The Problem & Solution

California has set ambitious goals to address climate change, lower our cost of living, and ensure enough housing is being built to meet our needs. But our policies are not living up to the promises we’ve made.

To deliver, we need a just and inclusive economy where every Californian has the opportunity to prosper.

Today, the high cost of living leaves Californians struggling to make ends meet, much less save for the future–resulting in a crisis of wealth inequality, especially for Black and Latino families. Concurrently, the impacts of climate-driven natural disasters, rising unemployment, declining tax revenues, and a collapsing insurance market have left vulnerable Californians struggling in every corner of our state.

Our crippling housing shortage and affordability crisis is a leading cause of our economic challenges, with fewer Californians able to afford to own a home, save for the future, or choose to live near good jobs, schools, and other community resources. Instead, they are increasingly being forced into areas more vulnerable to climate change impacts to find housing they can afford.

We have created a cycle of economic insecurity that makes it virtually impossible to achieve the California dream.

• Too many Californians are putting the majority of their paycheck towards rent and are often left one emergency away from losing their home.
• Californians are forced into long and expensive commutes that limit access to job opportunities and take a toll on families. In addition to creating new financial burdens, these long commutes increase the carbon emissions that fuel climate change and put working families directly in the path of severe wildfires, floods, and drought. 
• Californians living in areas vulnerable to climate disasters face new threats to their economic security, including the loss of life and property, all while fueling an insurance crisis. That impacts not only those whose homes can no longer be insured but also all Californians dealing with the financial burden of higher rates and fewer options. 
• Because Black and Brown communities are more rent-burdened and own their homes at significantly lower rates, they have lower incomes, less wealth, and suffer greater losses when faced with wildfire destruction. Our current land use policies deepen existing inequities and make economic mobility even harder to achieve.

This is primarily a political problem and not a policy issue. What we need is the necessary political will to implement meaningful change! While many of our elected officials recognize the need to take bolder action, without broad support from advocates across issue areas, the reforms we can pass are too narrow and limited to confront the scale of our problems.

A broad intersectional movement is the best strategy to support legislative champions, create a public demand for real change, and pass transformational reform at scale.

By embracing collective action, and true partnership, we can make the California dream a reality that is accessible to everyone.

Our Approach

⛺ Build Power with a Bigger Tent: By strengthening relationships between advocates for abundant and more affordable housing, climate change mitigation, and racial and economic justice, we can build the muscle needed to ensure equal opportunity for all Californians. Working together, we can build consensus and align strategies and impact.

🎯 Prioritize Strategy, Seize Opportunity: Prosperity California is not just another think tank. We partner with policy experts and researchers to develop actionable strategies that can lead to meaningful policy reforms. We focus on assessing feasibility and designing a Big Tent strategy to secure and effectively implement those reforms. We build broad-based partnerships across issue areas and when there is a window to create meaningful change, we mobilize with partners who are ready to take action.

🏛️ Enable Effective Government: We work closely with elected officials at the state and local level to support effective governance. We strive to align legislative, regulatory, and budget priorities with California’s ambitious economic, housing, and climate objectives. By mobilizing and empowering community leaders to back these reforms, we equip elected officials with constituents who understand and champion bold action.

📈 Measure What Matters: We set ambitious goals and are committed to measuring what truly matters. Long-term impact is gauged by the progress we make in communities—not solely by the success of individual campaigns. While quantifying our contribution to outcomes like new housing or carbon reduction can be challenging, we are dedicated to tracking our progress against meaningful metrics to ensure we’re driving the results that matter most.

Ready to get involved?