Assemblyman takes on EDD failure, financing housing

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — At the end of April, just four months after administering the first COVID-19 vaccine in the county, Contra Costa reached the impressive milestone of one million vaccine doses given.

Thanks to the residents of our county, local health-care providers, pharmacies and county staff, Contra Costa was able to accomplish this lofty goal months sooner than expected. While other counties have struggled with vaccine supply and distribution, an impressive 70 percent of the eligible population in Contra Costa have now received at least one dose of the vaccine – providing us with a clear example of what it looks like when government works efficiently to leverage resources and deliver on its goals.

Unfortunately, during the pandemic, we have become too familiar with how the government can fail us and affect our families’ livelihood.

An egregious example of this is at the California Employment Development Department (EDD), where the state auditor found that the department had failed for more than a decade to address key operational issues and failed to fulfill its principal duty of discerning legitimate unemployment claims from billions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent ones.

My staff and I continue to personally handle casework for thousands of members of our community who have had their accounts frozen or payments denied, and we will continue to try to pick up the pieces until systemic change is achieved at the EDD.

Right now, as we work to reach the light at the end of the tunnel of the pandemic and begin to rebuild our state’s economy, it is more important than ever that we look to right the wrongs of government ineffectiveness and find ways to better serve Californians and maximize their tax dollars. This is why I have authored Assembly Bill 1135 to address the state’s complex and inefficient housing financing system that is exacerbating our housing and homelessness crises.

As residents of the Bay Area, we feel firsthand the impacts of California’s chronic lack of affordable housing. Recent estimates shows that we need to produce about 125,000 new affordable units annually through 2029 in order to meet the needs of Californians. But between 2015 and 2019, we produced an average of just 19,000 units.

We are an order of magnitude away from the levels of production that we need. Until we address the systemic issues in how California finances the production of affordable housing, homes will continue to be built too slowly and hard-working families will continue to struggle.

AB 1135 will help address those systemic issues by consolidating our state’s complex, multi-agency housing finance authority into a single location. Under the direction of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH), AB 1135 will create a one-stop-shop for affordable housing finance and reduce redundant processes, create operational efficiencies, and make better use of the state’s affordable housing dollars.

This is a simple, yet substantial change that can take us one step closer to achieving our goal of building California out of our housing crisis.
At every level of government, we must ask the hard question of if we are doing enough to efficiently and effectively serve people. Whether it be leveraging state resources for vaccine supply, overhauling the EDD or restructuring our housing finance systems, I promise to ask that question and fight for the only acceptable answer: “Yes.”

If you’d like to learn more about the work I’m doing in Sacramento or need assistance navigating a state agency, please call my Concord District Office at 925-521-1511.

Reach Assemblyman Tim Grayson at (925) 521-1511. Visit or write the district office 2151 Salvio Street, Suite P, Concord, CA 94520