Prosperity Is Not Shared by All

San Fernando Valley residents have a lot to be thankful for this holiday weekend, even aside from Cal State Northridge’s upset of UCLA last week. (Sorry, Bruins fans.)

The Valley is back from the triple whammy of national recession, defense spending cutbacks and earthquake that hit in the early 1990s. Housing prices have recovered and in some areas surpassed pre-recession highs. Industrial and office vacancy rates, sky-high after the Northridge earthquake, are down. Employment is up.

But pockets of the Valley do not share in today’s prosperity. Many families, especially in the northeast Valley, live doubled up in houses, garages and backyard campers. They face rising rents and the seemingly impossible hurdle of a house down payment.

Valley residents have a tradition of being especially generous to those less fortunate during the holiday season. Many food banks and homeless shelters count on donations received between Thanksgiving and Christmas to take them well into the next year. Such private philanthropy is welcome and laudable. But there’s a role for government to play as well.

One such role is to press developers who are building in the Valley to include units that will rent for below-market rates. That is exactly what City Councilman Hal Bernson did in negotiating changes to the plan for the Porter Ranch area in the northwest Valley. Bernson reached an agreement with Porter Ranch Development Co. to reserve 400 of the planned 3,300 homes for 30 years as low-income housing for senior citizens, including a provision that some may be assisted-care housing.

We can all be thankful for such efforts to keep the Valley a diverse community accessible to young and old, a place that schoolteachers and shopkeepers can continue to call home.