SACRAMENTO – Today a bipartisan group of legislators announced a package of six bills aimed at bringing down the cost of construction to make housing more affordable. The package builds off the work of the Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation, chaired by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), and the recent report published by UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, “Potential Pathways to Scale Innovative Construction Methods in California.”
Informed by months of research, interviews, tours, and two public hearings, the Housing Innovation bill package addresses the barriers that prevent modern and innovative methods of construction from scaling across California.
“California is a leader in innovation—it’s time we apply that mindset to solving our housing crisis,” said Assemblymember Wicks. “We’re still building homes like we did a hundred years ago, and it’s not enough to address the housing shortage we’re facing today. The Housing Innovation bill package is a bipartisan effort to bring down costs so that we can build housing more quickly and more affordably for our working-class families.”
California continues to grapple with a housing crisis fueled by an extreme imbalance between the need for housing and the supply of housing available. High and rising construction costs contribute to many potential projects becoming financially infeasible, which continues the undersupply of new housing. This is particularly true for affordable housing projects.
Despite California being a global leader in technology and innovation, housing construction methods used today have not significantly evolved over the last century. Modern and innovative construction methods—such as factory-built housing and 3D printed housing—have the potential to produce housing more quickly, more affordably, and in a more environmentally friendly manner. Yet these innovative construction methods produce only a small fraction of the housing built in California.
The Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation was established to understand what barriers exist to scaling those methods across California, and to determine what role the State can play in supporting necessary innovation. Over the last six months, the members of the Select Committee heard from material suppliers, manufacturers, labor unions, developers, investors, government officials, and advocates about the challenges that exist and potential solutions.
The Housing Innovation bill package addresses key barriers including fragmented building code interpretation and enforcement, financial risk, misaligned fee schedules and funding streams, and high transportation costs. By easing these points of friction, lawmakers aim to unlock the potential of modern and innovative construction methods to bring down costs to make housing more affordable for working-class Californians.
Included below is a list of statements from bill authors and others, and an overview of all the bills in the Housing Innovation package.
What Housing Innovation Bill Authors and Others Are Saying:
“California needs to think creatively about how we build. I authored AB 2058 to modernize how the state oversees factory-built housing, helping these homes move from production to communities with clear standards. This bill is a practical step toward building more homes and supporting families in places like the San Gabriel Valley, where rising housing costs continue to create real challenges.” — Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena)
“AB 2012 is a commonsense bill that will lower the transportation costs of manufactured homes and factory-built housing by allowing larger, more efficient housing modules to be shipped in California, while still maintaining safe conditions. This bill simply increases the housing width allowed to be transported while reducing the current escort requirements, which will significantly reduce the overall costs of this housing.” — Assemblymember Josh Hoover (R-Folsom)
“Our research finds that scaling factory-built housing in California depends less on technological advancement and more on addressing barriers across policy, financing, and project delivery. This legislative package reflects those insights and highlights Assemblymember Wicks’ leadership in grounding policy discussions in evidence and stakeholder engagement. That connection between research and policymaking is a critical part of any effort to meaningfully improve housing delivery at scale.” — Ben Metcalf, Managing Director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, CEO of Terner Labs, and former HCD Director overseeing California’s factory-built housing program
“With rising construction costs making it harder than ever to build the affordable homes Californians need, CHC applauds Asm. Wicks and the members of the Select Committee for leading this effort to support innovations in the construction industry that can help bring down the cost of producing housing. The package of bills introduced will streamline and accelerate production of factory-built housing at every stage of the process—providing the certainty this promising new segment of the housing industry needs to deliver high-quality, low-cost homes in every California community. CHC is proud to serve as sponsor of several of these bills, and we look forward to working with the Legislature to advance the full legislative package.” — Ray Pearl, Executive Director of California Housing Consortium
“There simply isn’t enough on-site labor to build our way out of the housing crisis using traditional methods alone—and the labor scarcity issue is only worsening over time, particularly in California. Offsite construction acts as a force multiplier, enabling high-quality homes to be delivered faster, more efficiently, and with more predictable costs. By continuing to migrate residential construction towards offsite methods, we can drive efficiencies, lower the cost of building homes and bring more attainable options to market.” — Sean Roberts, CEO of Villa
“The lack of affordable homes is California’s number one problem. Even a well-paid carpenter can no longer afford a bottom tier home. We can build our way out of this problem, but we need to get started now… with an all-of-the-above strategy in housing construction. Let’s cut the red tape and streamline the process. Our thanks to the Select Committee for getting the ball rolling.” — Pete Rodriguez, Vice President of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America
“California's building codes were written for a different era of construction. As we face a housing crisis of historic proportions, we can’t afford to let outdated standards slow down the innovations that could help us build faster and more affordably. Modernizing codes to fully embrace modular and prefabricated housing isn’t just a technical fix — it’s a housing production strategy. We’re grateful to Assemblymember Wicks and this select committee for creating space to have this conversation and move California forward.” — Ali Sapirman, Policy and Advocacy Manager of Housing Action Coalition
“This slate of bills marks a watershed moment for factory-built housing in California. Our industry — like a powerful river held back by a dam — has built significant innovation and production potential but remains stagnant without outlets. Today, these bills open thoughtful legislative pathways to reshape the state’s homebuilding landscape. Together, we can harness this capacity to sustainably scale mass production and increase housing supply. We thank Chair Wicks for her visionary leadership and anticipate strong market-driven results.” — Alex Shea, CFO of US Offsite
Overview of Bills in the Housing Innovation Package:
- AB 306 (Schultz and Hadwick): Language forthcoming. When in print, the bill will create a process for there to be binding statewide interpretations of the building code so that new technologies can scale across jurisdictions as they emerge. Current bill in print was included in last year’s budget as part of AB 130.
- AB 1815 (Wicks): Prohibits local jurisdictions from imposing or enforcing building standards that exceed the state minimum building standards on a factory-built housing project.
- AB 2012 (Hoover): Modifies shipping procedures to reduce factory-built housing transportation costs associated with highway escorts.
- AB 2058 (Harabedian): Gives developers the option to utilize statewide building inspectors for on-site inspection of factory-built housing projects.
- AB 2166 (Carrillo): Directs a state entity to provide a financial backstop to make projects whole in case of factory failure.
- AB 2185 (Quirk-Silva): Provides for the systematic review and revision of state funding programs to make them work for the unique circumstances involved in approving and financing factory-built housing projects.
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