(Save the dates: RealShare Apartments East comes to the Hyatt Regency in Miami, FL, on February 26, and RealShare Los Angeles comes to the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA, on March 27.)
LOS ANGELES-L.A.'s mayoral candidates are recognizing that affordable housing is a hot-button issue, and they demonstrated their commitment to improving this sector at the Mayoral Candidates Forum on Affordable Housing held Downtown recently. At the event—hosted by Housing For a Stronger Los Angeles, a broad-based coalition of housing-industry professionals—the three leading candidates in the L.A. mayoral race each vowed strong support for affordable housing and underscored the need to build more units for low-income and middle-income households in the city.
During the event, City Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry cited their role in helping build thousands of new units for low-income households, and City Controller Wendy Greuel called for more housing for middle-income families. Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd of 500 people, the three candidates engaged in a frank discussion on strategies to provide adequate housing for all residents of the city. The forum was moderated by economist Dr. Raphel Bostic, director of the Bedrosian Center on Governance and a professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy, both at USC.
According to the coalition, housing has become an issue in this year's mayoral campaign, in part due to the sharp decline in funding to build or renovate affordable units. Funding sources for affordable housing in the city have either been diminished or run dry in recent years, causing a $72-million drop in public funding between 2008 and 2013. Those losses include $50 million in annual affordable housing investment from redevelopment and $19 million in federal HOME funds provided by the US Department of Housing & Urban Development. Meanwhile, housing remains one of the most-expensive items in the daily life of Los Angeles residents, with affordable housing out of reach for many.
Garcetti, whose district includes Hollywood, said at the forum, “As mayor, I will build on my experience leading the nation's largest affordable-housing trust fund and the nation's first tenant foreclosure eviction moratorium and sold our immediate and long-term housing challenges.”
Greuel addressed the need for the construction of workforce housing, targeting people who earn the median income, but who are often unable to find housing they can afford in L.A.'s costly neighborhoods. “As mayor, I'll fight to increase affordable housing in Los Angeles. This city should be a place where families, cops and teachers can all afford to live.”
Perry called herself “a staunch advocate,” citing the high level of housing development in her Downtown L.A. district. “By leveraging the success of Downtown revitalization, I was able to support the development of more than 4,000 units of affordable and supportive housing for working families, seniors and the homeless.”
[IMGCAP(1)]
[IMGCAP(2)]
How do you feel the affordable-housing situation in L.A. should be addressed? Leave your comments in the box below.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
