SCALING UP Equitable Housing on public land in Los Angeles

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2) STUDY INTERNATIONAL MODELS FOR SOCIAL HOUSING MOTION: Bonin, Martinez, Harris-Dawson Approved: 11/04/2020 Council File 20-0197 I THEREFORE MOVE that the Office of the Chief Legislative Analyst, in cooperation with the <strong>Housing</strong> and Community Investment Department (HCID), and in consultation with researchers, experts and activists in the field prepare a report on the types and models of social housing used in European communities, Singapore, and any other prominent international examples, with recommendations for their applicability in Los Angeles, including potential benefits and hurdles. Cities all over the world have confronted severe housing shortages, and Los Angeles can learn from their experience. In the 1920’s, Vienna, Austria faced a housing crisis after the First World War. In response, they implemented large-scale development of social housing on public land, and during the past century their housing system evolved. Today, Vienna is widely regarded as having one of the best and most affordable and sustainable housing systems in the world. The Scale Up <strong>Equitable</strong> <strong>Housing</strong> plan has drawn upon lessons from Vienna, as well as other places such as Singapore, China, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and France. We agree that by learning about housing strategies used elsewhere, Los Angeles can find new approaches to solving the affordable housing crisis at home. 3) ESTABLISH A RIGHT TO HOUSING FRAMEWORK AMENDING MOTION: Ridley-Thomas, Raman Approved: 03/03/21 Council File 20-0102 Instruct the Los Angeles <strong>Housing</strong> and Community Investment Department, with the assistance of the CAO, LAHSA, CLA and the City Attorney to report back in 60 days on what resources are necessary for the goal of establishing a Right to <strong>Housing</strong> Framework within the City of Los Angeles, including the following: A.) A legal framework and proposed implementation strategy, which includes targets, funding and a timeline, to pilot an effort to achieve a Right to <strong>Housing</strong>. B) An assessment of available funding to implement the aforementioned Right to <strong>Housing</strong> and the Comprehensive Crisis Response Strategy, in the broader context of the City’s current efforts to end homelessness, and the extent to which these resources would need to be future scaled up, in partnership with the County, State and Federal Government. Despite its extraordinary diversity, Los Angeles has a long history of structural racism, discrimination, and implicit bias in housing that has pushed low-income people of color out of higher income neighborhoods, farther away from work, school, and opportunity. Racial gaps in economic opportunity show up in every aspect of LA’s housing market, but nowhere is inequity in housing more starkly apparent than in the overrepresentation of black people experiencing homelessness 1 . Market based solutions to the housing and homelessness crisis tend to focus only on driving down cost. But lower cost housing alone is not going to address racial biases and inequities in the Los Angeles housing market. Intentional strategies are needed to create equitable outcomes. Public sector investments in affordable housing must also strive to reverse injustice and protect human rights. The Scale Up <strong>Equitable</strong> <strong>Housing</strong> plan envisions a large-scale housing development that is not dominated by private sector interests or divorced from the social function of affordable housing, but instead one that is focused on creating inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable communities that are permanently affordable. To achieve this, the plan draws upon a “Right to <strong>Housing</strong>” framework adopted by the United Nations 2 and expressed in the motion above. 1 “Report and Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness” Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. December 2018 2 United Nations Human Rights Council, Forty-third session “Guidelines for the Implementation of the Right to Adequate <strong>Housing</strong>” 26 December 2019. 3
More than Just <strong>Housing</strong> Affordable housing has always been about more than just bricks and mortar. The building of stable, vital, healthy communities that include services such as child care, health care, and educational opportunities has been the vision for changing the nature of poverty. It is a holistic approach that includes the promotion of stability and long-term homeownership and the provision of services to meet the needs of community residents. <strong>Housing</strong> development organizations, particularly nonprofit developers, have a history of providing such services with the housing they have built. Their mission is long term, as they understand that it is necessary to have long-term ownership in order to preserve the affordability of what they have built. These developers now need a sustainable business model to continue to survive and thrive. Sister Lillian Murphy & Janet Falk Mercy <strong>Housing</strong> Getting to Scale: The Need for a New Model in <strong>Housing</strong> and Community Development Investing in What Works for America’s Communities Federal Reserve of San Francisco LA’s Housers One of Los Angeles’ greatest strengths is the extraordinary group of people working in the affordable housing sector. These are the people and organizations who have pioneered and persevered over decades to build and maintain affordable housing in Los Angeles. They are the visionaries, advocates, builders, financiers, and caretakers of LA’s most vulnerable residents: The developers who put mission before profit; The are architects who solve problems through good design; The construction crews who build with efficiency, hire locally, and train the next generation of builders. They are the property managers who protect the rights of tenants, and the financial institutions who invest in LA’s most disadvantaged communities for the long term. As a group, they call themselves “Housers,” a made-up word meaning “people who think about, care about and create affordable housing.” Many of LA’s Housers have first-hand experience of housing discrimination and inequality. They understand that systemic racism and housing insecurity are deeply intertwined, and that being vulnerable to displacement, or being prevented from moving into the neighborhood you want to live in, takes a terrible toll on an individual’s self-worth. LA’s Housers strive to do more than just build housing, they work to create communities where residents feel connected to one another and empowered to overcome difficult obstacles to achieve their full potential in life. The reason we don’t have enough affordable housing in Los Angeles is not because the LA’s Housers have failed; it is because we have not enabled them to succeed. We have created a system of layered subsidies and regulation that prevents the very people who are most committed to and capable of solving the housing crisis - without losing sight of equity - from going to scale. This is the problem we need to fix. 4
Page 1 and 2: APRIL 2, 2021 Scaling Up EQUITABLE
Page 3 and 4: Scaling up Equitable</stron
Page 5 and 6: A Personal Note from Helmi A. Hisse
Page 7 and 8: The Team & LEAP Grant In October 20
Page 9: Responding to the Priorities of Los
Page 13 and 14: Housing Need (RHNA
Page 15 and 16: A New Approach We propose a radical
Page 17 and 18: Create Ten 1,000 - Unit, Scalable D
Page 19 and 20: Plan 10,000 Units Create Equity in
Page 21 and 22: Design a Scalable Housing</
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Page 29 and 30: Secure $50 Million in Infrastructur
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SCALING UP Equitable Housing on public land in Los Angeles

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