California’s next governor steps into a housing crisis that has resisted years of legislative and financial efforts. As Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, the state’s two leading candidates, recognize the urgency, attention has turned to which executive actions could be taken in the first 100 days to address the shortage and rising costs. The 2026 gubernatorial race revolves around housing affordability and homelessness. Becerra, a former California attorney general and U.S. health secretary, is the Democratic candidate. Hilton, a former Fox News host and adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, represents the Republican Party. Both have put housing and homelessness at the center of their campaigns. Becerra highlights housing construction, permitting deadlines, and expanded down-payment assistance. Hilton focuses on housing costs, homelessness, infrastructure spending, and wildfire preparedness.
The power to declare a housing state of emergency stands out as one of the most direct tools. Under the California Emergency Services Act, the governor can temporarily override certain state and local rules that slow housing development. There is precedent for this: during the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom used emergency powers to speed up procurement and halt evictions, then issued executive orders to suspend housing review rules after major wildfires. Using this authority for the housing crisis could mean suspending approval processes like the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for specific projects, opening government-owned land for new homes, or pausing local impact fees and sales tax on construction materials. These steps would be temporary and could face legal challenges or pushback from local governments, so legislative action would be needed for lasting change. The California Emergency Services Act does not automatically remove all statutory or local housing requirements. Any move to suspend CEQA or other regulations would need project-specific legal review and could be challenged in court.
Executive Orders and Agency Directives
Beyond emergency declarations, the governor can direct state agencies to create and carry out plans that target structural barriers to housing supply. For example, the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) could be assigned to design a revolving fund to help small builders finance “missing middle” housing—such as duplexes and fourplexes—which research from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation points to as critical for expanding homeownership. The administration could also tell CalHFA to fast-track programs like Proposition 37, if approved, to support second mortgage assistance and encourage for-sale housing projects. Changes to the CalHome program could prioritize grants for small-scale developments and accessory dwelling units.
Building code reform offers another path for executive action. The governor could direct the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), the State Fire Marshal, and the California Building Standards Commission to create a code pathway for small multifamily buildings, cutting costs for missing middle projects. A 100-day timeline could be set for developing proposals and safety analyses for the earliest possible adoption. HCD reports that annual residential construction in California has increased by 50% since 2018, showing the impact of recent policy changes and executive actions. The state also reported a 6.8% drop in unsheltered homelessness, the largest numerical reduction by any state, with the Homekey program creating nearly 16,000 interim and permanent homes since 2019 and serving 30,000 people.
Permanent Supportive Housing and Service Funding
California’s investment in permanent supportive housing (PSH) for people experiencing homelessness faces rising operating costs and uncertain service funding. The next governor could order HCD, CalHFA, and health agencies to produce a comprehensive report on the financial health of state-assisted PSH properties, identifying risks such as operating deficits, insurance exposure, and service-funding gaps. Recommendations could include administrative relief and budget requests for unmet needs. The Homekey+ program, backed by Proposition 1, has funded 2,905 permanent supportive homes since its 2024 launch, with 828 of those homes designated for veterans. In October 2026, HCD announced five additional projects totaling 329 homes, including 168 reserved for California veterans, and $115 million in new Proposition 1 awards for five communities. The first Homekey+ awards were issued less than six months after the program’s notice of funding availability, with groundbreakings taking place by December 2025. Homekey+ is structured to accelerate supportive-housing production for Californians with behavioral-health needs and veterans, building on the original Homekey program’s delivery of nearly 16,000 homes statewide since 2019.
To protect the use of Medi-Cal for supportive services in PSH, the governor could direct the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to clarify eligibility standards, update guidance with current cost data, and require managed care plans to provide more notice before changing rates or policies. Adding supportive housing providers to DHCS’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee and developing a plan to bridge funding gaps between Medi-Cal, county behavioral health, and other sources could also be prioritized.
Governance, Accountability, and Technology
Enforcing housing laws and consolidating state housing functions remain ongoing challenges. The governor could instruct HCD to review and, if necessary, decertify the Housing Element of cities or counties that fall behind on their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) targets. Decertification would open the door for developers to bypass local rules under the Builder’s Remedy, while HCD could offer technical assistance to help jurisdictions regain compliance through regulatory reforms and expedited permitting. The authority to decertify a jurisdiction’s Housing Element resides with HCD, not the governor directly, but executive direction can prioritize compliance reviews and enforcement actions. The state’s Housing Element and RHNA system provide mechanisms for pressuring jurisdictions that fail to plan for required housing production, including missed rezoning deadlines and adoption of unlawful constraints.
Efforts to streamline affordable housing financing could include pilots with regional agencies like the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, combining state and local funds through a single application and coordinated underwriting. The governor could also order a 100-day operational review of housing agencies to identify duplicative processes and recommend automation or consolidation, potentially freeing resources for further restructuring.
To support local governments with limited planning capacity, a housing permit-technology initiative could be launched, identifying uses for AI automation and piloting shared contracts with vendors to reduce permit review times and train local officials.
Reducing Construction Costs and Expanding Supply
California’s construction costs for new housing far exceed those in peer states, with the average market-rate apartment costing more than twice as much as in Texas, according to RAND. The governor could require agencies to assess the impact of new rules on housing costs and publish a prioritized package of cost-reducing building code proposals within 100 days. These could include reforms for single-stair apartment buildings and adaptive reuse, building on findings from the 2026 State Fire Marshall Single Stair Exit Legislative Report. Recent state policy has included CEQA-related reforms intended to reduce procedural barriers, with HCD reporting that Governor Newsom signed reforms designed to break down systemic barriers to housing construction, including broad CEQA reforms. This provides a foundation for the next governor to build on enacted statutory changes rather than rely solely on emergency powers.
Industrialized construction methods, such as factory-built housing, could be scaled up by introducing financial backstops for developers and setting targets for the share of state-subsidized affordable homes built using these techniques. The administration could also direct CalHFA to identify entitled projects stalled by financing gaps and pilot bridge-loan or credit-enhancement programs to restart construction, with requirements for affordability and private risk-sharing.
Finally, the governor could seek commitments from California’s business community—tech, healthcare, finance, and others—to provide low-cost capital, land, or philanthropic grants to accelerate affordable housing projects.
While the first 100 days offer a window for rapid executive action, the next governor’s long-term impact will depend on sustained collaboration with the legislature to address the structural causes of California’s housing crisis. As of 2025, California’s federal homelessness tally stood at 181,934 people, including 115,583 living unsheltered, and nearly $24 billion in state homelessness spending has been cited in campaign debates. Steve Hilton has proposed an audit initiative called "Operation Zero Waste" to examine the effectiveness of this spending and has set a December 31, 2027 deadline for clearing encampments, with local action expected by Labor Day 2027 before state intervention. Hilton’s homelessness plan emphasizes recovery centers combining mental-health and addiction treatment with job training, while Becerra’s housing proposal includes declaring a state of emergency to finance 40,000 already-approved housing units and holding cities accountable for delays in new construction. For further details on the legal and policy landscape, see the California Department of Housing and Community Development October 2026 archive and ABC7 campaign interview coverage.
