California’s housing shortage makes it a proving ground for innovative housing solutions. That’s why, as the country’s chief historic preservation official, I recently convened state and local public officials, housing advocates and researchers in a roundtable discussion in Los Angeles. I left convinced that California and its leading cities — including San Diego — are readier than most to fast-track the use of older buildings for housing, and that the rest of the country should take notice.

California has a reputation for embracing the new and the now, but that’s not necessarily the case for its buildings. In San Diego, more than half of the housing stock was built before 1980, making it eligible for historic status under city ordinances. Seeing age as an asset, city leaders have embarked on an update to the city’s Heritage Preservation Program that will streamline processes and encourage adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

The “Preservation and Progress” initiative aims to promote density and housing choices within the city’s historic districts. It recognizes what many don’t: that older neighborhoods are often ready-made to offer a range of housing options, as they were built with garage apartments, multifamily buildings and small lots.

The federal agency I lead, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, is encouraging similar approaches across the U.S. We recently adopted a housing policy that aims to generate hundreds of thousands of housing units in older buildings, while offering commonsense approaches to rehabilitate existing housing to make it safer and more energy-efficient. Harmonizing historic preservation and housing goals is a key foundation. More incentives and streamlining reviews, while still considering impacts to historic properties and encouraging consultation with tribal, underserved and environmental justice communities, align with some of San Diego’s goals.

We’re currently developing clearer rules for federal housing projects and advocating to expand the federal rehabilitation tax credit, which has already resulted in the rehabilitation or creation of 670,000 housing units. Meanwhile, the White House has included office-to-housing conversions as a critical part of its economic development strategy.

When it comes to implementing these federal strategies and policies, state and local efforts are critical and require collaboration across sectors and priorities. The good news is other California cities are also uniting preservation and housing efforts.

For a quarter-century, L.A.’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance has made it easier to convert vacant and underutilized buildings downtown into housing. Its downtown population quintupled since the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance went into effect, with many new residents living in the 12,000 new homes directly attributable to the ordinance. Now, the city is proposing to expand the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance citywide. Building on this model, last July, San Francisco adopted a new commercial to residential adaptive reuse program to facilitate the expansion of housing in the downtown area by waving certain planning code requirements.

The state can come in to help with financing these projects. At the roundtable, the state’s leading historic preservation official, Juli Polanco, touted her office’s success in supporting large-scale housing conversions seeking federal rehabilitation tax credits. Her team conducts the first design reviews of these projects and works directly with applicants to ensure they receive federal approvals.

There’s also an opportunity to strengthen California’s rehabilitation tax credit. California was late to join the 38 other states with state tax credits, and the Legislature capped the program at a low amount (just $50 million) relative to the need. While Polanco’s office continues to finalize the regulations for the state program, it is important to remember that the tax credit must be authorized in the budget annually. Legislators should expand the fledgling program in future years.

Given the magnitude of the housing shortage, we’ll need an all-hands-on-deck approach. I’m optimistic about California and its largest cities making meaningful progress in advancing policies that make the most of its existing building stock.

Bronin is the chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency that promotes the preservation of our nation’s diverse historic resources and advises the president and Congress on national historic preservation policy. She lives in Washington, D.C.