California lawmakers vote to fast-track low-income housing on churches' lands
apnews.com
California lawmakers have voted to fast-track low-income housing on surplus land owned by nonprofit colleges and religious institutions.

Religious institutions and nonprofit colleges in California could soon turn their parking lots and other properties into low-income housing to help combat the ongoing homeless crisis, lawmakers voted on Thursday.

The legislation would rezone land owned by nonprofit colleges and religious institutions, such as churches, mosques, and synagogues, to allow for affordable housing. They would be able to bypass most local permitting and environmental review rules that can be costly and lengthy.

California is home to 171,000 homeless people — about 30% of all homeless people in the U.S. The crisis has sparked a movement among religious institutions, dubbed “yes in God’s backyard,” or “YIGBY,” in cities across the state, with a number of projects already in the works.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    421·
    1 year ago

    The bill would also require school boards to approve instructional materials that include accurate depictions of LGBTQ+ people and their contributions. It would ban school boards from rejecting textbooks because they mention the contributions of people with a particular racial background or sexual orientation.

    For all the failures of my state (see 30% of all unhoused in the US without tearing our teeth out to solve it (that’s a movie reference)), this is about as anti-Florida as one could get. I’m proud of this.