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Late last year, I spoke with State Senator Scott Wiener about his Senate Bill 50, a second pass at a controversial fix for the state’s housing affordability crisis.

This week, that bill — along with others that take aim at various tension points in the housing debate — will face some early but important tests. My colleague Conor Dougherty, who has written extensively about housing in California, explained what’s at stake:

Pretty much anytime a group of experts is asked to prescribe a solution to California’s affordable housing crisis, the consensus view that comes out is that the state needs one set of policies that make it easier to build more and taller housing and another set that protects already-affordable housing and tenants in units that already exist. This week, bills that broadly address both sides of that equation — and could drastically change what California cities look like and how local landlords operate — are headed to crucial committee hearings that will go a long way toward determining how ambitious the current State Legislature will be on housing.

On Wednesday, S.B. 50, which was introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, will have its second committee hearing. S.B. 50, which is a rehashed version of Mr. Wiener’s controversial S.B. 827 bill from last year, would essentially force cities to allow denser apartment buildings near transit stops and job centers. The next day, several pro-tenant bills are headed to the State Assembly’s housing committee. One of the bills, A.B. 36, would allow cities to bring more units under rent control, while another, A.B. 1482, would impose a statewide rent cap. Were A.B. 1482 to get out of committee and ultimately pass, California would follow Oregon as the second state to pass statewide rent control.

Of course, there’s a long way to go until the legislative session ends in September, and these housing bills — along with the dozens of others that would, among other things, create homeless shelters, subsidized legal aid, streamline housing approvals and create a rental registry — can always be killed and amended at various points along the way.