A Plan for Affordable Housing in Unaffordable L.A.

Affordable housing and Los Angeles are about as closely associated as “Mad Men” and feminism.  But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is determined to address the city’s lack of affordable housing, even though plenty of people are saying his plan won’t work. From the L.A. Times:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday will unveil a $5-billion, five-year plan to build housing for the poor and middle class. The blueprint, which calls for thousands of new homes along subway and bus lines, and developments with people of all incomes living together, would, according to the mayor’s deputies, alter the look and feel of the city forever.

But the plan, which many City Council members and business and housing groups said they had not yet seen, is being released while the housing market is a shambles, the state is facing a massive budget shortfall and the economy is teetering — challenges that lead some to wonder whether it is feasible.

There’s no time like the present to introduce an affordable-housing plan for L.A.  The lack of one has gone on for far too long. And with the economy the way it is, people need it more than ever.

A while back, I posted about the dire consequences of L.A.’s lack of affordable housing, as outlined in a study by the Los Angeles Business Council.  The bottom line is, L.A. County has added tons of population and jobs but hardly any affordable housing over the last two decades, which has forced people to spend a huge chunk of their income on housing or move far away and commute.

Los Angeles was designated the least affordable metropolitan area in the country last year, according to the Business Council report, because so many people pay so much of their incomes for housing. The city also has the largest homeless population in the nation. In addition, although private developers have built many high-end apartment units and condos over the last few years, there has not been a similar increase for households earning less than $75,000 per year.

L.A. increasingly is the land of the haves and the have-nots.  Wealthy Westside residents have opposed the idea of a subway running under Wilshire Boulevard, which would do wonders to relieve traffic congestion.  Even people who make a pretty good living have a hard time affording a decent house in L.A.

Anita Chabria, our downtown L.A. blogger, includes more details about the mayor’s housing plan in this post. Whether it will fly remains to be seen.  But for the city’s sake, the needs of the less-well-off need to prevail this time.

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