Virginia Postrel, Columnist

California Turns to Homeowners to Help Solve a Crisis

A new state law that allows owners of single-family properties to build guest apartments is showing plenty of promise in easing the housing crunch.

May 21, 2018 at 4:24 PM UTC

By Virginia Postrel

Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”

Talk about potential.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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Policies to address California’s housing crisis have to take into account two stubborn facts: Homeowners are much less likely than renters to want to see more housing. And three-quarters of the state’s voters are homeowners.

Part 1: The roots of California’s housing shortage