“Our low-income clients celebrate the court’s ruling at a moment when displacement and the lack of affordable housing in our state have reached crisis proportions,” said Rebekah Evenson, litigation and advocacy director for Bay Area Legal Aid, which represents the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs included two nonprofit groups, Housing California and Urban Habitat Program, and two individuals, Joana Cruz and Sarah Anderson.

They were represented by Bay Area Legal Aid, Public Advocates, Inc., Public Interest Law Project, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

Another attorney for the plaintiffs hailed the decision as a big win for affordable housing.

“The justices recognized that ‘public land for public good’ isn’t just a slogan, it’s the law of the land in California,” said Sam Tepperman-Gelfant, deputy managing attorney at Public Advocates Inc. “Every city can and must prioritize its surplus land for homes affordable to lower-income families.”

Read the full article by Nicholas Iovino in the Courthouse News Service here.