, puts us on the precipice of significant change. If passed, the bill by Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, would give voters the opportunity to enshrine housing as a fundamental right in our state Constitution. The constitutional amendment would provide the state with a game-changing legal tool — and an ongoing obligation no matter who is in office — to ensure that every person has access to a permanent, stable home.
It would create an obligation to protect the right to housing from third-party threats. Consider the current financialization of our housing stock that treats our homes solely as a commodity — divorced from any obligation to keep people safe and secure.
Finally, the constitutional amendment would establish a government obligation to fulfill this new right by enacting policies and budgetary allocations to ensure that all Californians have secure housing. That means scaling the solutions that we know work such as vouchers, creating social housing outside of the private market and converting government-owned vacant lots into public housing.
A constitutional amendment wouldn’t end the housing crisis overnight. But it would require the government to raise as many resources as possible for housing without undermining the long-term viability of the economy.Michael Tubbs is the founder of End Poverty in California and the senior fellow for the Rosenberg Foundation. He is a special advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom and former mayor of Stockton. He wrote this commentary for CalMatters.