If you haven’t noticed, our climate is nice and other places are not quite so at times. Swarms of people if given their choice would choose Southern California as their home. Unfortunately, we have made it extremely expensive to buy or build a home here. Total DIF or development impact fees on the average new home in Riverside County add up to more than $65,000 before you put the shovel in the ground. That can build you a pretty nice house in Missouri. Along with West Nile and Zeka viruses we have seen the spread of Nimbyism. Once firmly implanted in the brain it can only be cured by the need to find a place for offspring living in the garage to roost on their own. Bold politicians can help cure the disease by pointing out the hypocrisy of those infected hissing at those who only want the opportunity that they had a few years prior. CEQA or California Environmental Quality Act has been totally weaponized and can kill any project through “death by bureaucracy”. Non-profits like Habitat for humanity help to some degree but the numbers of units needed is approaching crisis levels. Riverside County has lots of open land and could catch up in a few years if we had the political will. This is our biggest challenge and all the answers are in front of our noses. Unlike some things in life, we can actually build our way out of this and choose fine modern homes over tents. Like camping on vacation, “It’s a nice place to visit but I’d hate to live here.”
Hewitt Housing/Homelessness Q2
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