Mahan: The key to lower cost housing in California is building at a lower cost

California costs too much. At the very root of our affordability crisis is the high cost of housing. High rents and expensive homes are driving families and high-wage jobs out of California. Our housing crisis makes it harder to hire teachers, child care workers and law enforcement officers; and it is closely linked to our crisis of street homelessness.

My parents, a letter carrier and a teacher, would be unable to afford today the modest house in which my sisters and I were raised.