An apartment complex in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood is put together in 2015 with modular units. Modular and prefab housing can be faster, cheaper and more efficient than on-site construction.

It’s news to no one that California has a huge housing crisis due in large part to its lack of supply. State lawmakers moved aggressively in the past few years to remove the bureaucratic obstacles surrounding zoning, environmental review and approval timelines that hamper new development. Yet production has not meaningfully increased. Skyrocketing labor and construction costs have made many housing projects financially infeasible to build.

Now, lawmakers are promising to do something about it.

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On March 24, a bipartisan coalition led by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, rolled out a six-bill “housing innovation package,” aimed explicitly at bringing down building costs.

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The focus? Innovative construction methods, with a particular focus on factory-built or prefab housing, which can be faster, cheaper and more efficient than on-site building. Think of prefab housing as something akin to car manufacturing — a kit of parts put together in a factory, then transported to a site. It would be incredibly inefficient to build each car individually rather than on an assembly line. Similarly, there are efficiencies in cost, time and labor that can come with building houses in a factory.

“We’re still building homes like we did a hundred years ago, and it’s not enough to address the housing shortage we’re facing today,” Wicks said in a press release announcing the legislation. “We can build housing more quickly and more affordably for our working-class families.”

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As someone with a personal history with prefab — I wrote a book on the topic back in 2002 — I’m thrilled to see........

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