Elk Grove will fight California AG lawsuit alleging city broke state affordable housing law

Elk Grove will fight a state lawsuit alleging the city violated California affordable housing law, council members decided last week.

The 5-0 city council vote in closed session Wednesday sets the stage for the legal battle ahead with state officials.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta made good earlier this month on past threats to sue after Elk Grove leaders rejected the Oak Rose affordable housing project planned for Elk Grove Boulevard and Kent Street in the city’s historic Old Town.

“They’ve resisted the law time and time again. They have left us no choice,” Bonta said in announcing the lawsuit. “Everyone deserves to have a place to call home,” Bonta said adding the Elk Grove lawsuit “sends a strong message to local governments: if you violate fair housing laws, we will hold you to account.”

How the case of Bonta v. Elk Grove will pan out is not clear. City officials declined to discuss details Thursday citing the pending suit, but said in a statement that they hoped for a resolution, saying Elk Grove “will continue to work with its partners in the region to address housing needs.”

“The path toward resolution of the case could take various routes. Given the variables inherent in litigation, and the fact that the case is in its early stages, the city is not in a position to address details of the case at this time,” officials said. “The city does, however, look forward to a resolution of the case.”

Elk Grove leaders continue to defend the city’s record on affordable housing pointing to new projects including Bruceville Road’s 387-unit Poppy Grove Apartments.

“The city of Elk Grove is not a bad actor,” Singh-Allen said earlier this month in response to the state’s lawsuit. “Elk Grove has a strong track record for supporting affordable housing projects.”

Bonta in 2021 created a team within the California Department of Justice dedicated to enforcing state housing laws. Gov. Gavin Newsom said holding local governments to account for reducing the state’s homeless crisis and increasing its affordable housing stock would stand atop his list of priorities in his second term. Bonta sued the city of Huntington Beach in April after years of skirmishes between the state and the Orange County city over housing enforcement.

State housing officials initially sounded the alarm last October in a scathing report that charged the city broke state law, employed double standards and failed to fulfill its own goals of promoting and providing affordable housing stock when it rejected plans for the low-income apartments.

Oak Rose’s developers, who had filed their own lawsuit against Elk Grove before the state’s October report to compel the city to approve the project, said their planned 67-unit, three-story development would be the first permanent housing project in Elk Grove for the homeless.

Housing officials in the October report said Elk Grove should “at a minimum, (provide) a specific plan for corrective action, including allowing the project to move forward.”

Elk Grove leaders maintained that they continue to work with Oak Rose’s developers to find an alternative site even as they bitterly complain that state law wrests away local governments’ control to make decisions on affordable housing projects.