Posts Tagged: affordable

News

Housing costs push Californians around

Tightly packed housing in the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles. (Photo: trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)>

More than four in 10 California adults are seriously considering moving away from their part of the state because of the cost of housing, with the highest proportion in the coastal counties and the lowest in the state’s interior. A slight majority of those recently surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California — 55 percent — are staying put.

Opinion

Affordable, reliable water for California

Water is pumped into an irrigation canal. (Photo: Straight 8 Photography)

OPINION: On the heels of a record-breaking drought and phenomenal water savings by California residents, Gov. Jerry Brown called upon the state to make conservation a permanent way of life.  The administration established a broad stakeholder group comprised of water agencies, business and community groups and environmental organizations to develop a fair, forward looking conservation framework for the state.

Opinion

Housing: Low inventory, high prices, too much regulation

An aerial view of an affluent suburban housing tract in California. (Photo: Lightspot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Either reduce the torrent of regulatory burdens on California home builders or face a future of high housing costs and stunted economic growth. So concludes Loren Kaye, president of the California Foundation for Commerce and Education, who penned one of several articles issued last month through the Center for California Real Estate (CCRE).

Opinion

Extending cap-and-trade is right thing to do

An oil refinery at twilight as the lights come on. (Photo: Phonix_a Pk.sarote, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: California’s cap-and-trade program is working. Since it was launched in 2013, the system has helped drive down greenhouse gas emissions, while the state’s economy has flourished. The billions of dollars the program generates have funded “climate credit” payments to electric utility customers, low-carbon transit projects, and home weatherization improvements in low-income communities.

Opinion

Lower drug costs: The PBM role

A photo illustration of prescription drugs. (Photo: txking, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The public debate around the cost of prescription drugs has unfairly turned on the one player in the system reducing drug costs – pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs.

Opinion

Urgent: Protect mental health services

A depressed man sits alone on a park bench. (Photo: Mikael Damkier)

OPINION: Nearly two decades ago, California raised the bar for our state’s wellness by requiring insurers to equally cover services for both physical and mental health conditions. Now a national standard, California’s groundbreaking Mental Health Parity law was among the first to recognize how grave inequities in the form of higher co-pays or fewer allowable visits diminish wellness and productivity.

Opinion

Making the case for fracking

Oil rigs in a Kern County oil field. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

OPINION: What do comedian Stephen Colbert, the Washington Post editorial board and Gov. Jerry Brown have in common? They recognize the necessity of hydraulic fracturing. In an interview on The Late Show with Colbert last November to promote his award-winning movie, Spotlight, actor and anti-fracking activist Mark Ruffalo scoffed, “What the hell. Who thought of fracking?” Without missing a beat, Colbert replied, “People who need oil. They’re called Americans.”

Opinion

Crux of Charter merger: the Digital Divide

Illustration by Kheng Guan Toh, via Shutterstock

OPINION: The California Public Utilities Commission is about to make a landmark decision about the merger of Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks that will have a generational effect on closing—or possibly making permanent—the Digital Divide.

Opinion

Affordable housing: A tool to fight smog, traffic

An illustration of the affordable housing issue. (Nata-Lia, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: We generally think it a big success when public policy successfully fixes a serious problem. Right now, smart California policies are effectively tackling three major issues at once: housing, traffic, and climate change. Anyone not living under a rock knows that California faces an unprecedented crisis in housing affordability.

Opinion

Memo to Brown: Affordable housing is a life and death matter

A family housing illustration by arka38, via Shutterrstock

OPINION: The same day Governor Jerry Brown delivered his proposed state budget, Barbara Brown died of exposure on a skid row street during an El Niño storm. More than the coincidence of a common last name links the two. As a literal storm killed this unfortunate woman, Gov. Brown once again ignored California’s worsening housing crisis, instead calling on the state to squirrel away $2 billion on top of required state reserves in order to save for an economic “rainy day.”

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