Newsom signs package of bills enforcing housing laws [Video]

CALIFORNIA, USA — California cities will soon face more state scrutiny — and new penalties — for pushing back on housing and homeless shelter construction, according to a package of laws signed Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom has been cracking down on what he sees as local resistance and defiance of state laws in the face of California’s desperate need for new housing. The crisis has prompted a surge in the homeless population in the nation’s most populous state.

California has ramped up enforcement of state housing laws the last few years. It sued at least two citieslast year for rejecting affordable housing projects and homes for homeless people. At the bill signing ceremony at an affordable housing site in San Francisco, Newsom also blasted the Southern California city …