I Have Some Questions for the Democrats Who Want to Run California

What It Covers

Ezra Klein moderates a 92-minute forum with five leading California Democratic gubernatorial candidates — Tom Steyer, Javier Becerra, Katie Porter, Matt Mahan, and Antonio Villaraigosa — focused exclusively on California's housing crisis, examining construction costs, city-state conflicts, homelessness policy, and why thousands of permitted homes remain unbuilt despite years of pro-housing legislation.

Key Questions Answered

• •Construction speed as cost driver: A RAND study shows California takes 49 months to complete multifamily housing versus 27 months in Texas and 37 in Colorado. Katie Porter argues speed is the primary cost driver, not labor or materials alone. Closing that 22-month gap could reduce construction costs by 10–20% on market-rate units. Candidates broadly support a uniform statewide permit system and capping local fee add-ons within 30–45 days of permit issuance.
• •Local impact fees as a hidden tax: San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan reduced local one-time development fees by over two-thirds, resulting in 2,000 homes breaking ground within a year and another 2,000 securing financing. He argues the state should cap local fees statewide and require cities seeking higher fees to submit a feasibility study proving the project still pencils financially — removing the cottage industry of loose "nexus studies" inflating costs by 10–20%.
• •Prevailing wage trade-off: Paying prevailing wage on residential construction increases per-unit cost by approximately $94,000 according to Turner Center analysis. Porter is the only candidate who explicitly told labor federations she opposes applying skilled-and-trained requirements to residential housing today, accepting political backlash. Becerra argues tiered standards — prevailing wage only above roughly eight stories — can balance worker pay with affordability, though no candidate quantifies how much that saves.
• •Cities resist housing partly because it's fiscally unfunded: Tom Steyer frames local obstruction not purely as NIMBYism but as a rational fiscal response — new residents cost cities money in schools and services that Prop 13-constrained property taxes don't cover. His proposed solution is a ballot initiative closing a corporate real estate tax loophole worth over $20 billion, converting housing from an unfunded mandate into a funded one, giving cities a financial reason to approve projects rather than resist them.
• •Homelessness prevention costs $6,000 versus $800,000–$1,000,000 per unit: Porter cites Audacious Foundation research showing direct cash assistance at the moment of eviction or foreclosure costs a median of $6,000 per family and keeps most people housed. San Jose's prevention model, studied by Notre Dame, shows over 92% of households receiving one-time rental assistance paired with case management remain housed long-term without ongoing public subsidy — reducing homelessness inflow by 50%.
• •Interim housing outperforms shelters at moving people indoors: Steyer argues only one in seven people who becomes homeless initially has a mental health condition, but nearly everyone who remains unsheltered long-term develops one. He distinguishes emergency interim housing — private rooms with keys, pets allowed, no sobriety requirements, wraparound services — from traditional shelters, claiming roughly 70% of unsheltered people will accept interim housing versus far fewer accepting shelter beds, making it faster and cheaper than permanent supportive housing at $750,000–$1,000,000 per unit.
• •Affordable housing costs four times more per square foot than Texas market-rate: The same RAND study shows California market-rate construction costs roughly twice Texas market-rate per square foot, but California affordable housing costs approximately four times Texas market-rate. Porter attributes this to affordable developers assembling financing from seven or more separate funding pools simultaneously — losing eligibility in one source can reset the entire project. Consolidating into one larger funding pool and contributing state-owned land are her two primary cost-reduction levers for affordable housing specifically.