LA City Council Unanimously
Adopts Housing Element Containing Strategies for Mixed-Income,
Preservation and Funding the Housing Trust Fund
Giving a big boost to the Housing LA
3-point plan, the LA City Council unanimously adopted the Housing Element update
on Wednesday, August 13. The vote was in response to a housing crisis that
affects all kinds of people across LA from families living in unsafe or
overcrowded apartments to people commuting long distances and paying high gas
process, from local businesses who can't find workers to seniors and young
families being pushed out of their neighborhoods. The Housing Element is a
blueprint for beefing up the City's policies over the next six years so that we
begin to get a grip on the housing crisis.
Housing LA members gathered on the steps
of City Hall to celebrate the victory. Joined by LA County Labor Federation's Myung-Soo
Seok, United Way's Alicia Lara, Yvonne Mariajimenez of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, and Councilmembers
Reyes, Huizar and Rosendahl, supporters heard from a wide variety of people
whose lives have been touched by the housing crisis. Senior citizen Thelma
Meredith lost her home of 42 years, a rent-controlled apartment, when it was
demolished last year. Juan Carlos Aguilar, a special education teacher living in
Hollywood, shared his fears of being pushed out of
his home, an apartment in Hollywood, as his landlord remodels each apartment
as it becomes vacant. And Kendra Moore, a single mom whose subsidized apartment is
within five miles of her job, spoke about how her family has thrived thanks to living in stable community and organizing to win the kind of affordable housing that we are fighting for.
Pointing out that nearly all the new
apartments and condominiums built during the previous boom were only affordable
to those with the highest incomes, Housing LA successfully pushed a pro-active
agenda to address the failure of the market. Housing LA achieved an important victory
by getting programs included to craft a Mixed-Income Housing requirement and to
find permanent funding for the Housing Trust Fund. Housing LA's successful push
for a preservation policy that includes limits on condominium conversions and
demolitions continued right up to the vote.
Special thanks were extended to the nine
City Council members who signed the Housing LA pledge and voted in favor of the
Housing Element. Thank you Council Members Ed Reyes, Wendy Greuel, Richard
Alarcon, Jan Perry, Herb Wesson, Bill Rosendahl, Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar and
Janice Hahn! Special thanks the staffs of CD 1, 10 & 13, for all their hard
work.
Congratulations to all the Housing LA
members who worked on the Housing Element from reviewing potential sites for
building new affordable housing to attending Wednesday's hearing and press
conference: LA Voice, ACORN, POWER, SCANPH, Public Counsel, LA CAN, East LA
Community Corporation, Coalition LA, Coalition for Economic Survival, LA
Community Design Center, Venice Community Housing Corporation, Inquilinos
Unidos, PATH, Mercy Housing CA, Little Tokyo Service Center, Clinica Romero,
Western Center on Law & Poverty, LA Coalition to End Hunger and
Homelessness, and countless others.
We look forward to making the Housing
Element plan to create neighborhoods that work for everyone a reality. Working together we can make a difference!
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Councilmember Huizar speaks at the HLA Press Conference on August 13th. Councilmembers Reyes and Rosendahl also joined community members on the south steps of City Hall
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Housing LA
213.480.1249 x254
3345 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90010
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