By Frances Anderton and David Kersh for FORT:LA

Ballot Measures | State Legislation | Key Government Acts/Laws | Government Agencies
Government Programs | Terms | Local Policies | Planning and Permit Process | Housing Stakeholders

To understand affordable housing in Los Angeles you have to understand the policies and power dynamics that have shaped it. Housing looks and costs the way it does thanks to an ever-evolving and byzantine system of laws, codes, regulations, costs, labor, politics and policies, from zoning and fire safety to parking mandates. The Chicago architect Louis Sullivan once said that a building’s form should follow its function. In LA, the design of homes is largely shaped by rules. And if you want to participate in any discussion about housing, knowing those rules is a help.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the alphabet soup of ballot measures, the acronyms of government agencies or programs, the endless numbering of legislative bills, or the confusing wonky planning terminology. It is also challenging to get a sense of how the pieces all fit together, what this all means, how we got to where we are today, and why, when we walk out the door, the street, the housing and the city looks the way it does.

Policy takes place at the local, state and federal government levels, and each impacts different aspects of the process, from zoning to funding, design and environmental regulations. But just as critical is the active role of residents, via ballot measures that have impacted the look of our cities, by placing restrictions on where and what can be built, or by supporting funding streams to build certain types of housing.

What story does this Housing Terminology Playbook tell? A story of how outdated land-use rules from decades ago can still linger and impact housing today; of how big-picture changes can be about obscure technical, bureaucratic procedural fixes; of the role of money and the ability to make affordable housing pencil out by providing funding, market-sensitive incentives, or relaxing the rules to spur more investment; of the policy responses that stem from balancing labor, environmental, tenant, community and developer interests; of how public subsidies can impact design and density choices; of the conflicting views about wanting a city to change versus trying to maintain the status-quo.

Then, there are all the players in the messy process of the politics of housing: elected officials thinking about their political futures as well as the needs of their communities; market-rate developers wanting to make a profit; affordable housing developers navigating a complex web of financing sources; construction unions organizing to keep their members working; tenant-rights groups advocating to protect low-income residents from being displaced; land-use lawyers, with the flexibility to support or oppose projects, perfecting a craftiness to find legal loopholes; pro-housing YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard) advocacy groups pushing for an abundance of housing options; NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) forces seeking to protect the character of neighborhoods; local officials pushing back against state legislators; architects, contractors and developers navigating complex design, building and zoning rules; preservationists fighting to save existing apartments while perhaps thwarting the higher density projects that might take their place. The list goes on.

Each parcel of land is layered with emotionally-charged concepts such as home, memory, identity, demographics, class, wealth, and family. They are also the sites of power dynamics in the building of cities. All housing has a political backstory.

This Housing Terminology Playbook, then, hopes to shed more light on how Form Follows Rules and detail the forces at play in the world of affordable housing. Read on for Ballot Measures, State Legislation, Key Government Acts, Government Agencies, Government Programs, Terms, and Housing Stakeholders.

Ballot Measures

Many important decisions regarding affordable housing funding, development, growth and tax policy take place in the form of local or state ballot measures and propositions. Ballot measures can be placed by voters or by elected officials. In some cases, they can be approved by a simple majority; in others by a 55% or a two-thirds vote of the electorate. Following are ballot measures that shaped our housing, in date order.

Proposition 13 (1978)

One of the most significant policy changes in California history, Proposition 13 continues to have an impact on the way in which cities fund public services, and their ability to plan and build housing for all income levels. It stemmed from homeowners frustrated at the fast-rising taxes on their properties, and limited the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property to 1% of its assessed value at the time of purchase. A homeowner who bought a home before 1978 pays vastly less than the new owner of the house next door. Prop 13 has put pressure on municipalities to raise taxes by other means, such as building hotels or big box stores, and from income tax. In terms of its effect on housing, cities have had to choose sales tax revenue-generators over new housing, adding to the squeeze on supply.

Proposition U (1986)

Initiative proposed by three City of LA councilmembers (Zev Yaroslavsky, Joel Wachs and Marvin Braude) to slow development, primarily as an effort to stop high-rise office buildings on commercial corridors, such as Pico or Ventura Boulevards. Residents voted overwhelmingly to cut development potential by placing limits on the Floor Area Ratio (FAR)– the relationship between the lot size of a property– as it was cut in half from 3 to 1.5. This created a financial disincentive for developers to build housing on commercial corridors.

Proposition R (1990)

Placed on the ballot by the Santa Monica City Council at the request of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, it required that 30% of all new multifamily units be set aside for low-and moderate-income residents. This created a City of Santa Monica inclusionary housing program, whereby developers can pay an in-lieu fee; include a percentage of affordable units as part of their market-rate development project, or build the affordable units at a different site, usually as part of a 100% affordable project.

Measure LV (2016)

Santa Monica residents who opposed the Hines project, a large downtown mixed-use development, and a major renovation of a hotel launched this initiative to curtail growth in the city. This failed measure would have made it tougher for developers to get approval for buildings taller than 32 feet, or two stories. It would have required projects to get voter approval rather than go through the City Council or Planning Commission. When the measure failed, anti-density advocates quickly turned their attention to remaking the City Council, and in 2020 voters installed a slate of slow-growthers.

Proposition HHH (2016)

Housing funding measure that passed with more than 77% of the vote, and was spurred on by strong campaign support from a coalition of elected officials, business, labor, social justice and affordable housing developers. It enabled the City of Los Angeles to issue up to $1.2 billion in bonds for permanent supportive homeless and affordable housing (20% of the funding for this latter source). This will ultimately result in the creation of 8,000 new homes within 125 projects. There has been concern about the high construction costs, which can reach up to $800,000/unit. Costs are normally divided into three categories: land, construction and soft costs (consultants, fees, financing, etc.). HHH provides just one of multiple funding sources for a project, as a developer still needs to seek additional funding, such as tax credits, and other public and private funds (Prop HHH provides around 23% of the total development cost of a project).

Measure JJJ (2016)

Also known as Build Better LA, it was placed on the ballot by a coalition of labor, affordable housing and social justice groups. It passed with 64% of the votes and set affordable housing mandates and construction labor requirements on residential projects requesting a zoning change, variance or amendment to the City’s General Plan. A footnote in this measure created the Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program, which has been a key program to provide for affordable housing units as part of 100% affordable housing and inclusionary mixed-income privately funded projects near public transit.

Measure S (2017)

Known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, this failed Los Angeles ballot measure would have imposed a two-year moratorium on development projects seeking variances from the zoning code. Bankrolled by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, it was an attempt to curb development, given that the majority of new projects required variances since community plans and zoning codes were not reflective of current development needs, and were slowly being updated.

Proposition 1 (2018)

State measure that authorized $4 billion in general obligation bonds for housing-related programs, loans, grants and projects and housing loans for veterans.

Measure ULA (2022)

This measure established an increase in the real estate transfer tax to 4% on sales of property exceeding $5 million and 5.5% on those over $10 million. This revenue funds the construction of affordable housing projects and provides tenant protection resources. It was placed on the ballot by a coalition of labor, social justice, affordable housing and community groups. Approved by 58% of the voters, it was strategically messaged as a “mansion tax”. It is envisioned as a way to have a continual single source of affordable housing funding, and ease the pressure on affordable housing developers from having to rely on a complex web of financing sources. There has been significant concerns and backlash from the market-rate developer community about the negative impacts of this increased real estate transfer tax on the broader housing industry.

Measure GS (2022)

Voters in Santa Monica passed Measure GS (as, with Measure ULA, referred to as a “mansion tax”), which added a 5 percent transfer tax on residential and commercial sales exceeding $8 million. The generated revenue is used to support homelessness prevention, housing projects and schools. A prior lawsuit challenging Measure GS as a violation of the California Constitution failed; currently, there is a signature-gathering effort to place on the November 2024 ballot a measure to amend Measure GS and exempt the sale of multifamily housing from this increased transfer tax.

Measure LH (2022)

Measure approved by Los Angeles voters to authorize up to 75,000 units of low-income public housing citywide. This measure was put on the ballot as a way to respond to the requirements of AB 34, a state constitutional provision approved via initiative in 1950 that requires the approval of local voters before public affordable housing can be built. Courts have previously ruled that cities can meet the requirements under Article 34 by having elections that allow for an overall number of public housing units in the future rather than having to hold a vote for every  project.

2024

Stay tuned for these measures on next year’s ballot.

March Election

Proposition 1

Narrowly approved by voters, Proposition 1 authorized $6.38 billion in bonds to fund housing for homeless and veterans, including $4.4 billion for mental health care, drug and alcohol treatment and $2 billion for housing. The housing grants will be distributed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

November Election

ACA 1- Californians for Affordable Housing Now

Makes it easier for local governments to fund housing and transportation projects by lowering the threshold to approve special taxes and bonds from two-thirds to 55%.

ACA 13- Protect and Retain the Majority Act

Requires that any ballot measure that increases voter threshold be approved at a threshold equal or greater than what is proposed in the ballot initiative. For example, if you wish to increase the threshold for a citizen-led initiative tax measure to two-thirds requirement you need two-thirds vote to approve that measure.

Justice for Renters Act

Initiative supported by the AIDS Foundation to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995 that eliminated vacancy control and placed limits on rent control practices on: 1) residential properties occupied after 1995; 2) single-family homes; 3) condominiums. This measure would prohibit the state from limiting the right of cities and counties to establish or expand rent control ordinances. Apartment owners argue this would deny landlords the ability to charge fair market value for their investment, meaning they would have little incentive to keep the unit on the market or invest in improvements.

Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024

Would issue $10 billion worth of general obligation bonds to fund affordable rental housing and homeownership programs. This is a two-year bill that has not yet passed the legislature.

Measure A- Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions and Prevention Now

A coalition of labor unions, homeless service providers, and housing justice advocates have gathered signatures to put on the ballot the Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions, and Prevention Now Initiative. This would replace the existing 1/4 cent sales tax that funds homeless services (Measure H) and replace it with a 1/2 cent sales tax in LA County. This will provide funding for homelessness services, including mental health care, substance abuse treatment, affordable housing, rental subsidies, job counseling and services for homeless families, veterans, abused women, seniors and disabled persons. A percentage of the funding will go to the newly created LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA) to help with rental assistance, and the purchase or leasing of existing housing and new construction.

State Legislation

Every year, the state legislature passes numerous laws related to housing, that range from providing new funding sources to streamlining environmental standards to strengthening rent protections and making zoning changes. Some laws establish acts or commissions that impact housing development. In areas of the broader public interest, state laws preempt laws passed by local municipalities. In the last five or so years, a good number of bills have been passed to increase the supply of housing.

SB 975 (2001)

Expanded the definition of “public funds” under the state prevailing wage law to include various types of public assistance (for example, grants, loans, fee waivers) that impacted the costs of affordable housing projects. Follow-up legislation, with SB 972, provided exemptions for certain types of projects and clarified that this law did not preempt local prevailing wage ordinances. These changes in the applicability of labor standards to affordable housing projects created political tension between construction unions and the affordable developer community, and the UCLA Labor Center with the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) spearheaded a collaborative effort to find common ground.

SB 1818 (2005)

Amended the Density Bonus Law (DBL) which was enacted in 1979, to increase the flexibility and usefulness of this law. It reduced the proportion of affordable units needed to obtain a density bonus, created a new land donation density bonus and required local governments to grant additional concessions. Since then, the DBL has been amended multiple times.

SB 375 (2008)

Requires regions to develop a “Sustainable Communities Strategy” (SCS) that integrates transportation, land-use and housing policies to be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

AB 2299 (2016)

This was the game-changing law that made it easier to legally build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), or “granny flats” by allowing them to be built on single-family lots. Enabled for a ministerial (by-right) process with a set time for permitting process; reduced or eliminated parking requirements, and prohibited preventive zoning requirements and efforts by cities to stem the building of ADUs.

AB 2046 (2016)

Allows for junior ADUs, that are no more than 500 square feet and attached to the existing main residence.

SB 1069 (2016)

Along with AB 2299, streamlined the ADU permitting process and established a more workable system for building ADUs.

AB 494 (2017)

Clarified provisions of the ADU law, including issues related to owner occupancy, parking and setback requirements.

AB 1505 (2017)

Restored the ability of local governments to be able to require the inclusion of affordable rental units as part of their inclusionary housing policies. Local governments were able to apply these policies for for-sale housing, but treated rental housing differently. This bill overturned an appellate court decision- Palmer/Sixth Street Properties L.P. v. City of Los Angeles, 175 Cal. App. 4th 1396 (2009)– where the court had improperly conflated rent control policies with deed-restricted affordable policies.

AB 1701 (2017)

Law that made general contractors legally liable for the labor violations of their subcontractors on private construction projects, including multi-family housing projects. Later amended via SB 727 (2022) to add stronger penalty provisions to address wage theft practices. This labor compliance requirement is now part of all the new legislation that seeks to streamline the planning process to accelerate the production of housing.

SB 2 (2017)

The Building Homes and Jobs Act established a permanent funding source for affordable housing projects through a $75 fee on real estate transaction documents, capped at $225 per transaction. This generates over $100 million/year in different local and state funding programs.

SB 35 (2017)

Established a CEQA streamlining process for development projects in cities and counties that have not met their specific Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) goals. It was one of the fifteen bills that were part of Governor Jerry Brown’s 2017 Housing Package.

SB 167 (2017)

Strengthened the Housing Accountability Act (HAA), which was passed in 1982 to prohibit local governments from denying or reducing housing developments that comply with zoning code and objective standards. This legislation clarified the definition of objective standards and increased the amount of evidence the local government has to show to reject a housing development application.

SB 229 (2017)

Clarified provisions of the ADU law, including requirements related to parking structures and water and sewage connecting fees.

AB 686 (2018)

Created requirements that Housing Elements had to analyze segregation patterns, and identify housing strategies to ensure the obligation to affirmatively support fair housing is part of a city or county planning process and community development documents.

AB 1771 (2018)

Amended the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process to include affirmatively support fair provision requirements to better address housing disparities.

SB 828 (2018)

Strengthened the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process by giving the California Housing and Community Development (HCD) more oversight and auditing power over cities to comply with Housing Element requirements. It required for a more data-driven, equitable process for how the state and regional government bodies assign RHNA numbers to local communities. This increases the amount of housing that cities must plan for in preparation of their Housing Elements.

SB 961 (2018)

Enables cities to create tax increment financing districts to expedite transit improvements and incentivize affordable housing near transit by bonding against future sales and property tax increments without voter approval. These districts are required to use 40% of the tax increment for affordable housing, 10% for urban greening and active transportation investments and the remaining 50% for transit capital projects and other neighborhood improvements.

AB 68 (2019)

Provided for more flexibility and user-friendly process for the building of ADUs and JADUs and places additional restrictions on local governments from adopting ordinances that hinder the building of ADUs. It allows for a ministerial by-right (rather than discretionary approval) process within 60 days of application. Prohibits local government from enacting an ordinance imposing minimum lot size for ADUS. Revises requirements providing that ADUs may be attached or located within an attached garage, storage area or accessory structure. It eliminates the requirement for owner occupancy of the primary dwelling or the ADU.

AB 671 (2019)

Requires cities to develop strategies to facilitate the construction of ADU’s for households with very low, low and moderate incomes. The City of San Diego has developed a successful ADU density incentive bonus program that has resulted in producing hundreds of additional deed-restricted affordable ADU’s and market-rate ADU’s. This has been looked as a model of how to build affordable missing middle housing without having to rely on public subsidies.

AB 881 (2019)

Amended ADU law, by prohibiting local governments from imposing owner-occupancy requirements and clarifying that garages could be converted into ADUs.

AB 1482 (2019)

Provides tenant protections by capping rent increases throughout the state to 5% plus cost of living increase percentage or 10% whichever is less. It also includes just cause eviction protections. It does not affect housing units covered by local rent control ordinances.

AB 1763 (2019)

Amended the State Density Bonus law to double the density bonus from a previous maximum of 40% to 80% in housing projects where all units are for low and very low income residents. It means that 100% affordable housing projects can be built denser and taller than other buildings on that site.

SB 196 (2019)

Enacts a new welfare exemption from property tax for property owned by a Community Land Trust (CLT) that will be developed or rehabilitated as housing.

SB 330 (2019)

Known as the Housing Crisis Act (HCA), it declared a temporary housing emergency to preserve existing affordable housing, provide enhanced protections for occupants and increase certainty in the development process. Prohibits local governments from enacting new laws that would have the effect of reducing housing or delaying new housing via administrative and regulatory barriers.

AB 434 (2020)

Created a single application and scoring system process for developers to more efficiently access loan and grant funding from the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Known as the Super NOFA (Notice Of Funding Availability), this one-stop-shop application makes it easier to apply for the Multifamily Housing Program, the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program, the Farmworker Housing Grant Program and the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program.

AB 2345 (2020)

Amended the State Density Bonus Law to allow developers to increase the number of units as part of density bonuses up to 50% from the previously 35%. Also allows local governments to grant additional waivers for 100% projects that are within a half-mile of transit and reduces parking reductions. This bill took a program that had successfully increased mixed-income housing production in San Diego and applied it statewide.

AB 634 (2021) 

Clarified the ability of cities to adopt local ordinances that allow for affordable housing covenants beyond 55 years for rental apartments, except in those cases financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). The City of Los Angeles has been exploring adopting policies that have a 99 year affordability covenant, including as part of the codification of ED1 into a city council ordinance

SB 8 (2021)

It provided clarification of the previously signed Housing Crisis Act (HCA) of 2019 to increase certainty in the development process, preserve existing affordable housing, enhance tenant protections and prevent actions that reduce housing supply. It requires that a proposed housing project should have a minimum number of residential units equal to the highest number of units within the last five years and replace the protected affordable units. This was another step in preventing local governments from adding unnecessary delays to housing projects that meet local rules. It extended provisions from the prior SB 330 HCA legislation until 2030.

SB 9 (2021)

Allows homeowners to split their lot and create up to four homes on an existing single-family parcel. It ended single-unit zoning and legalized duplexes and lot-splits in urban infill areas. Unlike the construction of ADU’s which have proliferated in recent years, the changes from SB 9 have not resulted in widespread changes in housing development. This is in part due to the way cities have found creative ways to enact standards that effectively make it nearly impossible to use the provisions of this bill, through onerous design standards, prohibitive costs and building setbacks and height limits. There is active legislation seeking to make SB9 more workable and address the more egregious examples of the roadblocks placed by cities. In response to a lawsuit filed by five cities, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge struck down this law as unconstitutional since it violates the authority that charter cities have with respect to setting policy and managing their municipal affairs. In this case, the judge ruled this law is not reasonably related or sufficiently narrowly tailored to be in line with the stated statewide goal of ensuring access to affordable housing.

SB 10 (2021)

Provides cities with legal tools to upzone up to ten homes per parcel in transit-adjacent and urban-infill sites. Both SB9 and 10 have been vigorously opposed by homeowners and municipalities resistant to more density in R1 neighborhoods.

AB 2011 (2022)

Law that seeks to spur more multi-family residential development on underutilized commercial corridors. It streamlines the planning process by exempting certain projects from the CEQA environmental review and related procedural elements that can often delay and kill housing projects. In exchange for a quicker, more certain and less-costly process, developers must include a certain percentage of affordable housing units and comply with labor standards related to prevailing wages, apprenticeship standards, health care and labor compliance. This bill was a turning point in building an alliance of YIMBY groups, labor and community groups to address housing, workforce and environmental policies.

AB 2097 (2022)

Eliminates parking mandates for homes and commercial buildings located near transit in order to reduce costs of housing, slash pollution and make it easier to provide lower-cost, affordable, walkable, transit-accessible housing choices.

AB 2295 (2022)

Streamlines the development of affordable and mixed-income housing for teachers and support staff of California’s K-12 public schools on public school properties, opening opportunities for up to 2.3 million units of housing statewide. The bill allows up to three stories of housing on available sites.

AB 2234 (2022)

Established mandatory timeframes for local agencies to issue post-entitlement permits to begin the construction process on housing developments. These include building, demolition, grading, excavation and off-site permits. If a local agency fails to meet these timelines, it is a violation of the Housing Accountability Act (HAC) and can lead to a lawsuit against a local agency. This law went into effect on January 1, 2024.

AB 2334 (2022)

Amended the State Density Bonus Law to expand the locations where incentives, concessions and waivers to increase height and allowable density are provided for 100% affordable housing projects to include “very low travel areas”, which is an urban area where existing residential development generates vehicle miles traveled (VMT) below 85% of regional or city miles traveled per capita. This can potentially allow for more affordable housing development in low-density and single-family residential areas. 

SB 679 (2022)

Created the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA) to create a single unified countywide structure to administer the funding of affordable housing production and renter protection programs. There are ongoing discussions to put on the ballot a countywide funding measure.

AB 434 (2023)

Reduces the timeline for the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to review locally approved housing elements or amendments from 90 days to 60 days. It also expands HCD’s enforcement authority over specific housing laws

AB 785 (2023)

Extends CEQA exemptions for City of Los Angeles and unincorporated areas of LA County until 2030 to streamline construction of affordable housing, supportive and transitional youth housing.

AB 835 (2023)

Directs the State Fire Marshal to research and develop standards for single stairway multi-family buildings. This may seem like Latin to people not in the building industry. Basically, California currently requires two stairwells in all multi-family buildings above 3 stories. This limits the development of new housing by making it difficult to build high-density projects on small or constrained sites. The bill’s authors argue it would make it possible to build a wider variety of homes at a lower cost.

AB 976 (2023)

Removes a prior sunset provision in AB 881 (2019) that prohibited local governments from imposing owner-occupancy requirements on properties where ADU’s are built and makes this provision permanent.

AB 1033 (2023)

Allows homeowners to sell accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as separate for-sale properties.

AB 1287 (2023)

Amended the State Density Bonus Law to allow developers to obtain an additional density bonus that can be used to build moderate-income units, beyond the maximum of low-and very low-income units that can be provided in exchange for incentives and concessions. This incentivizes developers to increase the number of affordable units in their projects with more incentives related to additional height, density or setbacks. As of January 1, 2024 the number of concessions and incentives is increased from four to five for 100% affordable housing projects, and from three to four for mixed-income projects that include at least 16% of units for very-low income households.

AB 1332 (2023)

Requires local governments to create programs for pre-approved ADU plans.

AB 1449 (2023)

Exempts certain urban infill affordable housing projects from the lengthy CEQA environmental review. As with other such bills, in exchange for this expedited by-right planning and permitting process developers need to comply with labor requirements for construction workers that include the payment of prevailing wages, apprenticeship training standards, health-care and labor compliance provisions. This bill, along with many other housing bills passed in recent years, indicates a direction from the legislature to exempt from CEQA environmental review almost all potential sites for the building for 100% affordable housing projects.

AB 1490 (2023)

Incentivizes adaptive reuse affordable housing projects by mandating expedited permit process approval timelines and lowering energy bill costs.

AB 1607 (2023)

Provides flexibility for the County of LA to put a single tax ballot measure to fund the newly created Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA) with a revenue source that would replace Measure H (county funding for homeless services) set to expire in 2027. It authorizes LACAHSA to transfer a portion of the revenues raised by a future tax measure for programs with services to combat homelessness.

AB 1679 (2023) 

Authorizes an additional one-half percent increase in the sales tax in LA County. With Measure H (county funding for homeless services) set to expire in 2027, various nonprofit housing and social justice groups, unions and business organizations have been discussing ways to extend the stream of revenue for homeless services, as well as additional funding for the production of affordable housing. This legislative change was needed to be able to increase the sales tax rate above the 10.25% that is the current maximum in 47 of the 88 cities in LA County. It provides more flexibility for the County to put a single tax ballot measure to fund the newly created Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA) with a revenue source to replace the expiring Measure H.

SB 4 (2023)

Enables faith-based institutions and nonprofit colleges to build up to 30 housing units per acre on their properties in major urban centers regardless of local zoning rules and streamlines the planning approval process. This allows for multi-family apartment developments near single-family homes, as long as the new units are 100% affordable housing with below market-rate rents. In exchange, it requires construction-related labor requirements for the payment of prevailing wages, apprenticeship programs, health-care and labor compliance. According to the U.C. Berkeley Terner Center for Innovation, California nonprofit colleges and religious institutions own about 171,000 acres of potentially developable land.

SB 423 (2023)

Extends a prior bill SB35 (2017) which was set to sunset, in order to streamline the planning process and more quickly build multi-family housing in cities and counties that are failing to build their fair share of housing per the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process. As with other streamlining bills, it exempts projects from a lengthy and costly CEQA environmental review and a discretionary planning process that can cause delays or kill projects. It replaced prior construction labor standards with ones more amenable to the developer community related to the payment of prevailing wages, apprenticeship programs, health-care and labor compliance requirements. It also extended the streamlining provisions to areas under the purview of the California Coastal Commission.

SB 469 (2023)

Reforms Article 34, a provision in the California Constitution that was authorized by the voters in 1954 to limit the creation of new affordable housing by mandating that a local election be held to approve new publicly-funded affordable housing. The law aims to increase the number of projects that can bypass voter approval, as long as the housing development includes certain types of funding or tax credits.

SB 555 (2023) 

Created the Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023 to create opportunities for social housing through a mix of acquisition and new construction projects. It requires the Housing and Community Development department to submit to the legislature a Social Housing Study by December 31, 2026. 

SB 684 (2023)

Facilitates the process for the subdivision of multi-family zoned parcels of five acres or less into up to ten for-sale lots by easing up lengthly CEQA environmental requirements and expediting permitting timelines. Last minute legislative amendments removed the applicability of the provisions of this bill from single-family zoned areas.

Key Government Acts/Laws

Some key legislation that continues to impact housing affordability and production at the local level.

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH)

Part of the 1968 federal Fair Housing Act, AFFH requires government agencies to take significant actions to overcome patterns of segregation, promote fair housing choice, eliminate economic disparities and foster inclusive communities that are free from discrimination. This not only aims to prohibit discrimination but requires cities that are recipients of HUD grants to take meaningful action to combat it. Prior to 2015, there was limited implementation of the law; then a rule from HUD took a decentralized approach where grantees where the ones that had to analyze and develop meaningful actions. This rule was rolled back by President Trump in 2015. In 2018 California adopted a state law, and since then the Housing Elements prepared by cities and counties are required to take a more pro-active approach in analyzing and developing land-use programs to fulfill the goals of the AFFH. Researchers at the UCLA Lewis Center have developed a Fair Housing Land Use Score, as a way to measure how cities are responding to AFFH requirements and assist in promoting more inclusion across neighborhoods.

California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

State law passed in 1970 that requires government agencies to identify to the public the significant environmental effects of a proposed project, and avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible. The environmental review process is lengthy and costly and a law intended to preserve flora and fauna is routinely used to stymie housing projects. There have been legislative actions to “streamline” this process in order to get projects moving quicker and to minimize the abuses of this law by those seeking to stop development.

Community Reinvestment Act

Federal act passed in 1977 that requires the Federal Reserve and banking regulators to encourage financial institutions to meet the credit needs of communities, including supporting building affordable housing.

Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act

This 1995 state law placed limits on rent control ordinances. It prohibited cities from establishing rent control policies over single-family dwellings, condominiums and newly constructed apartments. It also prohibited vacancy control and therefore allowed an apartment owner to rent a vacant apartment at any price, which was usually the current market-rent.

Ellis Act

This 1986 state law allows landlords to evict tenants in rent-controlled units by indicating that they are intending to “go out of the rental business.” This stemmed in response to a State Supreme Court ruling that rejected arguments that landlords had a constitutional right to evict tenants. While many landlords have seen this as protecting their ability to go out of the rental business, some advocates believe it contains loopholes that allow developers to evict tenants from rent-controlled units and then build expensive units.

Faircloth Amendment

Federal law passed in 1998 that states the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cannot fund the construction or operation of new public housing units that would result in a net increase in the number of units any public housing authority owned, assisted or operated as of October 1, 1999. While it did not directly ban new public housing, the inability of using operating subsidies for new housing ultimately resulted in curbing the construction of new public housing projects.

Housing Accountability Act (HAA)

Passed in 1982 (and amended since then), this Act limits a local government’s ability to deny, reduce the density, or make infeasible housing projects that are consistent with objective local development standards.

Mello Act

Passed in 1982, this Act was adopted to preserve and increase affordable housing units in coastal areas. It prevents cities and counties from approving housing projects that remove or convert affordable units without replacements and states that, if feasible, new projects must include affordable housing units.

Mills Act

Passed in 1972, this is an important economic incentive program for the restoration and preservation of historic buildings. It is administered by local governments. In 1996, the City of Los Angeles set up the Mills Act Property Contract Program, which provides significant tax savings for private property owners to offset the costs of rehabilitating and restoring their historic buildings.

Property Tax Welfare Exemption

Adopted by California voters as a constitutional amendment in 1944, it grants the California Legislature the authority to exempt certain eligible properties from property taxes. This allows non-profits that restrict their properties to less than 80% AMI to be exempt from property taxes.

State Density Bonus Law (DBL)

This law, originally enacted in 1979, has been amended over the years through different bills (i.e. SB 1818, AB 2334, AB 2345, AB 1763, AB 1287) to build from a long-standing incentive policy approach to increase more housing at all levels. Market-rate developers use this law to receive a development bonus, in the form of incentives, concessions or waivers of development standards in exchange for providing a percentage of affordable units in their projects. This is a way in which it can pencil out to include a percentage of affordable units and build mixed-income projects. Also, developers of 100% affordable housing projects can increase the number of units, build taller buildings, obtain yard set-backs or modifications to parking rules. This law enables a developer to add more units beyond what is termed “base density”, which is the maximum allowable density under an existing zoning ordinance. There are two paths for the incentives, waivers and modifications of development standards: a pre-established “on-menu” list available as part of a by-right/ministerial process, and an “off-menu” process that is discretionary, requiring planning commission review.

Subdivision Map Act

Adopted in the early twentieth century, this Act is a key feature of California’s development legal culture to regulate the division of land and promote orderly land-use and planning. Its key purpose is to require the subdivision of land to be approved in the city or county where the property is located.

Surplus Land Act (SLA)

Enacted in 1968 and modified in 2020, this is a “right of first refusal” law that requires local agencies to first offer its surplus land for sale or lease to affordable housing developers for affordable housing projects before selling or leasing the land to private developers.

Government Agencies

Local, state and federal government agencies impact housing production by administering funding programs and regulating development practices.

California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC)

Entity within the State Treasurer’s Office that issues tax-exempt bond debt for affordable housing projects.

California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD)

State agency that administers policies and programs related to the construction and preservation of affordable housing. It has had growing importance through its use of legal tools to ensure local cities fulfill their housing element obligations to plan and zone for housing needs as part of RHNA.

California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA)

State agency that issues tax-exempt and taxable bonds for affordable housing projects.

California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC)

Entity within the State Treasurer’s Office that allocates tax credits through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.

Coastal Commission

State agency with a mandate to “protect, conserve, restore and enhance” the state’s coastal resources. It adds another layer of involvement from a government agency in having a say on a development project’s outcome. It was established in 1972 to prevent luxury new developments that would close off access to the California coastline.

Community Redevelopment Agencies (CRA)

Established in the late 1940s to address issues of urban “blight” these new agencies had powerful tools that significantly impacted post-WW 2 city-building: the authority to designate districts it deemed “blighted,” and use eminent domain to force people to sell their properties as a way to encourage new development. They were able to use “tax increment financing” (new tax revenue that grows from the increase in property value in a redevelopment area) to build affordable housing, and used a range of other financing mechanisms to spur development in these newly cleared areas.

The CRA/LA in Los Angeles had a mixed record in creating affordable housing, uprooting residents and transforming neighborhoods. Most notably, in Bunker Hill, where gleaming skyscrapers filled with finance, banking, law, real estate, and other high-end firms were built by clearing thousands of units of low-cost housing that would take decades to replace throughout the city.

Over time, CRA/LA changed character and intent, morphing from slum clearance agency to pioneer of new approaches to economic development, using subsidies as leverage to promote social policies, including affordable housing, environmental justice and good jobs. However, growing public and media attention throughout the state to abuses and misuse of redevelopment funds ultimately resulted in Governor Jerry Brown abolishing CRAs in 2011.

CRAs have attracted more attention lately because their heyday is now remembered as a time when there was single-source of funding for affordable housing, whereas now developers have to seek out multiple sources of public funding.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Federal agency responsible for national policy and programs related to housing needs, community development, and enforcing fair housing laws.

Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

Established in 1938, it directly constructed public housing projects. Spearheaded the creation of multiple garden apartments built on superblocks, in clean, functional two-story structures containing townhouses and flats, arranged around grassy courts. They include: Aliso Village, Ramona Gardens, Nickerson Gardens, Rose Hill Courts, Pueblo Del Rio, Mar Vista Gardens, Jordan Downs, Hacienda Village and Channel Heights. Many important architects were involved, including Richard and Paul Williams.

Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA)

Countywide agency set up to administer the funding of affordable housing production and renter protection programs. There are ongoing discussions to put on the ballot a countywide ballot measure to provide funding for this new agency.

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)

Coordinates and manages funding for programs that provide shelter, housing and services to people experiencing homelessness.

Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD)

Operates different funding programs to build and preserve affordable housing, and administers the City of LA Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)

Regional government agency that develops long-range transportation plans, sustainable community strategies, growth forecast analysis and the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process. It covers six counties and 191 cities in an area covering more than 38,000 square miles.

Government Programs

There are many government programs dedicated to providing funding sources for housing for those who can’t compete in the marketplace, and also to stimulating development.

Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC)

State program to advance climate and equity goals by funding affordable housing and transportation projects. It is one of the state’s largest funding sources, and over the years over $3 billion of cap-and-trade dollars have provided funding for affordable housing in jobs-rich neighborhoods as well as for community centers and other resources, bike lanes, and sidewalks.

California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSCDA)

State program to enable local governments and private entities access to tax-exempt bond financing for private projects that provide a public benefit to their communities. Its Workforce Housing Program allows for the acquisition of private market- rate projects using bonds purchased by investors that can be repaid through rental interest. This public-private partnership has helped convert apartment complexes in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach into “missing middle” housing.

Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)

Federal program that provides block grants to fund local community development activities including affordable housing, anti-poverty and infrastructure development projects.

HOME Investment Partnership Program

Federal program that provides grants and low-interest loans to cities and counties to create affordable housing for low- income households.

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)

The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a government-sponsored corporation founded in response to the Great Depression. Its purpose was to refinance home mortgages that were in default, so as to prevent foreclosure, as well as to expand home buying opportunities for Americans as part of the massive economic stimulus program, the New Deal.

Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC)

Established in 1986 by the federal government, this program is the main mechanism through which affordable housing projects have been made possible. Rather than providing direct financial assistance, state governments award credits to affordable-housing developers, who then transfer the tax credits to corporations in exchange for equity in rental buildings whose units are set aside for low-income tenants. Corporations use the credits as a coupon against future taxes. There are 9 percent LIHTC credits, which provide for a higher percentage of the cost of construction, which are very competitive, and less competitive 4 percent LIHTC awards. The process is primarily designed to build large, multi-family rental buildings for households earning less than 60% of the area median income. In California, the LIHTC program has created 435,281 low-income housing units from 1990 through 2023. Though LIHTC could be used for mixed-income housing, since just 40 % of the units need to comply with income and rent rules, in practice the majority of applications are for 100% affordable units. In that sense, the program hasn’t been able to promote moderate-income “missing middle” housing.

Metro Joint Development (JD) Program

Program by Los Angeles County Metro to build transit-oriented housing on metro-owned properties. The goal is to build 10,000 units, with 5,000 of them income-restricted, by 2031 on approximately 20 sites.

Multifamily Housing Program (MHP)

State program that provides low-interest, long-term deferred-payment loans to create affordable housing for low-income households.

National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF)

Federal program focused on increasing and preserving the supply of affordable housing.

New Deal Programs

The Great Depression dealt a big blow to the housing sector and the government stepped in to help banks and homeowners with fixed long-term mortgage security. New policies included the Home Owners Loan Corporation (1933) and the National Housing Act (1934). The Federal Housing Administration (1934) insured mortgage debt with the full backing of the US government, but also established the practice of red-lining– identifying neighborhoods too risky for mortgage insurance in red. The Public Works Administration (1933) established a federal public housing system to build and administer public housing projects. The Housing Act (1937) provided financing for construction of both limited-profit housing and public housing, and formalized the process to transfer the authority of building public housing from the federal government to local housing authorities.

Opportunity Zones

Federal program to spur economic growth and job creation in low-income communities while providing tax benefits to investors. It enables for new investments in these areas to receive preferential tax treatment and consideration for grants and programs.

Project Homekey

State program that provides grant funding for local governments to develop a range of housing types including hotels, motels, hostels, single-family homes, multifamily apartments, adult residential facilities, and modular housing, and to convert commercial properties and other existing buildings to permanent or interim homeless housing.

Public Works Administration (PWA) 

Created as part of the 1933 New Deal, the Public Works Administration (PWA) established a public housing system to build and administer public housing projects. The Housing Act of 1937 restructured and formalized a process whereby the federal government financially supported construction and maintenance but gave most other decision making to local housing authorities.

Section 8 Vouchers

The Housing Choice Voucher Program is laid out in Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937. Public funds provided as vouchers cover part or all of the cost of renting from a private landlord. Due to Congress’s reluctance to appropriate large sums of money for housing assistance, the number of families who meet the eligibility criteria generally far exceeds the number of vouchers available, which leads to long waiting lists for families seeking help. Another key issue is that landlords often prefer not to rent to Section 8 tenants. There are two types of Section 8 vouchers: Project-Based and Tenant Based. One travels with the tenant, the other stays with the unit. In Santa Monica for example, it is illegal to not accept tenant-based vouchers, but landlords will sometimes do it anyway.

Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA)

Requirement from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that a public hearing (TEFRA hearing) must be conducted by a conduit issuer (i.e. the Los Angeles Housing Department or California Housing Finance Agency) as part of the process to issue tax-exempt bond financing to non-profit developers to build affordable housing projects.

Terms

Any conversation about housing comes packed with jargony terms and acronyms.
This section unpacks them, in alphabetical order.

Airbnb (also known as Short-Term Rentals, or STRs)

When Airbnb launched in San Francisco in 2008, it offered a smart solution to a simple problem: rent out a bed in one’s home to visitors from out-of-town who were unable to find a hotel room; while earning some extra income to pay the bills. It was the latter day version of “paying guests.” This quickly morphed into the big business of short term rentals (STRs), with entire houses and apartments being rented out, no homeowner present. Commercial investors entered in and before long thousands of long-term rentals were taken off the market. Municipalities, recognizing the impact on housing supply, as well as neighborhood quality of life, have tried to limit STRs to their original concept. However, Inside Airbnb, which tracks Airbnb listings and their impacts on local housing markets globally, finds more than 30,000 illegal rentals in the City of Los Angeles. Housing watchers estimate that in Venice, CA, alone there are 1600 illegal STRs. A McGill University study finds that commercial STRs are responsible for “more than 5,000 extra people experiencing homelessness each night in Los Angeles.”

Area Median Income (AMI)

The median household income in a metropolitan area, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). There are five income-based affordability levels: Extremely Low Income, or ELI (30% of AMI); Very Low Income, or VLI (50%); Low income (80%); Moderate Income (120%); Workforce (150%). There are different Income/Rent Schedules that apply depending if a project is using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), ED1 process, or incentives from the State Density Bonus Law or the City of LA Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) programs.

Below Market Rate (BMR)

Term used to refer to housing units is below market rate (i.e. Affordable Housing).

Chapter 11B

Section of the California Building Code that includes enhanced compliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the construction of public projects. This impacts the design strategies of architects and developers when building affordable housing projects receiving public subsidies, which differs when building market-rate housing. For example, bathrooms may need to be larger as required by the ADA, resulting in space lost from other living areas.

California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTAC)/Housing Community Development (HDC) Opportunity Map

A mapping tool designed to assist in advancing the state’s affirmatively furthering fair (AFFH) objectives, and combat discrimination and take actions that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics. The Opportunity Map is broken down by the following categories: Highest Resource, High Resource, Moderate Resource, Low Resource. It classifies neighborhoods in terms of economic, education, and health/environment indicators.

Charter Cities

The California State Constitution allows charter cities to create their own laws with respect to “municipal affairs”, while general law cities are subject to the statutes enacted by the State legislature. Determining what is considered a municipal affair is not straightforward and often subject to legal debate. These include, with some exceptions, land use decisions and zoning; municipal election matters; municipal contracts; local spending decisions. However, the State Legislature can override a city’s charter when it passes a law that is sufficiently narrowly tailored to address issues of statewide concern.

Cohousing

Cohousing is a community consisting of a complex of private homes arranged around shared open space and other communal amenities like a kitchen and dining area or community garden. They began in Denmark in the late 1960s and are gaining adherents in California, as people look for alternative financial and social models from the isolating, and increasingly expensive, single-family home. The legal structure for a cohousing community is typically a homeowners association or housing cooperative. Sometimes owners collectively create a community land trust and owners buy shares in the trust, meaning returns on resale are limited but help maintain long-term affordability for residents. One of the oldest cohousing communities that is also a community land trust, is L.A. EcoVillage in East Hollywood. Cohousing projects are managed and governed together, and involve a great deal of group decision making.

Coliving

Coliving is the name given to rental living in buildings with small personal spaces and large shared spaces, from laundries and recording stories to group dining areas and rooftop gardens. Coliving entered the lexicon around the same time as coworking, and similarly offered investors the opportunity to maximize the return on a building they leased or owned by subdividing it into multiple spaces for short-term lets at a higher per-square-foot price. Coliving has been very popular in Los Angeles, especially with young people, where it offers entry to a somewhat affordable home and an instant social life. Unlike Cohousing, coliving is a rental model.

Community Land Trust (CLT)

CLTs are a means to provide stable, owner-occupied homes through shared ownership. Typically, a municipality or group acquires a piece of land, also described as land banking, and the dwellings built on it. Residents essentially buy shares in the trust, which provides stable homeownership over an indefinite period of time, but without the equity that would normally build up as the land’s value appreciates. In late 2020, Supervisors Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl initiated a Community Land Trust Partnership Program, securing $14 million in funds for a pilot project that would assist five CLTs with the acquisition and rehabilitation of at least one property in each Supervisorial District. Sometimes CLTs are targeted at a specific group. For example, L.A. EcoVillage is aimed at people committed to living sustainably.

Costs

Costs to build housing are typically broken down the following way: Hard Costs, which are associated with the physical construction of the project and comprise around two-thirds of the budget. These include materials, labor, and contingencies like cost-overruns. Soft Costs, which includes fees, consultants, tax, title, insurance and financing costs. Land, the purchase of the property and associated closing or environmental report costs.

Covenant

Legal contract that mandates affordability usually for 55 years. This means that cities can potentially be losing existing affordable housing stock, as a mandate expires, even as they subsidize and build new dwellings. Prior legislation has clarified the ability of cities to adopt local ordinances that allow for affordable housing covenants beyond 55 years for rental apartments, except in those cases financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). The City of Los Angeles has been exploring adopting policies that have a 99 year affordability covenant, including as part of the codification of ED1 into a city council ordinance

Density

Density means the number of dwellings per acre. A subdivision of single-family homes might have five dwellings per acre. That’s very low density. The rest of the land is taken up with roads, parking spaces, driveways and front and back lawns. A high-density project could have 80 dwellings per acre. You can create density by adding extra height or by making units smaller to get more of them. Density determines whether a city is sprawling and low-rise like Los Angeles, or condensed and towering like Manhattan. Many Angelenos don’t like high density. They moved here for its low density living. Hence you hear the word “Manhattanize” used as a pejorative verb; and “too dense” is one of the main objections to new housing (along with parking concerns). Moreover high density housing complexes are mostly rental dwellings. So density is equated with renters which, in LA, has a negative connotation. New development has become more dense in large part because there is so little land to build on because homeowners in R1 subdivisions refuse to allow a little bit more density in their neighborhoods (excepting ADUs), thereby spreading the growth more widely but at a lower level.

Double-loaded Corridor

California building codes require two stairways in buildings with more than three stories, which tends to result in long dark hallways lined on either side with apartments that have windows on only one wall. Recent policy efforts are seeking to reform this requirement in order to have a single-stairway on taller buildings, as a way to make better use of livable space, create more family-sized apartment units and let more natural light and ventilation.

Housing Element

Identifies the housing conditions and production needs, and the goals, objectives and policies of a city’s or county’s housing strategies. It includes programs to create affordable and mixed-income neighborhoods. The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process is used to determine the number of new homes and affordability levels. This informs the preparation of the Housing Element, which is updated every eight years and submitted to the California Department of Housing and Development (HCD) for approval.

Housing First

Housing First is an approach to serving people experiencing homelessness. Proponents argue that an unhoused person must be housed in permanent shelter before offering supportive services for improving health and reducing harmful behaviors such as drug dependency, or encouraging work.

Housers

Nickname for people, typically in the nonprofit housing development sphere, who are committed to providing housing for all.

Impact Fees

Fees that are imposed on a new development project to defray the cost of new public facilities needed. Examples are traffic mitigation, public safety, park facility, sewer facility, library fees. In cities where impact fees are set excessively high or are not directly connected to the cost impacts of the new development project they can act as a deterrent to the building of new housing.

Inside Safe

City of LA program to temporarily place unhoused into motels and other sites with the goals of eventually getting them into permanent housing with services.

LEED

LEED is a rating system developed by the national Green Building Council that – in exchange for a fee paid by property owners – awards points to buildings based on various sustainability criteria. The more points you get, the higher the rating.

Market-rate housing

Housing that is not income-restricted, and that has received no public subsidies Landlords or sellers can charge as much as the market will bear.

Middle-Income

Though there are different ways to categorize income levels, “middle-income” is typically referred to as households earning incomes between 80 and 120 of Area Median Income (AMI). The California Department of Housing and Community Development refers to this as “moderate income.” The California Development Authority uses both the term “moderate income” and “middle-income”.

Missing Middle Housing

Housing that falls between single-family homes and large apartment complexes, such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and courtyard apartments. It also refers to housing that is affordable to moderate-income residents.

Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH)

Rental properties that are affordable due to being in older buildings, low-income neighborhoods or built where supply outstrips demand. They are not government subsidized but typically remain affordable due to rent control. According to researchers at the California Housing Partnership (CHP), NOAH is defined as apartment buildings with five or more units (the state’s definition of multifamily housing) where at least half of the apartments have rents that are affordable to households earning 80% of the local median income. LA County is estimated to have 16,400 buildings that meet this criteria, containing 291,063 units of which 274,486 are deemed “affordable.” Now, almost a third (around 85,000) of NOAH apartments in LA County are deemed at risk, as property owners use the Ellis Act to evict tenants and sell to new owners who can turn the buildings into short term rentals or market-rate apartments. The LA Conservancy is very concerned with protecting NOAH, and has engaged in fights to save some of it: vintage garden apartments like Lincoln Place, Chase Knolls and Wyvernwood, and bungalow courts like Edinburgh Court. Ironically, these older, low density multifamily complexes are so delightful that, once saved, they often jump up in rental price, ceasing to be affordable.

Neighborhood Council

Established in 1999 as an amendment to the City Charter, it has increased the ability for residents to publicly weigh in on the development process. There are 99 Neighborhood Councils in Los Angeles. Board members are elected by members of their community.

Parking Minimums

Parking minimums mandate a specific fixed minimum number of parking spaces on the lot of a house or multifamily building. Parking minimums are credited with forcing housing designs to change. For example, bungalow courts thrived in Los Angeles until the advent in the 1930s of a mandatory one space per unit.

Parking Podium

Parking podiums are above-grade parking garages, consisting of one or more stories of stacked parking, on top of which sits residential units and/or open space for tenants and other users of the building. Parking podiums meet parking requirements while costing less than digging underground. They are disliked by many planners and urban critics. The City of LA planning department has described above ground and podium-style parking as “characterized by unarticulated facades which are perceived by the pedestrian as a looming mass. The overbearing massing and scale of above-grade parking can dehumanize the urban environment, creating uninviting pedestrian environments.”

Passive Cooling

Passive cooling is a means to prevent excessive heat in buildings through non-mechanical natural sources including wind, water, and trees and other greenery. Early buildings in Los Angeles deployed courtyards and cross-ventilation via openable windows to maintain cool interiors before the advent of air-conditioning. Hence the proliferation of courtyard-based housing. Thick insulation and energy-efficient windows also help reduce heat gain and increase heat loss.

Prevailing Wages

Wages, health care and pension benefits required to be paid to workers on projects that receive public financing. These state and federal requirements have been in place since the 1930s as a way to make sure that workers earn a living wage, competition remains fair, and labor standards are not undermined by the infusion of public money into the construction sector. These wages are set via a survey process conducted by the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and United States Department of Labor (DOL). In the majority of cases, the wages and benefits paid are the same as those on collective bargaining agreements between labor unions and signatory contractors.

Project Labor Agreement (PLA)

Agreement between construction unions and contractors that establishes the terms and conditions for employment on construction projects. Historically, PLA’s were used on large public works projects to ensure labor harmony, the timely completion of a project, an increase in diversity hiring, a safer jobsite, and a reliable skilled workforce. On projects funded by Proposition HHH, this requirement was placed on housing projects with 65 or more units. On projects with Measure ULA funds, this requirement has been lowered to projects with 40 or more units, a result of the significant financial and campaign support from the Building and Construction Trades council, the umbrella group representing the 14 construction craft unions.

Public Land

Land owned by a public agency such as a city, school district, community college or transportation agency that can be utilized for building housing at various income levels. This can reduce the cost of building affordable housing by providing developers land at a reduced cost or via low-rent long-term leases. This presents opportunities for different models for building housing. In the City of Los Angeles, the future use of public land is linked to using Measure ULA funds as a single-source of funding to more quickly and effectively build larger-scale affordable housing. A City of Los Angeles motion has been introduced to maximize the zoning capacity for building on public land.

Racially Restrictive Covenants

Contractual agreements that prohibit the purchase, lease, or occupation of a piece of property by a specific group of people. These covenants were used primarily by white property owners to exclude people of color and Jewish people. They proliferated during Jim Crow, and were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer. However, despite being outlawed, subdivision and home-owners continued to find ways to exclude people, writes The History Channel, “from disrupting basic services like water and sewer to harassing and threatening families.”

Redlining

From the 1930s through the 1960s, federal government agencies worked banks and corporations to finance mortgages and incentivize homeownership. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation assessed neighborhoods for the viability of investments and mortgages in their area, separating or “redlining’’ them into four categories: “Best” (Green), “Desirable” (Blue), “Declining” (Yellow), and “Hazardous” (Red). In their notes, appraisers explicitly discussed populations in Red and Yellow areas as “uniformly of poor quality” due to the presence of Black, Mexican, or Japanese people, as well as various other non- white or non-Anglo ethnicities and races. They also applauded neighborhoods without “a single foreigner or negro,” often labeling them “Best.” This practice became known as “redlining.” Once appraisers deemed a neighborhood undesirable, banks withheld mortgages and other forms of real-estate-based investment for repairs and home improvements. On top of restricting access to home financing, these maps encouraged the private and public sectors to disinvest from areas wholesale, and allowed officials in cities across the country to push undesirable land uses into redlined neighborhoods, thus formalizing segregation both spatially and economically in the United States. Read more on Redlining in FORT: LA’s trail, The Lasting Effects of the Homeowners Loan Corporation Redlining Map.

Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)

In 1969, the state mandated that all cities and counties must plan for the housing needs of their residents. The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is the process to identify the total number of housing units at all income levels that is submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HDC) as part of an area’s Housing Element. In recent years, this law has been strengthened by modifying the methodology used to more accurately reflect the housing needs of an area as well as with more tools for the state to hold cities more accountable in fulfilling their legal requirements.

Rent Control

Ability for a city to set rents at below-market rates, which the property owners cannot increase even when a tenant moves out. Established in Los Angeles in 1978, in Santa Monica in 1979, and in West Hollywood in 1985, following campaigns by tenants frustrated at rising rents and lack of tenant protections. Property owners immediately pushed back, and in 1985 won the passage of the Ellis Act, a state law allowing landlords to “go out of the rental business,” which means they could evict tenants and get back in the market years later, as long as prior tenants got first dibs. A decade later, the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (1995) placed additional limits on rent control efforts. It prohibited cities from establishing rent control policies over single-family dwellings, condominiums and newly constructed apartments. It also prohibited vacancy control and therefore allowed an apartment owner to rent a vacant apartment at any price, which was usually the current market-rent. Housing activists have tried in recent years to re-strengthen rent control, and another attempt to undo Costa-Hawkins is on the 2024 state ballot.

Skilled and Trained Workforce (STW) Requirements

Requirement on publicly-funded projects that a percentage of construction workers are graduates of apprenticeship programs, which tend to be primarily labor-management union programs. The push by the Building and Construction Trades Council (the umbrella group representing the 14 craft unions) to have this labor requirement as part of legislation seeking to streamline the costly and lengthy CEQA environmental review process impeded the passage of housing legislation for several years. In 2022, a coalition of the carpenters union, service employees union, developer and pro-housing advocacy groups managed to unblock the political logjam by replacing this STW labor requirement with more flexible labor requirements, which allows participation from a broader pool of union and non-union contractors and workers.

Types (buildings)

The International Building Code categorizes buildings into five construction types. Type 1: Fire Resistant– more than 75 feet tall, with poured concrete and steel (i.e. high-rises); Type 2: Non-Combustible– tilt-slab, reinforced masonry and metal roofs (i.e. schools, shopping centers, commercial buildings); Type 3: Ordinary– non-combustible walls but combustible roof (i.e. schools, multi-family projects of six to eight stories with a podium and fire-treated light wood); Type 4: Heavy timber– non-combustible masonry walls and combustible heavy timber interior walls; Type 5: Wood-Framed– walls, floors and roof made entirely or partly out of wood (i.e. single-family homes, restaurants, multi-family buildings five stories or less).

Local Policies

Cities enact policies that impact housing in multiple ways: streamlining the planning entitlement
and permit process; adding requirements to include affordable units as part of market-rate housing projects; reforming zoning requirements, as well as through local rent control ordinances.

Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) 2.0

Expansion of the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) adopted in 1999 and credited with spurring growth in the Downtown LA residential community by enabling the conversion of vacant office buildings into housing. This policy eliminated parking requirements and established a by-right ministerial process to more expeditiously move through the planning and permitting process. Currently, only buildings completed before 1974 are eligible for conversion. ARO 2.0, currently under consideration, would include: 1) buildings citywide that are at least 15 years old; 2) buildings between 5 and 15 years old with approval of a conditional use permit by the Zoning Administrator, 3) parking garages that are at least 5 years old. One of the provisions of Executive Directive 7 (see ED 7) directs the Department of Building and Safety and the Fire Department to report back on building code requirements that impede the conversion of vacant structures into housing.

Affordable Housing Production Program (AHPP)

City of Santa Monica program established in 1998 that requires developers of market-rate housing projects to provide a certain percentage of the project’s units as affordable. This requirement can be fulfilled by: 1) including these affordable units as part of the market-rate project; 2) on a separate affordable housing project site; 3) paying an in-lieu fee to the city.

Affordable Housing Streamlining Ordinance

The codification by the City Council of Mayor Bass’s ED1 to speed up the entitlement and permitting process of 100% AH projects. The revised draft ordinance excludes single-family zones from using the ED1 entitlement streamlined process, and includes limits on density bonus waivers and incentives that may be requested. There are efforts by advocacy groups to ensure the new rules encourage affordable housing to be built across the city, especially where there are more jobs, parks and other resources.

Affordable Housing Trust Fund (LA)

Established in 2002 by Mayor James Hahn, at the time it was the nation’s largest housing trust fund with a multi-year plan to reach $100 million in funding. It sought to have a dedicated local housing funding mechanism, and was a result of a three- year campaign spearheaded by the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) and a new progressive coalition that included religious organizations, labor unions, immigrant and tenant rights groups.

Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP) Ordinance

A key component of the Housing Element Rezoning Program is the Citywide Housing Incentive (CHIP) Ordinance comprised of three programs: 1) State Density Bonus Program, which seeks to provide consistency between the City of LA local density program and State Density Bonus law, which has undergone many legislative updates;  2) Mixed Income Incentive Program, which seeks to incentivize opportunity corridor and missing middle housing strategies in high resource areas, as per CTAC opportunity map, and codify elements of the City’s Transit Oriented Communities TOC) affordable housing program citywide; 3) Affordable Housing Incentive Program, which seeks to provide land-use incentives for 100% affordable housing projects constructed by faith-based organizations in moderate, high and highest resource areas, as per CTAC opportunity map, and to enable for 100% affordable housing projects on parking and public facilities zones.

Executive Directive 1 (ED1)

Directive issued by Mayor Karen Bass to accelerate and lower the cost of building affordable housing by expediting the planning and permitting process. This includes exemption from site plan review; for city departments to quickly process building permit applications, certificates of occupancies, as well as all reviews, inspections and approvals, and improve inter- department coordination. It has been updated to prevent its application in single-family zoned areas. The City Council is implementing an ordinance to codify ED1 through the Affordable Housing Streamlining Ordinance. ED1 has been successful in fast-tracking the process to build affordable housing, though tenants rights groups have raised concerns about the displacement of low-income residents living in buildings with low rents that are demolished to build new affordable housing projects. The ability for ED 1 projects to request an unlimited number of density bonus incentives and waivers and also benefit from the streamlining process has resulted in a substantial increase in the number of proposed affordable housing units, and of many privately funded projects not relying on public funding or the use of Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC); however, this has also led to some ED 1 developers requesting significant modifications from zoning requirements that results in projects that may be substantially out of scale with the surrounding context and neighborhood.

Executive Directive 3 (ED3)

Directive issued by Mayor Karen Bass to accelerate the building of permanent and interim housing on publicly-owned sites deemed “surplus”. ED 3 also required delivery of a comprehensive inventory of the more than 3,300 city-owned parcels to determine suitable sites as well as a new program to explore innovative ways to scale up affordable housing on publicly owned land, which include: grouping multiple sites by one developer; new financing and construction and innovative methods. Bass also urged other jurisdictions that control real property in the City to adopt similar policies. These include Los Angeles County, LA Metro, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), and other departments or agencies of the State of California.

Executive Directive 7 (ED7)

Directive issued by Mayor Karen Bass to incentivize mixed-income and affordable housing production; address barriers to homeownership, and help convert existing buildings into housing. It instructs the Planning Department to draft an ordinance to raise the threshold for site plan review; prepare a report on the barriers of for-sale housing and ways to encourage this through land use and zoning regulations, and for the Building and Safety and Fire Departments to report back on building code changes to convert vacant structures into housing.

Housing Element Rezoning Program

Following the 2022 certification of the 2021-2029 Housing Element, City of LA Planning staff has been working on developing programs to address the City’s significant housing needs, provide for greater housing access and meet state housing obligations. This has included the Housing Element Rezoning Program, which will be implemented through multiple ordinances: the Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP) Ordinance, the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, the Housing Elements Site Ordinance and the Residents Protection Ordinance. Additionally, the City is updating multiple community plans as part of this process.

Inclusionary Zoning (IZ)

Policy that requires a certain percentage of affordable housing units on a market-rate development project. Multiple cities across Los Angeles County have versions of this policy that vary in the percentage of affordable units required on a project, or ways to fulfill this requirement by building the units on another site or paying an in-lieu fee. Cities with IZ policies include Santa Monica, Burbank, West Hollywood and Long Beach.

Linkage Fee

Fees charged in Los Angeles to developers of residential buildings (between $8 and $15 per square foot) and commercial developers ($3 to $5 per square foot) to fund affordable housing projects.

Master Lease

Agreement between a developer and a government agency (i.e. Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), Housing Authority of Los Angeles (HACLA)) whereby the agency leases a completed privately-funded market rate project and turns it into permanent supportive or affordable housing. This results in significant project cost savings per unit in comparison to more traditional forms of subsidized affordable housing. Through the use of rental vouchers (HACLA) this allows for rents to be set at affordable Area Median Income (AMI) levels, while enabling a developer to make a profit and the project to pencil out.

Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO)

City of LA rent control ordinance that applies to properties built before October 1978. The city has approved an ordinance to limit rent increases on rent-stabilized units to 4% or up to 6% if the landlord covers the utility gas and electric costs. This was prompted by a pandemic-era rent freeze that had been placed on rent-stabilized units.

Residents Protection Ordinance

Proposed City of Los Angeles Ordinance that is part of the City’s larger Rezoning Program. The provisions seek to strengthen tenant protections for individuals facing evictions due to the construction of new housing. These stronger tenant protections include: the right to remain; right to return to comparable units in a new development; right to return if demolition does not proceed; right to relocation. It seeks to ensure new construction projects will result in a net gain of affordable housing and strengthens the replacement policy for the demolition of units subject to the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. It expands on existing regulations for mixed-income development projects to ensure quality and equitable distribution of affordable units. It also extends covenant terms for new restricted affordable housing units to 99 years; and it mandates the use of the Affordable and Accessible Housing Registry for rental listings.

Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance

Adopted by the City of LA in 2005 (and amended in 2016) to encourage infill housing on commercial and multi-family zoned parcels that is a hybrid between single and multi-family housing. It enables the construction of a project with multiple free- standing single-family homes or attached townhouses, and by avoiding costly condo fees helps expand home-ownership options. The ordinance provided modifications to setback requirements and lot sizes, as well as design guidelines to ensure the increased density would blend in with surrounding homes.

Transit Oriented Communities (TOC)

City of LA program that provides for additional height/density, parking reductions, and yard set-backs in exchange for a developer providing a percentage of affordable housing units on projects near major transit stops. It was a footnote to Measure JJJ and has incentivized the building of affordable housing as part of 100% AH developments and mixed-income inclusionary projects near transit.

Planning and Permit Process

Cities enact policies that impact housing in multiple ways: streamlining the planning entitlement and permit process; adding requirements to include affordable units as part of market-rate housing projects; reforming zoning requirements, as well as through local rent control ordinances.

Builders Remedy

A legal loophole whereby a city that does not have a substantially compliant housing element must approve any housing project as long as at least 20% of homes are low-income or 100% are moderate-income. This has allowed developers to submit plans for very large housing projects that are not limited by a city’s zoning or general plan standards.

By-right/ministerial Process

Ability for a project, if it meets existing design, planning or zoning criteria, to directly obtain a building permit rather than going through a discretionary planning process in which there are hearings and procedural steps where the public or decision makers can prolong or derail a project.

City of Los Angeles Zone Information and Map Access System (ZIMAS)

Comprehensive mapping tool with technical data about each parcel in the City.

Community Plans

Neighborhood-specific goals and implementation strategies to achieve the goals of a city’s General Plan. The City of LA has 35 Community Plans, which are in the process of getting updated, most recently, in Downtown, Hollywood and Boyle Heights.

Floor Area Ratio (FAR)

The measurement of a building’s floor area in relation to the size of the lot/parcel. It is the link between a property and how much development is permitted in that property and is expressed as percentage or ratio. For example: on a 1,000 square foot lot with a FAR of 2.0, a developer could build as much as 2,000 square feet, which could be a two-story building with a floor area of 1,000 square feet per floor.

General Plan

A city’s policy goals and objectives that inform land-use decisions and shape its physical development. It is composed of chapters referred to as Elements. In the case of Los Angeles, its General Plan includes the 35 community plans.

Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ)

An additional layer of planning control for a property and neighborhood. Any exterior work and new construction requires review by staff or a HPOZ Board to see how the work fits with a historic district’s design guidelines and with the neighborhood’s distinctive architectural and cultural character. To become an HPOZ, homeowners apply to the city which establishes eligibility on historic grounds. HPOZs have helped preserve LA’s older, low-rise housing heritage but they also, arguably, are used as a means to thwart the development of new housing.

Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee

City of LA committee composed of five city councilmembers that receives public input and decides on matters related to land-use, development, planning and housing, prior to full City Council taking action.

Site Plan Review

A process dating back to the 1980s that requires discretionary action in the City of LA for projects that create more than 50 residential units on a site or more than 50,000 square feet of commercial space. It requires decision makers to make various findings and triggers environmental review under CEQA, along with hearings and appeals. This discretionary review increases risks, costs and uncertainties and has also made it so that developers, at times, modify plans to build projects with less than 50 units. Mayor Karen Bass has signed into law a provision that exempts affordable housing projects from site plan review, and a provision of ED 7 is to draft an ordinance to raise the site plan review threshold for the review of mixed-income projects.

Zoning

Zoning is a means of dictating specific uses of a parcel of land. This has had profound effects on housing supply. Starting in the early 20th century, city planners separated the Los Angeles area into different heights and uses: industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential. Apartment buildings were designated commercial, not residential, while almost two thirds of residential areas were zoned for single-family homes only, known as R1. Zoning, along with racially restrictive covenants and redlining, has contributed to racial segregation and wealth inequality in America. It has also contributed to the creation of the “American Dream:” the single-family home in a yard on a quiet tree-lined street that is the object of desire of millions of people of all backgrounds. In the 1960s, large parts of Los Angeles that previously allowed multistory apartment buildings were down-zoned – meaning less housing was allowed to be built on many sites than in previous decades even as population grew. Even apartment buildings in commercial zones had to shrink in height. Empirical evidence has shown that restrictive zoning makes housing more expensive. Historically, zoning and planning codes have also resulted in parking requirements that increase development costs, and space being given to house cars before people.

The City of LA is undergoing a revision of its zoning code to better align with the world of today, versus the 1940s, when it was last updated. Known as re:code, this process is a move away from zoning based on the separation of land uses (i.e. residential or commercial) to one that is “form-based”, which regulates the shape of buildings rather than the activities.

Another consequence of outdated zoning codes is a highly-politicized development culture in which developers need to seek zoning changes for their projects, which in turn requires the support of the local city councilmember, who has virtual control of what gets built in his or her district. Hence, the multiple cases of corruption linked to development projects in recent years.

Housing Stakeholders

There are many individuals and organizations involved in the housing process that engage on specific projects, policy proposals or ballot measures.

Abundant Housing Los Angeles

Grassroots nonprofit pro-housing organization that advocates for more housing at all income levels. It is engaged in local policy proposals, housing element updates, coalition-building, and mobilizing support for projects at public hearings. Part of the broader YIMBY movement.

Alliance for Community Transit- Los Angeles (ACT-LA)

Broad-based coalition of social justice organizations engaged in affordable housing, tenant protection, transit and environmental justice issues. ACT-LA played a key role in the drafting process and mobilizing support for Measure JJJ and Measure ULA ballot measures.

Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles

Nonprofit organization made up of rental housing providers and property management firms. It advocates for the protection of property rights, and is very active in the political process.

AIA Los Angeles (AIA/LA)/Architecture for Communities Los Angeles (ACLA)

Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the professional organization for architects in the United States. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach programs. The Los Angeles Chapter, alongside its nonprofit public outreach partner, ACLA, creates extensive programming around housing issues, including an annual conference, Design For Dignity.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Nonprofit organization that provides HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and advocacy services. It has been active in the housing sphere, via anti-development ballot measures such as the failed 2017 Measure S and bankrolling the 2024 rent control ballot measure to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Act.

California Building Industry Association (CBIA)

Statewide trade association that represents thousands of homebuilders, contractors, architects, engineers and industry professionals in the multi-family residential and mixed-use development sector. It publishes an annual “Housing Killers and Creators List” with legislative bills it believes will either increase costs, time and hurdles to building housing; or, on the other hand, reduce barriers to help address the need for more housing.

California Housing Consortium (CHC)

Nonprofit advocacy organization engaged in policy and legislative activities, and representing the interests of affordable housing and market-rate developers. As part of a coalition with the carpenters union and several pro-housing YIMBY groups, it was instrumental in pushing through legislation to streamline and accelerate the building of housing at different levels of affordability.

California Housing Partnership

Created by the Legislature in 1988 as a private nonprofit organization, it provides on-the-ground technical assistance, applied research and legislative support on issues related to affordable housing policy and finance.

CA Yimby (Yes in My Backyard)

Pro-housing organization active in advocating for the increase of housing supply at all income levels. In recent years, it has been successful in promoting legislation, educational efforts and research that supports housing production. The YIMBY movement has a stronger presence in Northern California, where advocacy groups have received funding and support from the tech industry over the years.

Central City Association (CCA)

Member-supported organization that seeks to enhance the vibrancy of downtown Los Angeles and promote its economic and social vitality. It was involved in the DTLA 2040 community plan update, and is playing a key role in the process to update and expand the City’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO).

CityLAB

Think tank situated within the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design that provided supporting research for ADU legislative changes, as well as for building housing on school sites.

California Community Builders (CCB) 

Nonprofit organization that is focused on missing-middle income housing and homeownership policies to enable communities of color to build wealth and economic security. 

Fix the City

Anti-development group that has actively sued the City of LA over land-use, planning and development decisions, including Mayor Bass ED 1, Measure JJJ, as well as homeless housing projects, community and specific plans.

Global Policy Leadership Academy (GPLA)

Educational organization that provides courses on housing policy to professionals and civic leaders as a way to develop a more collaborative network of problem solvers committed to equitable and sustainable communities. Through its popular Vienna Social Housing Field Study course program, it has been instrumental in taking many elected officials, housing providers, advocacy groups and housing stakeholders to Vienna for an in-depth historical and policy educational experience as well as to provide first-hand experience of this social housing model. 

Housing Action Coalition (HAC)

Member-supported organization that advocates for housing at all levels of affordability. It is engaged in education programs, legislative and policy proposals, and project support. Part of the broader pro-housing YIMBY movement, and based in Northern California.

Housing California

Nonprofit statewide membership organization of affordable housing developers focused on policy and education activities related to affordable housing and homeless issues.

Inner City Law Center 

Non-profit poverty-law firm that has been active in fighting homelessness and advocating for working poor families to have access to affordable housing.

LA Tenants Union

Tenant-led movement that fights for safe, affordable housing and rent control. It organizes against landlord harassment, mass evictions and displacement. They also mobilize for the repeal of the Ellis Act and Costa-Hawkins Act.

LA4LA

Government, philanthropy and private sector alliance formed to unlock and expand affordable housing options in Los Angeles. It has a multi-faceted approach to address three issues related to homelessness: 1) Leverage philanthropy, private sector and innovative new financing models to more rapidly build temporary and permanent housing; 2) Act as the catalyst for more collaboration surrounding intersecting issues of homelessness, housing, healthcare and job creation; 3) Bring together the expertise and capacity to more quickly build housing at scale and develop systemic change to unlock entitled, though unbuilt housing units.

Labor Unions

The role of labor in the housing sphere takes many forms. Construction unions have played a powerful role in opposing and supporting legislation in Sacramento. This has primarily involved seeking to require labor standards in exchange for easing up on lengthy and costly CEQA environmental process requirements. At the local level, unions have provided significant financial and political campaign support for affordable housing production ballot measures. Other labor unions, such as those representing hotel workers or service employees, are engaged in housing policy as a way to respond to their members struggling with housing affordability and tenant protection issues.

Land-use Lawyers and Consultants

Given the complexity of the entitlement and permitting process, land-use lawyers and consultants are powerful players in the housing production sphere. This plays out in terms of their expertise and understanding of the technical aspects of planning, zoning and building codes and maximizing the development potential of a parcel of land; it also involves providing a developer with strategic advice to navigate the planning and political process to ensure the entitlement of a project, and fend off potential opposition from community groups, other stakeholders such as labor unions, or ongoing concerns from the elected official in whose district the project is being proposed.

League of California Cities

Organization that defends “local control” through advocacy efforts in the legislature, ballot measures, the courts as well as through education efforts to policymakers, the public and the media.

Livable Communities Initiative (LCI)

Organization that advocates for reforms in housing, urbanism and transportation. Its focus has been on building 3-5 story buildings of gentle density above ground retail, with protected bike lanes, car-light streets and the creation of a 15-minute city– an urban planning idea where daily needs such as work, shopping, education, healthcare, culture and leisure are reachable by a 15-minute walk, bike ride or public transit.

Los Angeles Business Council (LABC)

Member-supported business and civic organization focused on housing, transportation, energy, trade and economic development issues. The LABC institute previously sponsored a study (conducted by the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate and California State University, Northridge) that analyzed the bottlenecks in LA’s housing development process, which has been instrumental in supporting policy changes (see ED1 and ED7). In 2024, the LABC released the LABC Institute Affordability Survey in partnership with the Los Angeles Times, that provides important information related to voters’ positions and perspectives on housing production and affordable housing.

LA Conservancy

Nonprofit member-supported organization focused on education and advocacy to preserve the historical architectural and cultural heritage throughout Los Angeles County.

LA Housing Movement Lab

Organization that supports coalitions and campaigns related to developing long-term strategies to de-commodify housing.

Market-rate Developer

A developer of privately-funded housing projects that seeks to make a profit. Their decisions are guided by a pro-forma– the calculations of the financial return of a project. Where possible, they will build only market-rate units, as in what the market will bear. In certain circumstances, they will incorporate “Affordable” units in exchange for a menu of incentives, concessions and waiver of development standards available as part of the state Density Bonus or the City of LA Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) programs. To make a project “pencil out”, a developer chooses from variables dealing with the percentage of affordable units that they will include, and the income levels (very low, low, moderate) of the affordable units.

MoveLA

Nonprofit organization focused on affordable housing, transportation, and climate justice issues. It played an important role in the passage of prior ballot measures related to mass transit, as well as in drafting and mobilizing support for Measure ULA.

Nonprofit Developer

A developer that typically builds 100% Affordable Housing projects using tax credits and public subsidies. They must navigate a complex web of financing sources to develop a project. They financially support their operations via a developer fee, which is part of the budget of a project.

NIMBY (Not in My Backyard)

Broadly speaking, individuals and organizations that are opposed to development in their communities, including housing, renewable energy or mass transit projects. In terms of the housing sphere, this tends to take multiple forms, from opposition to new affordable or homeless housing projects in a neighborhood; blocking multi-family residential alternatives in single- family zoned streets, and pushing back on taller buildings and density.

Philanthropic Organizations

Separately from the varied public funding sources that affordable housing developers rely on to make their projects financially pencil out, philanthropic organizations are playing a role in supporting affordable housing, academic research and the advocacy work of nonprofit organizations.

PHIMBY (Public Housing in My Backyard)

Movement that seeks more investment in public housing, stronger tenant protections and rent control laws. Its creation stems from a concern that broad-based pro-housing bills and policies, even those supporting the construction of subsidized Affordable Housing, potentially speed-up gentrification and push out low-income residents.

Rand Center on Housing and Homelessness 

Focus of this research center has included exploring areas of supply and demand for housing and homeless services, and the impacts on communities of color and veterans. They have also been active in exploring policy opportunities for the adaptive reuse of underutilized commercial real estate for housing.

San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)

Member-supported public policy organization. Though the focus of its research and civic advocacy work is on addressing a range of urban issues affecting the Bay Area, its research results and public education forums have a broader, statewide impact.

Santa Monica for Renters Rights (SMRR)

Member organization that supports local rent control laws, and is an important player in City of Santa Monica politics.

Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH)

Member organization of affordable housing nonprofit developers focused on facilitating and promoting affordable housing development through policy, advocacy, education and membership engagement.

Strategic Actions for a Justice Economy (SAJE)

Social justice organization focused on affordable housing, tenant rights and equitable development. It has been working to have stronger tenant protections as part of new city policies fast-tracking affordable housing to ensure low-income residents are not displaced by new projects. It is also active in efforts to promote a Vienna social housing model (Gemeindebauten) in the Los Angeles region.

Streets for All

Advocacy group focused on educational and policy actions to support more pedestrian and bike lane uses, and eliminate parking minimums. It has been spearheading an effort to transform the Marina 90 freeway into a large park, with over 4,000 homes, bus lanes and bike paths.

UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation

Through data-driven market analysis of the housing sector, it provides research findings to promote pragmatic policy solutions at the local and statewide level.

UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Academic department that houses programs related to social work, urban planning and public policy. It provides valuable local research to address the region’s housing crisis and related social problems.

USC Sol Price School of Public Policy

Academic research center that focuses on economic development, real estate and urban planning issues.

United to House LA

Coalition of community-based organizations, including labor, social/economic justice and renters’ rights groups, homeless providers, and non-profit affordable housing developers that placed on the ballot Measure ULA, which passed in November 2022. It is now working to implement the affordable housing production and tenant protection programs stemming from the ballot measure.

United Way of Greater LA

Organization that played an active role in the passage of SB 679, which created the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA). A key convener of Our Future LA (OFLA), a coalition of nonprofit and community groups seeking to place a ballot measure to fund this new county agency to finance affordable housing projects and enact stronger tenant-rights protections.

Urban Land Institute (ULI)

Global member organization that is a network of land-use, development and real estate professionals. It conducts informational events on public policy and projects, and also research on housing issues.

Westside Urban Forum (WUF)

Civic forum dedicated to land-use, planning and development issues via monthly programs that bring together developers, architects, planners, designers, elected officials and other stakeholders.

YIGBY

Short for “Yes in God’s Backyard”, a growing movement across the nation, spurred by California’s Senate Bill 4, to push cities and states to pass legislation and new policies that makes it easier for faith groups to develop their land into housing.

YIMBY Law 

Nonprofit pro-housing advocacy group that seeks to address the housing shortage and achieve affordable, sustainable and equitable housing through the enforcement of local and state laws. It has been active in legal challenges to cities with non-compliant housing elements and against the City of LA for illegally delaying a 100% affordable housing project near a single-family residential area that originally fell under the ED1 streamlining process.

Bibliography, Resources, Experts

Los Angeles Housing Department: Affordable and Accessible Housing Registry

Anderton, Frances (author) – Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles

Anderton, Frances (co-producer/host) – 40 Years of Building Community, a short film about the nonprofit affordable developer Community Corp of Santa Monica.

Anderton, Frances (co-producer) – Venice Community Housing, a short film about the nonprofit developer.

Anderton, Frances (reporter) – Your home can have a baby, and it’s called an ADU (KCRW)

Anderton, Frances (reporter) – Can ADUs look great and solve the housing crisis? A pilot project has some answers (KCRW)

Dougherty, Conor – Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream

Dreier, Peter – Why America Needs More Social Housing

Falletta, Liz – By-Right, By-Design Housing Development versus Housing Design in Los Angeles

Fogelson, Robert M — The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850 – 1930

Gish, Todd Douglas — Building Los Angeles: Urban Housing In The Suburban Metropolis, 1900-1936

Gish, Todd Douglas – Bungalow Court Housing in Los Angeles, 1900 – 1930: Top-Down Innovation or Bottom-Up Reform

Goldstein, Dana, and Gebeloff, Robert – As Gen X and Boomers Age, They Confront Living Alone

Grant, Thurman; Stein, Joshua G. — Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis

Kaye, Danielle – A hotel worker’s 3-hour commute tells the story of LA’s housing crisis and her strike

Los Angeles Conservancy — Garden Apartments of Los Angeles

Los Angeles Department of City Planning — LA Multi Family Existing Conditions Analysis

City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources – Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement

Lind, Diana — Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing

Manville, Michael; Monkkonen, Paavo, and Lens, Michael- It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning

Mari, Francesca – Imagine a Renters’ Utopia. It Might Look Like Vienna

Matthew, Zoie — How Community Land Trusts Could Make LA More Affordable

Monkkonen, Paavo and Traynor, Kate- How Proposition U Restrains Los Angeles Housing Development

Parson, Don — Making a Better World: Public Housing, the Red Scare, and the Direction of Modern Los Angeles Public Los Angeles

Parson, Don (Author); Branfman, Judy, and Keil, Roger (Editors) – Public Los Angeles: A Private City’s Activist Futures

Phillips, Shane – Affordable Housing primer

Phillips, Shane – The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping it There)

Rothstein, Richard – The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Scott, Anna (reporter) – City of Tents: Veterans Row (KCRW)

Scott, Anna (reporter) – Samaritans (KCRW)

Slater, Gene — Freedom to Discriminate: How Realtors Conspired to Segregate Housing and Divide America

Stephens, Josh – The Urban Mystique: Notes on California, Los Angeles, and Beyond

Vallianatos, Mark — Forbidden City: How Los Angeles Banned Some of its Most Popular Buildings

Wolfe, Rachel, and Dagher, Veronica – The Rise of Forever Renters

Publications Covering Housing

Urbanize LA

Los Angeles Times

The RealDeal LA

The Planning Report

CalMatters

Laist

Podcasts

Abundance – A California YIMBY Podcast

Building LA

Gimme Shelter

The Second Studio

UCLA Housing Voice

Urban Planning is Not Boring