The effects of COVID-19 have highlighted the woeful lack of sufficient housing in California. In communities across the state, construction of new and affordable housing units has historically been limited by economic zoning restrictions as well as gaps in funding and political resistance from local residents. The failure to add appropriate housing options has made it ever more difficult to improve social and economic mobility and turned many residents' hopes of achieving the Californian dream a distant one. What steps can leaders take to induce and incentivize equitable housing development at the local level as part of a sustainable economic recovery post-COVID?