“CHI is a student-led pro bono project that supports impact litigation efforts designed to improve housing accessibility and affordability through municipal zoning reform. In partnership with the California Housing Defense Fund (CalHDF), CHI’s work centers on enforcing California’s new pro-housing preemption laws. Our main focus is on SB 79, which allows high-density residential development near transit stops across most of California’s major metro areas by overriding local zoning restrictions unless a city adopts a compliant ordinance or local alternative plan. As cities work through implementing these laws, CHI makes sure that implementation stays faithful to the law’s pro-housing intent, primarily by researching cities’ proposed ordinances and sending enforcement letters when they fall short. We’ve already sent letters to San Jose and San Diego, and by next year, we anticipate supporting active litigation efforts.
SB 79 was only passed in October 2025, so it is brand new and top of mind for cities, developers, and advocates alike. But the law is untested: there’s no body of case law to consult, and it is being interpreted for the first time by dozens of municipalities simultaneously. That’s a moment of real leverage: how cities implement these laws in the next year will set precedent for how seriously California’s state-led zoning reform efforts can address our housing crisis. Without outside pressure, there’s a real risk that these new laws lose their potency, causing the political momentum behind this foundational pro-housing legislation to dissipate. CHI’s pioneering legal enforcement efforts are critical to ensuring cities’ zoning choices rise to meet our state’s urgent housing crisis, rather than retreat from it.
The ideas underpinning CHI initially began to take root during the two years I spent in Austin, Texas working at an affordable housing investment firm. At the time, Austin was in the midst of a spectacular building boom. Streamlined permitting processes, permissive land use policies, and lower construction costs set the stage for a rapid increase in Austin’s housing supply. As a native Californian, I had never seen anything like this before! Instead, I grew up watching the same cranes over the same buildings for years while projects dragged on. But thanks to the quick clip of construction in Austin, the increased housing stock resulted in lower rents, both for the tenants I served and myself!
When I started thinking about how Austin’s successes could be replicated back home in California, I stumbled across CalHDF. Their innovative impact litigation approach to pursuing housing-related zoning reform offered a sincere, systematic response to California’s housing shortage. Even then, while still in Texas, I knew that if I ever came back to California, I’d want to get involved with their work. Now, through CHI, I’m thrilled that classes of Berkeley Law students will get to engage with this emerging area of legal advocacy and shape what an inclusive California for all looks like.
Key Areas:
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- Statutory research, interpretation, and monitoring. For each enforcement initiative, students research relevant statutory text and interpret how the interconnected landscape of state housing law applies to a specific city’s general plan or zoning ordinance, often attending city planning commission and council meetings to track how implementation is actually unfolding on the ground.
- Direct enforcement and litigation. Translating statutory research into enforcement letters requires students to learn how to communicate often complex urban planning issues into understandable and persuasive arguments supporting pro-housing interpretations of state law. This year, students will also have the opportunity to participate in ongoing impact litigation efforts under the supervision of CalHDF.
- Public education and community building. A big reason for starting CHI was to create an evergreen community that keeps nurturing the next generation of housing and urban development change-makers focused on inclusive growth. We hope CHI plays a formative role in our students’ growth as lawyers, as they parlay the lessons from our legal work here into building more equitable cities across the country.
CHI is excited to support the work of the California Housing Defense Fund (CalHDF), an Oakland-based non-profit organization that advocates for housing accessibility and affordability through housing impact litigation. Our supervising attorney, Nick Eckenwiler, is an experienced litigator who worked in eviction defense in Brooklyn before joining CalHDF, where he leads efforts to bring jurisdictions across the state into compliance with housing laws.”
Where do you see CHI evolving to? Making an impact in the upcoming year(s)?: “We’re closely monitoring several California jurisdictions’ SB 79 implementation, paying special attention to the gaps between what state law prescribes, what cities publicly discuss enacting, and what they privately adopt. Our work in this space has already yielded significant impact. Our enforcement letter to San Diego City Council directly led to upzoning around 17 bus stops, requiring the city to allow an estimated additional 100,000 units of transit-oriented housing. CHI plans to continue supporting CalHDF’s enforcement efforts and start contributing to its litigation work. Students will get hands-on experience across this work, everything from drafting petitions and comment letters to legal research on open statutory questions.
Looking further out, we want CHI to grow beyond a single-partner model. Every major legal movement starts in a law school. Beyond training this year’s cohort, CHI and its sister student association, Housers at Berkeley, are trying to build a version of Berkeley Law that’s known for this kind of work, one that other students, professors, and advocacy organizations look to when they’re thinking about the academic, social, and political direction of pro-housing law. Practically, that means bringing on additional partner organizations in the coming years, including, I hope, community land trusts. Ultimately, we want to help build something like a housing bar: a legal movement genuinely invested in improving California’s built environment, so that more residents can afford the opportunity promised by the California Dream and put down roots in the communities they love.”
From the Student Leaders Who Co-Founded CHI:
Manasa Kumarappan: “My path to housing advocacy began from the lessons I learned in the criminal justice system.
Throughout high school and college, I volunteered with Santa Clara County’s juvenile diversion program and later interning at the California Appellate Project on post-conviction capital litigation. I saw firsthand how neighborhood disadvantage—under-resourced schools, limited opportunity, exposure to violence—shaped the lives of the young people and inmates I worked with. I came to believe that housing, where people are allowed to live, determines the opportunities available to a family more than any other single intervention.
After college, I joined the impact investing team of a multifamily affordable housing firm in Texas, where I spent two years designing public-private partnerships for our resident communities, including everything from flexible rent payment systems to free fresh produce subscriptions, telehealth coverage, and after-school tutoring. But I saw that private capital alone could only reach so many neighborhoods; systematic social change required law and policy.
This goal of revitalizing the promise of the American dream brought me to Berkeley Law. Through the California Housing Initiative— and beyond—I’m excited to work alongside Meghan and the Berkeley Law community to design a California where geography enables opportunity rather than limiting it.”
Meghan Riddlespurger: “The California Housing Initiative embodies why I came to Berkeley Law and the work I hope to do as a lawyer.
My parents instilled in me my commitment to public service. They dedicated their careers to helping others and taught me to care about work that improves people’s lives. And growing up in Amarillo, Texas shaped my understanding of why place matters. Before law school, I worked as a city planner in Texas and California and as a policy analyst for the CA Department of Housing and Community Development. Those experiences showed me how local land use decisions ultimately shape communities and determine how housing and public resources are distributed. At Berkeley Law, I participated in the Reproductive Justice Project SLP because I know geography is often determinative of access to rights and safety.
All these experiences underlie my firm belief in the importance of housing advocacy. A place cannot meaningfully offer services, refuge, or opportunity if people cannot afford to live there.
Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to support impact litigation enforcing California’s housing laws and challenging exclusionary zoning practices to facilitate the creation of more homes across the state. CHI allows me to bring that experience together with skills from my planning career to support similar work for the California Housing Defense Fund. I’m excited to grow Berkeley Law’s pro-housing impact and community with Manasa this year, and to continue this work after graduation to expand housing opportunities in California.”
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CHI is one of 41 pro bono Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects at Berkeley Law’s Pro Bono Program. Click to read more about Berkeley Law’s Student-Initiated Legal Services Project, and other enriching pro bono opportunities.
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