Bonta Opens New Front in Affordability Fight: California Brief

A New Team Tackles California’s Cost Crisis

Rob Bonta is interviewed Feb. 17 in a Bloomberg roundtable in San Francisco

Photographer: Jason Henry/Bloomberg via Getty Images

California’s Justice Department unveiled a new team dedicated to investigating and prosecuting unlawful practices that make life less affordable.

The Affordability Response Team will identify, investigate, and pursue enforcement actions against scams and other actions that drive up the cost of housing, groceries, healthcare, childcare, and other essentials, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a news release.

The team “will create a pipeline to tackle affordability from all angles,” Bonta said. California’s housing shortages, soaring prices, predatory corporate behavior, and unstable federal economic policies are all contributing to the affordability ...