California’s 2026 governor candidates are putting housing affordability near the center of the campaign. Rent, mortgages, construction costs, home insurance, and homelessness now dominate a race shaped by residents leaving the state over cost pressures.
The shift marks a change from earlier elections, according to Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action. She said candidates are now expected to present a housing plan and explain how they would deliver more affordable homes.
Each candidate is trying to stand out in California’s most competitive gubernatorial primary in two decades. Many are using similar themes: lower construction costs, broader access to homeownership, and fewer people living outside.
The differences sit in the details. Some voters also say the campaign still misses issues tied directly to housing risk.
Katherine Peoples-McGill drove from Altadena to Oakland this month for a debate hosted by the Housing Action Coalition and other housing nonprofits. She runs the Rebuild Center for Altadenans, which helps survivors of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
Peoples-McGill said she was disappointed that none of the candidates had visited her center or raised wildfires in their comments. She said Altadena’s experience could happen elsewhere in California.
Home insurance reform has received more attention.
Major insurers, including Allstate, State Farm, and American International Group, have left parts of the California market or pulled back from writing new policies.
More Californians have moved to the state’s FAIR Plan, which describes itself as an insurer of last resort. As of March, more than 684,000 homes and businesses had FAIR Plan policies.
That figure represents a 152% increase in active policies compared with September 2022. Insurance experts have warned that the trend creates risk for the system.
Private insurers gave the FAIR Plan $1 bn last year to keep it solvent and help pay claims tied to the Los Angeles fires.
Industry observers told KQED that one large fire could drain the FAIR Plan’s reserves.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a March California Association of Realtors forum that he is on the un-FAIR plan. He said if his house burned down, he would not receive enough money to rebuild it.
Rebuilding faster and cheaper has become one area where candidates show broad agreement. The issue matters for disaster recovery and for new housing supply.
A RAND study published last year found California is the most expensive U.S. state for apartment construction.
Candidates have repeatedly used that finding to argue for lower costs in both market-rate and subsidized housing.
State lawmakers and Congress are also looking at factory-built housing. A bipartisan federal bill would create incentives for manufactured housing projects nationwide.
In California, lawmakers are working on bills to support the sector locally. Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks is leading the state package.
Wicks said factory-built housing has not grown as expected because the building industry has lacked consistent support. She said California’s next governor needs the political will to take hard housing fights directly.
Wicks has not endorsed a candidate. Democratic candidates Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, and Xavier Becerra have each argued that modular and factory-built construction could shorten timelines and reduce process delays.
Other candidates have focused on traditional construction. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has proposed building 2 mn affordable homes on surplus land owned by school districts.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco wants to reduce regulation on the building industry. Steve Hilton and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan have discussed caps on fees that cities charge developers to offset new development.
A UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation study found impact fees account for less than 5% of total development costs. Even so, the study found those fees can still deter projects.
Hilton has argued for a simpler approach. He wants to cap those fees at 3% of construction costs, saying years of smaller reforms have barely changed outcomes.
Lower construction costs matter in a state where owning now costs more than renting in many cities. Several candidates support a $25 bn bond headed for the November ballot to support middle-class homeownership.
Thurmond supports existing state down-payment assistance programs, including California Dream For All and CalHome. He has also discussed expanding funding for those programs, which housing advocates have sought.
Candidates split more sharply on renter protections. Steyer, Becerra, Villaraigosa, and Thurmond support some form of government-imposed rent caps, including extending and enforcing the Tenant Protections Act.
That 2019 law limits annual rent increases and restricts evictions. It is set to expire in 2030, during the next governor’s term.
Porter has taken a different position. In a KQED Town Hall, she said she opposes rent control while still supporting the Tenant Protection Act.
Porter argued rent control can slow construction and keep families in homes that no longer fit their needs. She said a household in a rent-controlled unit might feel unable to move even after having children.
Zach Murray, statewide campaign coordinator for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, said Democrats have not addressed concrete affordability needs strongly enough.
He pointed to housing, utilities, and broader cost reductions.
Tenant advocates argue eviction limits can also help prevent homelessness. Preliminary data from the governor’s office showed unsheltered homelessness fell 9% last year.
A 2024 audit from the Legislative Analyst’s Office found Gov. Gavin Newsom spent about $24 bn on homelessness and housing during the previous five fiscal years.
Bianco said on KQED’s Political Breakdown podcast that spending levels mean little without visible results.
Bianco said he would judge progress by fewer tents on sidewalks. His campaign has framed homelessness policy around outcomes rather than total funding.
Bianco, Steyer, Mahan, and Villaraigosa have supported emergency interim shelters as a lower-cost way to move people off the streets. Mahan pointed to his work as San Jose mayor during the Housing Action Coalition forum in May.
Mahan said San Jose created 23 interim housing sites with no-encampment zones around them. He said those zones helped win community support, and service calls for crime and blight fell after residents moved indoors and connected with case management.
