A Chance to Put NIMBYism Behind Us : Housing: L.A. has given the the green light to a plan that can alleviate the crisis. But every neighborhood must help out.
The quality of life in Los Angeles is directly dependent on the ability of its citizens and their elected representatives to find equitable solutions to problems that affect neighborhoods citywide. Such an opportunity is now before the City Council, an opportunity to substantially alleviate our affordable-housing crisis. The council has taken an important step forward.
It is hard to find anyone living in this city who would not agree that building low- and moderate-priced housing is a worthwhile goal. However, experience has shown that efforts to build affordable housing quickly hit a brick wall of neighborhood politics: anywhere but in my neighborhood. Be not confused: The issue is not whether the city has room for barely 100,000 units or room for 10 times more than that. The issue is how serious we are about addressing the crisis, now.
The city continues to debate the merits of a document that will set the direction for the balance of the decade on what the housing picture in Los Angeles will be. This document, the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy, is the link to several million dollars in federal assistance that can be used to address Los Angeles’ affordable-housing crisis. The plan calls for more housing near freeways, future planned mass-transit corridors and limits on “down zoning,” which restricts the amount of allowable development.
The money generated by the plan can certainly bring much-needed assistance to Los Angeles. It can be used to build low- and moderate-income housing, including single and multiple-family units. There are also funds to aid homeowners in rehabilitating the older residences frequently found in the inner city and to provide homeless shelters and transitional housing.
However, all the money that Washington has to offer will do no good unless all parts of the city share equally in the placement of affordable-housing opportunities. It shouldn’t be a foregone conclusion that these units will automatically be located in South Los Angeles, because developing affordable housing is a citywide challenge and responsibility.
Too many neighborhoods continue to foster negative and stereotypical images of affordable housing. It is equated with crowded, high-density development or an influx of unwanted, low-income families whose life-styles will cause property values in middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods to plummet. Such attitudes lead to segregated enclaves--which were legally struck down nearly half a century ago--ignoring the reality of a fast-changing, ethnically diverse city.
Forgotten in the equation is the fact that affordable housing would benefit struggling middle-class families burdened with long commutes to work in Los Angeles because they can only afford housing in distant suburbs. Critics tend to forget that affordable housing is about homes for aging parents and young adults with new families.
While affordable housing citywide is stymied by provincial attitudes in middle-class neighborhoods, it is also being dealt a blow in inner-city communities by banks and lending institutions employing exclusionary and discriminatory practices. In South Los Angeles, the lack of affordable housing compounds the problems of homelessness, overcrowding and the disproportionate percentage of income that residents must pay for a place to live.
Federal statistics show racial and economic disparities in how local banks award home loans. A survey of Los Angeles banking practices found rejections rates for home loans were 12.8% for Anglos, 13.2% for Asians, 16.3% for Latinos and 19.8% for African-Americans. According to the Los Angeles City Planning Department, fewer than 50 home-purchase loans were made in City Council Districts 8 and 9, which together have 60,000 single-family housing units.
The first reading of the CHAS plan was unanimously approved by the City Council on Nov. 12. The final vote will take place when an ordinance is drafted by the city attorney. Meanwhile, debate continues. The plan has been criticized in hearings by representatives of such neighborhood groups as the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., but their arguments have, unfortunately, been more fallacious than substantive. Attacks of this sort are based on subtle segregation strategies that result in polite polarization practices.
As we move ahead on the CHAS plan, let us seize the opportunities and policies that will maximize efforts to make affordable housing in Los Angeles a reality. That decent housing is a matter of justice and one of the most basic rights accorded everyone should not be ignored. We desperately need a housing agenda and passionate advocates to carry it forward.
For decades, the city has enjoyed a reputation as a place of opportunity for generations of people from all walks of life and backgrounds. However, when it comes to offering affordable housing, our city seriously lags in fulfilling this dream. Los Angeles now has an opportunity to live up to the ideals so often espoused by those who want to remove every obstacle in the way of every person seeking to improve the quality of his or her life.
