>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> y answers on abc seven. everyday we talk with experts on issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time seven years ago california gave undocumented immigrants the ability to get a drivers license and drive legally. now even as the debate over its value continues the state is ready to expand the law's impact and flexibility. we will talk with the california immigrant policy center. a growing share of the unhallowed population in san francisco consists of families. our media partner at the san francisco standard looks at how the city is coping including using a school as an open

shelter. tomorrow is the deadline this day gives to all cities in california to turn in their eight year master plan for meeting mandated increases in building housing. our cities ready? what happens to those who are not? do they fork over all control to developers? running us to dive into this deadline is the spokesperson for the regional planning agency. thank you for your time here >> good afternoon. happy to be here. >> let's talk about this requirement. what is the housing elements report that all cities have to get approved by the state by tomorrow's deadline? >> this is a part of each city or county's general plan and every jurisdiction is obliged by the end of the day today to submit at least a first draft of

the housing element for their general plan. it is important to keep in mind is just a first draft that has to be submitted. we can process to play out over several months as individual cities or counties go back and forth the state housing community development department on two or three iterations of their housing elements until they are found to be largely compliant. >> tomorrow is when the first draft needs to be in. what percentage of cities or counties have met the deadline? >> as of friday the bay area's 109 jurisdictions which is approximately 86% already had at least first -- at

least a first draft in. it is my understanding yesterday a couple or three more submitted first drafts. we are real close to the target. on the other side of the equation, there is only one bay area city that is all the way through the process. >> that is alameda. >> that is correct. >> alameda gets a prize for being ahead to tell us why this exists. why is that element there? what is the state trying to accomplish? >> the state is trying to more housing built all around the state. housing at all income levels. an awful lot have been meeting their targets for above moderate income level housing but not so much

affordable housing units. it is an effort by the create more housing generally and more affordable housing specifically. >> can i just ask you isn't part of the problem with more affordable housing the developers are wondering where is the money, where is the profit. the cities can open up the door in terms of saying we are not quite as stop your project but they cannot make the developers filled if they do not want to. >> you are exactly right. obtaining the funds to go plan to completion is an enormous challenge. >> what can the state do? what are the incentives that can help meet the affordable quotient if you will? >> i am not an expert on how -- on housing finance and i don't play one on tv.

but you projects, it is a matter of piecing together a very complex puzzle. a combination of private dollars, city dollars, county incentives, state money and assembling all those pieces to complete this complicated puzzle is a process that takes a long time. one of the immutable laws i time is money. during all the time spent assembling the financing package, your costs have increased. >> there are a lot of challenges but how does the state determine how many units each city must increase its housing stock in the next eight years? >> that is a bit of a complicated process. what the state does is

a number that applies to the whole region. in this case the bay area come our nine counties. they assign the bay area a number. for the next cycle which is 2023 through 31, that number is over 400,000 housing units. then we at the association the area governments work with the individual cities and counties this is a process that takes years. we had been at work for four years before what are known as the allocations to the individual jurisdictions are made. those allocations more than 80,000 units in san francisco to a couple dozen in

some of our smaller communities in the north bay. >> it depends on a lot of things. where the jobs are, how much land the city has. i am curious about this which is the economy is heading into a down cycle. there are a lot of vacancies. mainly office buildings but that translates into jobs and perhaps fewer people will be living here and needing housing. does that get taken into the picture? i'm sure these numbers were determined long time ago but the situation is changing. >> you are right. the numbers were discernment -- were determined some years ago. the economic picture is uncertain. the biggest factor in getting back to one of your earlier points in my view is rising interest rates which makes -- which makes raising the cost of money. that makes the financing puzzle for new projects all the more

difficult. >> i think there is -- i don't want to say threat but there is a consequence attached for cities that don't submit their plan. if they continue to not play ball, isn't there the possibility they would lose control and developers can build whatever they want? >> you are right broadly speaking. it is not quite that simple but there is a consequence that colloquially known as the builders remedy that a builder can come in and build affordable housing on a site th designated without going through the usual proposal. even with that other difficulties about building affordable housing

would remain for that builder. there are other consequences at play for those jurisdictions that do not have a compliant housing element. that includes the potential loss of state and federal housing dollars as well as some transportation dollars that could be withheld from some cities and given instead, granted instead to those that do have compliant housing elements. there are sticks. >> and there are some who talk about does everybody even want to live in the city where their job is? should we take a more regional approach or invest more in transit to invest where there is more land. i went to get a quick yes and no if every city adhered to the state approved number, is there

housing crisis -- is the housing crisis over? >> no. >> this is part of the plan but certainly not the whole plan. thank you so much. as we watch the deadline coming up and what the cities will do to try to come up with their plan for more housing stock. appreciate it. >> you bet. >> rights for undocumented immigrants in california. we will dig into the debate over the potential expansion of a law aimed at being more inclusive. (vo) at wells fargo, direct deposits come up to two days early with early pay day. what if everything came two days early? (hero) have a good weekend! alright now... have a good weekend. (co-worker) but it's wednesday... (co-worker 2) see you monday! (co-worker 3) am i missing something?

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>> it has been seven years since california safe and responsible drivers act took effect. more than a million undocumented immigrants have received drivers

licenses. now california is ready to expand the reach but it is not without controversy. running us to talk more about this is the deputy director of california immigrant policy center. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> why was this law passed seven years ago? what was his intention and goal -- it's intention and goal? immigrants are so much a part of the fabric of california we should enable immigrants to have access to driver's licenses. having access makes it much easier if a person needs to drive to get to a job or pick up a child. the thinking was this will be beneficial for the individual person as well as for california more broadly because the people who have driver's licenses will have car insurance and be able to register their vehicle and if anybody gets into an accident they will know who the other party is in the accident.

>> a lot of things attached to having the drivers license. we mentioned since then about a million undocumented immigrants have gotten their license through the program. that is out of how many? i went to get an idea for what the intake is. >> the estimates are there are about 2.7 million undocumented immigrants in california over the age of 15. as you mention, over a million have been able to get there drivers license but we realize with the remaining 1.7 million emigrants they also need access to some form of state id. >> that is the new thing. let's talk about that because the expansion entails what forms of new id will now be available to them? newly >> currently -- to them? >> currently californian the ability to apply for a real id or standard id. undocumented immigrants can now apply for the standard id so that means undocumented

immigrants can open a bank account, rent an apartment or do many of the things we take for granted that require a person to show in id. >> this is important because not everyone drives. is that the idea? >> exactly not everyone has access to a vehicle. women tend to not have access to a vehicle. there could be people have mobility issues or disabilities were not able to drive but need some form of id. >> how old do you have to be to get the id? >> there is no age restriction. a teenager who needs a form of identification, a 12-year-old, anybody could apply for it. >> can they do so now? >> part of what we are struggling with is the implementation date for the california id expansion is not until 2027. we know it is critical for people to have access to ids now so we are trying to push to see whether that day can be pushed

up and be sooner. >> is there movement in that direction? are you working with some champions in the legislature? > we are going to be having discussions directly with the department of motor vehicles about the possibility of moving up the date. just knowing if california wants to continue to be a leader in terms of immigrant rights, we have to make sure the actual practical implications of what we were able to pass our felt as soon as possible. >> has the state responded to this pushed a world without more quickly? >> we have heard because is updating and modernizing their system, it is difficult for them to be able to issue the new ids before 2027. we will continue to have discussions. >> some had worried when this past i remembered this debate and it continues that perhaps this would lead to more accidents if undocumented immigrants could get drivers licenses or more illegal

immigration because here is another perk. we have had seven years to look at that. have these things come to pass? what does the data show? >> the data does not show there has been a rise in accidents just due to undocumented immigrants being able to get drivers licenses. if anything, it just makes it more clear if there is an accident as to who the other already is and when they were able to show a license to when you look at the reasons why people are migrating often they are driven by poverty, conflict, natural disasters. those are the forces that compel people to pick up their lives and go to a different country. not necessarily the idea that someday that -- someday down the line they will be able to obtain a drivers license. >> for people who look at the dollars and cents and say they still don't believe undocumented immigrants should get such rights and benefits paid for by taxpayers, what do you say to that to counter the argument or what do you want them to look at

and consider? >> one piece of the drivers license in california id bill as it is self-funded. when people apply for the drivers license, we pay a fee and that is what funds the service. when you look at the fact that immigrant californians pay taxes weathered as sales taxes or income taxes, opening businesses and contributing to the economy in so many other ways we can see immigrants make many valuable significant contributions to their communities and should be entitled to the same benefits that other californians have. forefront of expanding more rights to undocumented immigrants including health care, free health care that was since the pandemic i believe. tommy what else you are advocating for now at this point, additional benefits. >> we are also advocating for immigrants to be able to receive

state benefits knowing that hunger does not discriminate and food insecurity has increased since the pandemic. what we are advocating for is food for all with no exclusions, making sure that immigrant californians can access the state food benefits program as well as building a robust safety net for immigrant workers who don't qualify for unemployment insurance and making sure there is a way for some of the most vulnerable workers amongst us to be able to survive during times like a pandemic or unemployment. >> the california immigrant policy center. thank you so much. appreciate your time. coming up next, san francisco sees a rise in families who are homeless. our media partners at the san francisco standard will help explain why and what i i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance

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>> today we are tackling a new phenomenon in san francisco's homeless crisis. the city is seeing an uptick in families experiencing homelessness. our media partners at the san francisco standard have written an article about the trend and the many factors driving it. they met and highlighted several families who are readily impacted. joining us now is the author of the article. staff reporter for the san francisco standard. thank you for coming on the show. >> thanks for having me. >> the best count we have right now, how many in san francisco right now and what percentage do thinker families? families experiencing homelessness throughout the past year. a lot of the newcomer families are asylum-seekers. that is an element driving part of this. the families that are going through -- going to the city to try to get some shelter are

finding there have been some capacity constraints in december in particular. >> 616 families and rolled in response programs. that is the last quarter of the last year. that is up from 578 families in the prior three months. you said this is driven by asylum-seekers. where are they coming from? what countries and what kind of conditions have been happening in their home countries? >> there ha has been summonsed -- some instability in peru and nicaragua. that is reflected at a school the mission district. a few of the families are from peru. if you are from nicaragua appeared those are some of the families i talked to a couple weeks ago. they are citing some political instability, and ability to make things work down there and wanting a better life for their kids. >> take a look, folks, at the

picture she and her team provided to us because you went to that school and in the mission you were talking about. met some of the families. tell us about this family and their situation and how they were accommodated at the school. >> both of the families i spoke to for this particular story both actually found the shelter through compass family services and were connected to the shelter run by dolores community services hosted at the school. they come in at night and they can stay through the weekend. once the school is needed for school purposes they have to get up quite early to go and either -- some of the kids got enrolled in school but some had to wait to get vaccinated. some are automatically able to be enrolled including one in an afterschool program. the parents have to want to do for the rest of the day. look for work on my figure out their asylum cases and get back

to the shelter at night. the back-and-forth has been wearing on some of the family members especially with the younger kids. >> the picture you showed us. was that the school gym? is that where they were putting the mattresses and sleeping at night? >> yeah, the mats are piled up during the day. they rolled them out at night and sleep there. some of them have favorite mats they prefer as i heard them asking as when i got there. be used as a solution if they continue to see an uptick in families that need housing? it is a different situation than singles. most shelters are not set up for families. >> exactly. they have to stay in a unit together. need to be together. the city is adding more permanent supportive housing units and vouchers and emergency vouchers in the next year.

there is still an air of nervousness about if it will be enough as the upticks happen, if more people come into the city. others are maybe coming from world areas looking for -- from rural areas looking for work. people, from other countries pay they don't have automatic connection so it takes time to get situated. they don't have work permits. other families just feel the squeeze of the bay area and loss of jobs. eviction notices and the like. >> you talked about building some long-term solutions but in the meantime, how long do you think -- i think horace mann, the school you visited, how long will that remain as an overnight and weekend shelter like that? >> it looks here to stay. they added some more capacity in december after a different shelter was set to close. that added quite a few constraints on the overall ability they had to serve families. some families were camped outside trying to get a spot

inside the school. it depends on if they have enough ads at the right time if more people come and they are not able to place at other families. > our time is up but i'm wondering has the neighborhood responded? what has the reaction been? >> has the who responded? >> has the neighbor -- have the neighbors responded? >> i have seen some comments asking if there was a way to support these families. it is run by dolores street community services. compass is the one that found them. that is primarily how the families got there. >> thank you so much. i encourage you to check out t

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>> thanks so much for joining us for getting answers today. we will be here every weekday at tonight, the deadly ice storm across multiple stays. hundreds of accidents and where this heads next. also tonight, abc news obtaining the initial police report in the tyre nichols traffic stop. what it says and how it's vastly different from the video. and alec baldwin formally charged tonight. first, that ice storm and the travel nightmare. multiple states. 35 million americans under alerts. treacherous driving, cars and trucks out of control. more than 1,000 flights canceled. where this hits tomorrow. and then, what's headed to the northeast. mireya villarreal in dallas and ginger zee timing it out. the tyre nichols investigation. abc news obtaining that initial police report. what the report says and how do you reconcile the worlds with what the country saw in that brutal police video? what officers claim in