An in-depth look at all of the consequential bills Governor Jerry Brown has signed or will sign into law. Then, a super-sized On The Lot highlights the Emmys.
California passed a new housing package. How much will it help?
Think you're paying too much to live in California? So does the state Legislature.
Last Friday, lawmakers passed a package of 15 bills at the very end of the session.
Together, the bills will create more money for low-income housing and make housing easier to build.
But will they be enough to end a state housing crunch, where about a third of renters devote more than half their income to rent?
Take Two tackled some of these questions with KPCC housing reporter Josie Huang.
Are these bills giving the crisis an "eviction notice"?
No.
But no one – not even the bills' sponsors – said the bills were going to fix the problem. They called them a good first step.
Passage of the housing package was a way for legislators to let their constituents know that they hear you and were actually doing something about housing.
How much money will these bills raise?
Let's tackle the biggest pieces one-by-one.
Senate Bill 2, which needs the Governor's signature, is projected to raise $250 million each year for subsidized housing for low-income people.
Senate Bill 3, which will be on the November 2018 ballot, would ask voters statewide to greenlight $3 billion dollars for low-income housing and $1 billion dollars for home loans for military veterans.
How many more homes can that create in California?
To keep prices where they are at now, the state’s housing department says California needs to build 180,000 housing units every year. That will keep up with demand.
But right now less than 100,000 units are built annually, so the state falls short by 80,000 – that's why prices are increasing.
Governor Brown's office estimates building one unit costs $332,000.
Do the math, and SB 2 can pay for about 750 extra homes every year.
Meanwhile supporters of SB 3 say if it passes, it can fund the creation and rehabilitation of around 50,000 affordable units. But that's a one-time bond measure and would not repeat year-after-year.
So both of these measures combined won't make much of a dent in that 80,000 extra units that are needed annually.
What about speeding up the home-building process to make it cheaper?
That's what Senate Bill 35 does.
If a community isn't meeting its state-mandated share of creating those 180,000 housing units, then developers can speed past some of the approvals process for a project.
As long as a builder meets basic zoning and other requirements, they can start digging.
That would save them time, money and legal headaches.
But it's unclear how many more units would get built as a result of it – supporters say it's hard to say.
What’s the net effect of these bills passing?
These bills will mostly benefit low-income households. They will have a slightly better chance of getting into one of these affordable units.
But demand for all housing remains high, and keeps growing.
So another number to watch for is $250 billion.
The state’s legislative analyst office says spending that much on housing will give relief to the nearly two million renters in California who put more than half their paycheck towards rent.
But that's a number no one's even talking about.
CA lawmakers have passed the 'sanctuary state' bill. Here's what it means
A bill passed Saturday by lawmakers puts California on track to become the country's first so-called "sanctuary state."
The bill, which passed by a party-line vote, is now headed to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it.
If signed into law, it would place limits on how law enforcement is allowed to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Niels Frenzen, director of the Immigration Clinic at the USC Gould School of Law, explained to Take Two what will happen if the bill gets signed:
- There would be a statewide restriction on jails (typically run by sheriff's departments) from notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when certain immigrants who have been convicted or charged with minor criminal offenses are released from custody.
- The law would prohibit the transfer of immigrants with minor criminal convictions directly from jail custody to ICE.
Frenzen offers an example:
If someone was arrested ... as a street vendor, failure to produce adequate identity documents during a traffic stop, or for jay-walking, those types of individuals, if booked into custody, would not be turned over to ICE, even if they were convicted, Frenzen said.
Frenzen added there is list of crimes that will NOT result in transfer to federal authorities and it was expanded at the request of Governor Brown before the legislature voted on the Sanctuary Law bill. But, regardless of this new law, undocumented people with felony convictions can be turned over to ICE, Frenzen said.
Press the blue play button above to hear more about what could happen if the "sanctuary state" bill is signed into law.
Does low turnout for the Rams and Chargers mean LA is just not an NFL town?
There's been a lot of excitement about the return of the NFL to Los Angeles – and, a lot of hype.
The Rams came back last year. The Chargers joined them this season, ready to battle for the hearts and minds of L.A.'s football fan base with a marketing campaign.
Turns out, there might not be much to fight for.
On Sunday, the Rams and Chargers played games at the same time and just 13 miles apart. The combined attendance for both games was less than what the USC Trojans drew the night before. Just to show the numbers: 56,612 audience for the Rams plus the 25,381-Chargers only brings the total size to 81,993. The Trojans brought in a crowd of 84,714.
Makes you wonder if L.A. is just not an NFL-kind of town?
According to Vincent Bonsignore, NFL columnist for the Southern California News Group, that might be a bit presumptuous. For starters, comparing the crowds between college football and the NFL is like comparing apples to oranges.
"NFL fans are used to going to high-end stadiums, where there's clubs and there's restaurants and there's things to do," said Bonsignore in an interview with Take Two host A Martínez. "Whereas college fans enjoy tailgating, going to the game and then leaving. And that's basically the ritual of the college experience, so there's that to consider."
To listen to the full interview, use the blue media player above.
A 'non-binary' gender designation: important for inclusion and safety
There were hundreds of bills that made its way to Governor Jerry Brown's desk over the weekend, among them, "The Gender Recognition Act."
If he signs it, it will create a "non-binary" designation for birth certificates and state identification, non-binary meaning neither identifying as male or female. It will also make it easier for people to change their gender on those official documents.
Laws similar to these have already been passed in Oregon and D.C. earlier this year, but they've been common practice in countries like Canada and New Zealand for some time.
Corinne Green is a Policy staffer at the Transgender Law Center. She's been reading up on this bill. When she spoke to A Martinez, she explained the importance of having this type of legislation statewide.
"It's really important for most people to have access to appropriate identification, right? You go to the movie theater, you go to a bar, you're always showing I.D.
And for trans and non-binary people, it can be dangerous not to have identification that matches their presentation. You might get outed accidentally, and so what this bill does, is it makes it accessible for non-binary people to get non-binary designations on their ID's so that it appropriately reflects who they are."
To hear more about this bill entails and how it could set the table for future legislation like this, click the blue play button above.
On the Lot: Whole lotta Hulu at the Emmys, hating Mother!
It's best known as a place for watching reruns, like Seinfeld. But overnight, Hulu may now get a little more respect.
Its signature series, The Handmaid's Tale, won eight awards at last night's Emmys, includingbest drama and best actress for Elizabeth Moss. Vanity Fair's Rebecca Keegan says it's hard to overestimate how important this is to the streaming service, which trails far behind Netflix and Amazon in subscribers.
Overall, the night was great for the streamers, and further evidence that TV viewer continue their march away from traditional networks and cable channels to on-demand, internet-delivered services.
Vanity Fair's Keegan also fills us in on the polarized response to Darren Aronofsky's film, Mother! Starring Jennifer Lawrence, it has the distinction of receiving and "F" rating by audiences surveyed by CinemaScore. Still, some fans, and not a few critics found it satisfying. Regardless, it opened in more than 2000 theaters, and managed to bring in only $7.5 million.