California is grappling with three simultaneous crises: a shortage of affordable housing, land use decisions that subject vulnerable people and communities to dirty air and water, and rapid climate change that has led to record heat waves and dangerous wildfires. We count on our lawmakers to write and pass laws to combat these challenges. Unfortunately, AB 1893, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and sponsored by Attorney General Rob Bonta, will make them worse.

At a time when we need significantly more affordable housing, AB 1893 reduces housing affordability requirements. State law currently includes a policy hammer called the “builder’s remedy.” The builder’s remedy provides that if cities and counties have not adopted adequate housing plans, they must approve housing projects that include at least 20 percent of units affordable to people with low incomes—janitors, childcare providers, new teachers, restaurant workers—and exempts these developments from most local zoning. It ensures that California plans for enough housing for people at all income levels and thus meaningfully contributes to local affordable housing needs, recognizing that those needs are the most unmet across the state.

Inexplicably, AB 1893 calls for reducing the affordable housing requirements for Builder’s Remedy projects—from 20 percent to just 13 percent—and restricts local governments from imposing more rigorous affordability requirements. Builder’s remedy projects already receive substantial benefits that make construction more lucrative. This bill will allow for-profit developers to build developments that are out of reach for most Californians with only token amounts of affordable housing, putting lower income people at even greater risk of displacement and gentrification. Lawmakers should be looking for ways to guarantee safe and affordable housing, not corporate profits.

Read the full op-ed by Executive Director Shashi Hanuman in the Capitol Weekly here.