Build For Us!
In October, Mayor Villaraigosa announced his support for a
citywide mixed income policy. Since then
Housing LA and other affordable housing advocates throughout the city have been
building support for a mixed income housing ordinance among our council members. Momentum is building and we are encouraging
the Mayor to take leadership on this critical issue and unveil a plan to have mixed
income housing in LA by the end of the year.
We have invited the Mayor to join us on August 9th, 2008 from 10am-12pm at Build For Us: A Community Town Hall on Mixed Income
Housing. We need
all of our allies and supporters of affordable housing to come out and demonstrate
our broad support for mixed income housing.
Please save the date as we are finalizing our location and will be in
touch with final details very soon.
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Councilmember Huizar Signs Housing LA Pledge
On July 7th, José Huizar has become the 7th
Council Member to sign on to the Housing LA - LA Voice pledge. Amongst community members and affordable
housing supporters at Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa Catholic Church, Councilmember Huizar spoke to the importance
of both a mixed income housing policy and the preservation of rent controlled
homes for the City of LA. Huizar formally committed to support mixed
income housing, preservation of existing affordable housing, permanent sources
of funding for the Housing Trust Fund, and tenants rights education. Councilmember Huizar joins his fellow
Councilmembers Garcetti, Perry, Wesson, Greuel, Reyes and Rosendhal in his
commitment to address the housing crisis in Los Angeles. This is another positive sign of the momentum
that we are building within City Council.
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Housing Element Next Steps
Housing LA would like to thank all of our partner
organizations, housing advocates and community members who gave testimony to
the Citywide Planning Commission (CPC) on June 12th and 26th
regarding the draft Housing Element, the City's plan for housing development
over the next several years. We asked
the CPC to amend the proposed draft Housing Element to require the city to pass
a Mixed-Income Ordinance, to protect existing affordable units by discouraging
conversions and demolitions, to remove inappropriate sites from the inventory
of potential affordable housing sites, and to increase city funding for
affordable housing development. The CPC passed
the draft with significant changes reflecting our comments, including a motion for a Mixed-Income ordinance by the end of 2008.
Next, the draft will
be considered and voted on by the City Council's Planning & Land Use
Management (PLUM) and Housing, Community & Economic Development (HCED) committees
in a joint meeting on July 29th.
Although the CPC made the draft Housing Element much more of a real plan
to produce and preserve affordable homes, we think it important that the PLUM
and HCED committees strengthen a few of the policy points. In order to preserve and strengthen the
changes made by the CPC, we are asking people to come on July 29th
to testify about the need for a strong comprehensive plan to provide homes that
are affordable to the people who live and work here. Please contact Eric Ares
for more information or if you are interested in providing testimony.
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Students Visit City Council
On July 1st a delegation of high school students
from Miguel Contreras Learning Complex (MCLC) spoke in front of the City
Council in support of a Mixed Income Policy.
The students, Joanna Leonido, Karen Perez and Manuel Torrez, delivered
over 150 postcards from their peers urging the Council to champion mixed income
housing. They gave very effective
testimony of the need for affordable homes among their classmates and families which
prompted responses from Councilmembers and invitations to visit other city and
council offices. We would especially
like to thank Matthew Bukirin from Eviction Defense Network and Ms. Corpus from MCLC for all their support.
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Community Negotiates 32% Affordable Set-Aside
Instead of producing the 5,000 affordable units per year
(for households with annual incomes of up to $70,000) that we need, the City of
LA is only producing about 1,650 per year. Housing LA continues
to advocate for a 25% set-aside requirement, a percentage that is consistent
with the MI policies of such California cities of Davis, Corte Madera, Salinas, and San Juan Capistrano.
The San Francisco Organizing Project, ACORN, and San
Francisco Labor Council recently reached a historic community benefits agreement
with developer Lennar Corporation. The agreement includes a commitment to a 32%
(or 3,500 units) affordable set aside (including both rental and homeownership
units) for the Bayview-Hunter's Point Shipyard 10,000 unit project. This sets a
record in San Francisco for the largest percentage of affordable
housing units for any development in the city's history.
As we move forward in advocating for a
mixed-income housing ordinance in Los Angeles, we must ensure that our policy is as effective and aggressive as possible so that we can meet our
affordable housing needs. Projects such as the Bay view-Hunter's Point
Shipyard show us that projects with higher affordable set-asides are possible.
Click here for more information on this historic agreement.
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Read this week's LA Weekly article on the Alexandria Hotel entitled Los Angeles City Hall as Slumlords
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Sincerely,
Housing LA Staff
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LA CAN member speaking at Houing LA Launch
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Maria Elena Durazo speaking at Housing LA Launch
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Housing LA
(213) 480-1249
3345 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010
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