California housing bills run into wall of union resistance

When state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, shelved a bill to promote the conversion of church parking lots into affordable housing last week because he couldn’t reach an agreement on labor provisions, it marked another loss in a legislative session that is shaping up to be a dud on housing production.

Despite promises that California’s housing shortage would be a priority this year, a package to streamline project approvals and spur more construction has been thinned out by conflicts over local control, gentrification and environmental protections, as well as the sheer lack of time in a session cut short by the coronavirus pandemic.

Affordable-housing developers have raised concerns after numerous bills withered in the face of opposition from the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, a powerful advocate at the Capitol for legislation that could bring jobs to the hundreds of thousands of construction workers in its unions.

The trades pushed to include hiring guarantees for skilled workers in measures meant to make it easier to build — including for projects designed to be affordable for low-income Californians, which were exempted in a legislative deal on the issue three years ago. As lawmakers prepare to break at the end of August until next year, the conflict remains unresolved.

“Some of what happened this year, quite frankly, came out of the blue,” said Ray Pearl, executive director of the California Housing Consortium, which represents builders and other advocates for affordable housing. “We were genuinely surprised. This is new. And this is not the deal we came up with in 2017.”

Robbie Hunter, president of the building trades council, said construction workers are trying to ensure they do not get left behind as the Legislature accelerates its efforts to remove obstacles in the housing approval process, which unions often use to win concessions on projects. Without those protections, he said, workers are at risk of being exploited by developers and contractors.

“You’re taking away our voice. And if you’re taking away our voice, then we should be included in the deal,” Hunter said. “We’re not the problem here. We’re the answer to the problem.” Read more >>>