---

 ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/May-2025/041h.jpg)

 [ PLANNING WATCH LA ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=398)

#  California Senate Bill 607. Pigs lining up at the trough.

May 22 2025

Written by Dick Platkin.

<a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_print"></a>[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)

PLANNING WATCH - California State Senator Scott Wiener’s latest giveaway to the real estate and construction industries is [California Senate Bill 607](https://trackbill.com/bill/california-senate-bill-607-california-environmental-quality-act-categorical-exemptions-infill-projects/2670555/). At [CityWatchLA](https://mail.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/30879-sb-607-a-developer-giveaway-that-threatens-public-safety-environmental-protections-and-community-voices) and [elsewhere](https://pcl.org/pcls-capital-insider-may-2025/?blm_aid=1192254) there have been excellent critiques which completely debunk this legislation. Instead my focus is the flawed logic underlying Senate Bill 607. It is yet another YIMBY “housing” bill to feather the nest of real estate investors, despite claims that its purpose is to reduce homelessness and increase transit ridership.

The bill poses as minor changes to the 55-year-old California Environment Quality Act (CEQA), which would become a major step in solving the housing crisis. Its premise is that by reducing legal impediments to new market housing, it addresses California’s epidemics of homelessness, overcrowding, and declining transit ridership through “trickle down” economics. If adopted, this bill would make homelessness and overcrowding even worse by increasing land values. This is why this legislation dramatically raises the cost of housing and, therefore, leads to increased homelessness and overcrowding.

Posing as progressive legislation, this approach to the housing crisis rests on several false claims, in particular blaming land use regulations, particularly CEQA, for the growth of homelessness. According to Senator Wiener, if we eliminate this supposed barrier to housing production, the private sector will quickly solve the problems of homelessness, overcrowding, and declining transit ridership. These predictions, however, rest on two demonstrably false claims:

False claim #1. California’s housing crisis results from regulatory barriers, especially CEQA. In fact, the worsening nationwide housing and overcrowding crises result from [rising economic inequalit](https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/06/study-california-homelessness-crisis/)y, the long-term [cancellation of Federal public housing programs](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fiftieth-anniversary-nixons-housing-moratorium-1973-road-bloom), and corporate investment in houses and apartments.

False claim #2. Local deregulation (i.e., the revocation of local land use and building code regulations) has increased in recent years, based on the faulty assumption that market rate housing “trickles down” and becomes affordable. In the real world trickle down has not and will not happen because the price of less expensive housing has, like all housing, risen much faster than wages. In LA, for example, the real cost of housing has increased three times faster than [wages between the years 2000 to 2025](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/).

![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/May-2025/041h2.jpg)

These false claims hide the real causes of the worsening homeless and overcrowding crises:

- [Increasing economic inequality](https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/income-inequality-in-california.pdf) has priced nearly 200,000 Californians out of housing. In addition, the termination of HUD public housing programs began 50 years during the Nixon administration. As a result, low-income families were slowly forced into over-priced market housing. Since developers do not build low-priced housing, and since older housing has not trickled down to become affordable, the alternatives facing low-income families are to become homeless or to live in overcrowded conditions. These are the real housing trends, and they result from false solutions, such as SB 607.
- [The financializaton of housing](https://shelterforce.org/2022/08/09/the-financialization-of-housing-and-its-implications-for-community-development/), in which investors pour vast amounts of cash to buy single-family homes and apartments, has reduced the home ownership rate and made the housing crisis worse. For example, in Los Angeles [the price of housing has increased roughly twice as fast as actual wages.](https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/793)

![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/May-2025/041h3.jpg)

As a result, programs which rely on deregulation make the housing crisis worse because they increase the value of land, the hidden agenda of the [interest groups](https://48hills.org/2021/05/the-big-yimby-money-behind-housing-deregulation-bills/) behind Senator Wiener’s legislative efforts, including California Senate Bill 607. Once a privately-owned parcel can generate more income for investors through SB 607 or similar legislation, its value increases even though it results in more homelessness, overcrowding, and reduced transit ridership. Luckily for Wiener and [his benefactors,](https://www.housingisahumanright.org/selling-out-california-scott-wiener-money-ties-to-big-real-estate/) the mainstream press echoes his claims rather than reporting actual results. If they reported the truth, that the housing crisis is getting worse because of false solutions like SB 607, Wiener and his allies would be out on the street, with the homeless and overcrowded population they are responsible for.

*(Dick Platkin (<rhplatkin@gmail.com>) is a retired LA city planner, who reports on local planning issues. He is a board member of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles ([UN4LA](https://www.un4la.com/)). Previous columns are available at the [CityWatchLA archives](https://mail.citywatchla.com/search?q=Platkin&Search=&w1=before&d1=&w2=before&d2=&t%5B%5D=&t%5B%5D=&t%5B%5D=&t%5B%5D=).)*

 [ ![save up to 4000 on used evs](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/LADWP/dwp%20ev%20ad2.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/107 "LA DWP | Save $4K, Green | Priority Ad")

 [ ![Donna Tryfman](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/ADS%20FOR%202026/Donna-Tryfman-Ad-Final-Complete-Border-White-Margin.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/98 "Donna Tryfman - HS1-1")

 [ ![LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/LADWP/dwp%20level%20pay%205-7-25.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/82 "LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)")

 [ ![David DeJute Campaign](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/ADS%20FOR%202026/DejuteAd.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/111 "David DeJute Campaign")

 [ ![Pay Water Bill Help](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/LADWP/dwp%20-%20cares-ad.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/97 "Home - LA DWP #2 (Pay Water Bill Help)")

 [ ![Anna Reitano Vertical R. Col](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/ADS%20FOR%202026/reitano%20vertical%20rework.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/112 "Anna Reitano Vertical R. Col")

 ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/banners/signup-for-cw.png)

## Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays &amp; Thursdays

 Phone

 ---

##  Featured CityWatch Stories

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/1c/072d-1c016ddf.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33319:when-the-last-minute-power-play-failed-sacramento-finally-ran-out-of-time&catid=375)

### [When the Last-Minute Power Play Failed: Sacramento Finally Ran Out of Time](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33319:when-the-last-minute-power-play-failed-sacramento-finally-ran-out-of-time&catid=375)

MY THOUGHTS - Gavin Newsom came to the final days of his final regular legislative session with one more major problem…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/4d/073e-4dc54bff.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33336:may-day-international-workers-day-a-major-us-holiday-ignored-by-the-media&catid=398)

### [May Day/International Workers Day, a Major US Holiday Ignored By The Media](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33336:may-day-international-workers-day-a-major-us-holiday-ignored-by-the-media&catid=398)

PLANNING WATCH - Monday, September 7, 2026, was Labor Day, a holiday only celebrated in the United States and Canada as…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/4e/072i-4e4914dd.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33314:olympics-la28s-drip-drip-drip-tactics-leave-los-angeles-holding-the-bag&catid=312)

### [Olympics: LA28’s Drip‑Drip‑Drip Tactics Leave Los Angeles Holding the Bag](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33314:olympics-la28s-drip-drip-drip-tactics-leave-los-angeles-holding-the-bag&catid=312)

NICK'S VIEW - Wonderland Los Angeles, a global symbol of dreams, myths, and possibilities, will take center stage at th…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/12/073d-1253ced3.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33338:quid-pro-no&catid=378)

### [QUID PRO NO](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33338:quid-pro-no&catid=378)

MY VIEW - Quid pro quo: Latin for “this for that.” English for “bribe.” In Assemblymember Schiavo-speak: quid pro no—“N…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/e7/072b-e7b222d1.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33321:1-billion-later-congress-comes-knocking-los-angeles-homelessness-machine-faces-its-day-of-reckoning&catid=396)

### [$1 Billion Later, Congress Comes Knocking: Los Angeles’ Homelessness Machine Faces Its Day of Reckoning](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33321:1-billion-later-congress-comes-knocking-los-angeles-homelessness-machine-faces-its-day-of-reckoning&catid=396)

THE BOTTOM LINE - For years, Los Angeles taxpayers have been told the same thing about homelessness: Give us more money…

---

##  [ PLANNING WATCH LA ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=398)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Sept-2026/073e.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33336:may-day-international-workers-day-a-major-us-holiday-ignored-by-the-media&catid=398)### [May Day/International Workers Day, a Major US Holiday Ignored By The Media](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33336:may-day-international-workers-day-a-major-us-holiday-ignored-by-the-media&catid=398)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Sept-2026/071h.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33306:the-housing-shortage-myth-fabricated-by-developers&catid=398)### [The Housing Shortage Myth Fabricated By Developers](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33306:the-housing-shortage-myth-fabricated-by-developers&catid=398)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Aug-2026/066b.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33238:the-2028-olympics-will-make-las-homeless-and-overcrowding-crises-much-worse&catid=398)### [The 2028 Olympics Will Make LA’s Homeless and Overcrowding Crises Much Worse ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33238:the-2028-olympics-will-make-las-homeless-and-overcrowding-crises-much-worse&catid=398)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/July-2026/056f.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33045:temperature-increases-are-more-dangerous-than-expensive-gasoline&catid=398)### [Temperature Increases Are More Dangerous Than Expensive Gasoline](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33045:temperature-increases-are-more-dangerous-than-expensive-gasoline&catid=398)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/June-2026/050b.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32927:sb-79-developments-in-los-angeles-another-failing-effort-from-sacramento&catid=398)### [SB 79 developments in Los Angeles: Another failing effort from Sacramento](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32927:sb-79-developments-in-los-angeles-another-failing-effort-from-sacramento&catid=398)
<div data-id="1" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-emailform eb-1 eboxContentLocker"
	data-options='{"trigger":"onPageLoad","trigger_selector":"","delay":3000,"early_trigger":true,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":1,"reverse_scroll_close":true,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":10000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"slideInDown","animation_close":"fadeOutDown","animation_duration":400,"disable_page_scroll":true,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #1 - Global Email Signup Form","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog eb-formVer" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog1" aria-label="dialog1">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<form action="https://citywatchla.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=34d69f33624fd058ee9b56516&amp;id=4bfa422f51&amp;f_id=00d6c2e1f0" class="eb" method="post" id="mcform-1" name="mcform-1" target="_blank">
			<div class="eb-form-header"><p><img src="/images/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png" alt="be a city watcher" width="350" height="97" loading="lazy" data-path="local-images:/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png"></p>
<p>Sign up to receive our special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evenings!</p></div>
	
					<div class="eb-field-row">

			
			
			
			<input class="eb-input" type="email" name="EMAIL"  placeholder="Email address"  id="EMAIL" value="" required>

			
		</div>
										
	<div class="eb-footer">
    	<button class="eb-btn" type="submit" name="subscribe" style="background-color:rgba(93, 183, 93, 1);color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)">
    		Sign up    	</button>
    </div>
</form>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
<div data-id="3" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-yesno eb-3 "
	data-options='{"trigger":"onScrollDepth","trigger_selector":"","delay":0,"early_trigger":false,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":2,"reverse_scroll_close":false,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":1000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"fadeInUp","animation_close":"fadeOut","animation_duration":300,"disable_page_scroll":false,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #3 - Yes \/ No Donation Popup Box","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog " role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog3" aria-label="dialog3">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<div class="ebox-yes-no">
	<div class="ebox-yn-text">
		
		
		<div class="ebox-yn-headline" style="font-size:22px;color:#888888">
			<p>If you only give once a month, would you consider giving to CityWatch?</p>
<p>Your support fuels our mission to promote and facilitate civic engagement and neighborhood empowerment, and to hold area government and its politicians accountable.</p>
<p>Would you like to help? Even if you can only give $5, it will make a difference.</p>		</div>
			</div>
	
	<div class="ebox-ys-buttons" style="font-size: 16px;">
		
<a
					data-ebox-prevent="0"
		data-ebox-cmd="close"
				target="_self"
		href="https://www.citywatchla.com/donate"
		rel="noopener"
	
	
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#2ec664;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Yes
	</a>
<a
	
	
			data-ebox-cmd="close"
		href="#"
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#ef2345;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Not Right Now
	</a>	</div>

	</div>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>