation points.
Community colleges are spending millions on AI-powered chatbots that students say often give inaccurate answers. bit.ly/4rlWakt
🎨 Adriana Heldiz
