Ben Christopher covers housing policy for CalMatters. Ben has profiled the people who fell through the cracks of California’s rickety COVID rent relief program, demystified the perennial debate between state regulators and local governments opposed to new housing, covered innovative ideas from cities on how to tackle their local housing shortages and explained how complicated legislative proposals about zoning, bonds and corporate ownership of single-family homes affect everyday Californians.
His favorite reporting assignment so far: Touring the various two- and three-story structures that have sprouted up across San Diego under the regulatory guise of “accessory dwelling units” thanks to that city’s one-of-a-kind program. Prior to taking over the housing beat in the spring of 2023, Ben wrote about elections and politics for CalMatters, covering four election cycles, including the 2021 gubernatorial recall campaign. He has been known to craft the occasional politics-themed crossword puzzle.
Ben has a past life as an aspiring beancounter: He has worked as a summer associate at the Congressional Budget Office and has a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Oakland where he enjoys riding his bike, baking (and then eating) pies and working on his repertoire of dad jokes.
¿Está en camino de ser la primera presidenta demócrata de California? Aquí hay nueve formas en que California dio forma a Kamala Harris y cómo Harris ha dado forma a California.
Is she on track to be the first Democratic president from California? Here are nine ways that California shaped Kamala Harris and that Harris has shaped California.
En tres fallos, la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos asestó un duro golpe a la burocracia federal. Desde la atención sanitaria hasta el clima y los derechos de los trabajadores, las normas de California suelen ir más allá.
In three rulings the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a body blow to the federal bureaucracy. From healthcare to climate to workers’ rights, California’s rules often go farther.
A newly created regional housing finance authority for the entire San Francisco Bay Area will send a bond of up to $20 billion to the ballot. But the fate of its statewide counterpart looks bleak.
La Asociación de Agentes Inmobiliarios de California acuerda no oponerse a una enmienda constitucional para reducir el umbral de aprobación de los votantes para los bonos de vivienda. A cambio, la medida no se aplicará a viviendas unifamiliares. Algunos defensores de la vivienda están enojados por la exclusión.
The California Association of Realtors agrees not to oppose a constitutional amendment to reduce the voter approval threshold for housing bonds. In exchange, the measure will not apply to single-family homes. Some housing advocates are angry about the carve-out.
La Corte Suprema de California dio luz verde a UC Berkeley para construir viviendas para estudiantes y personas sin hogar en People's Park, poniendo fin a un debate legal de años sobre si el ruido de los estudiantes es un contaminante ambiental.
The California Supreme Court gave the greenlight for UC Berkeley to build student and homeless housing at People’s Park, ending a years-long legal debate over whether student noise is an environmental pollutant.