Housing for Those Most in Need
Mayor Tom Bradley, in a parting gift to poor families, has committed the city to an ambitious affordable- housing endeavor that will result in more than 1,100 new and rehabilitated apartments. The 15 developments will be situated in overcrowded neighborhoods near downtown, South-Central Los Angeles, the mid-Wilshire district, East Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
The investment is expected to approach $110 million. The Los Angeles Housing Preservation and Production Department is providing $36 million from federal Housing and Urban Development funds. The city’s housing department will shepherd about $74 million in corporate investments generated by low-income housing tax credits, state funds and private bank loans. That financing will allow the city to reserve the apartments for poor families for 40 years.
Nonprofit-housing developers, who will own a majority of the projects, will build more than housing: One apartment complex, east of downtown, will include a space for job training.
Rehabilitated Skid Row hotels will feature single-room-occupancy units, kitchens, laundries and other amenities. Some buildings, such as the Regency 50 on Blythe Street in Panorama City, will have two- and three-bedroom apartments suitable for larger families. The Panorama City complex will also have recreational facilities.
Low-income senior citizens will be eligible for new efficiency units on West 8th Street and will be able to shop in stores in the complex.
The city’s acute shortage of affordable housing forces poor families to crowd into one-bedroom apartments like the units in the Burlington Avenue building that recently caught fire. That tragedy forced many of the affected families to search for scarce low-rent apartments. Some who inquired about one-bedroom apartments nearby, the only housing they could afford, were told they had too many children.
The Burlington Avenue apartments were built with partial financing from tax-exempt bonds, an indirect housing subsidy from the federal government; 20% of the units were set aside for low-income tenants. Because city housing officials lacked the authority to inspect the units, overtaxed Fire Department inspectors may have been denied vital assistance. New regulations, however, will require housing officials to conduct annual inspections of all newly constructed or rehabilitated units.
The urgent need for housing forces poor families to live in overcrowded apartments, garages or cars. The new projects are a start, but the next mayor must address the larger questions of growth and land-use policies to encourage the creation of much more affordable housing.
