State of the Bay: Housing vs Local Control

State of the Bay: Housing vs Local Control

July 20, 2026 · 11 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges of housing in San Francisco and recent California laws affecting local control over housing decisions.

Keeping up with your rent in San Francisco is not for the faint of heart. Online rental services were showing that the average monthly rent for a one bedroom home was more than four thousand dollars, and a two bedroom was averaging at five thousand seven hundred dollars. Housing is a perpetual topic here in the Bay Area and for decades, cities have largely gotten to decide what could be built and where you could build . But over the last few years, California has passed a number of laws trying to shift those decisions to the state. Today, a conversation about the laws that are now coming into effect this month. We hear from Sarah Dennis Phillips, SF Planning Director and David Garcia , Policy Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. They spoke with State of the Bay host Grace Won.

People in this episode

Host: Grace Won

Guests: Sarah Dennis Phillips, David Garcia

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Terner Center for Housing Innovation

Places: San Francisco, California, Bay Area

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