Council Approves Plan for Meeting L.A. Housing Needs
After years of effort and several failures, the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday adopted a blueprint for meeting housing needs through 2005.
The City Council approved the state-required “housing element” detailing city policies, programs and projects designed to increase the current housing stock.
Although such plans have been required by state law for years, pressure to complete them is increasing because of the severe shortage of affordable housing. The Legislature has considered cutting funding to cities that do not complete housing elements.
“They’re trying to put teeth into the housing element and make cities meet their regional housing needs,” said Jane Blumenfeld, principal planner in the city Planning Department.
Los Angeles’ plan won approval from state officials just last week. City Councilman Ed Reyes praised the document as “one more piece of the puzzle to deal with the housing crisis in Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles needs to add 60,280 housing units between 1998 and 2005, says the Southern California Assn. of Governments.
The document approved Tuesday includes an assessment of the need for housing, constraints on building and housing, and an inventory of housing sites: planned projects, those under construction and land that could be used for housing.
Some housing advocates disputed the accounting, saying the inventory includes some projects more than once and projects that are not viable.
The Planning Department has taken since 1996 to get the housing element “in a condition where the state felt it complied with their law,” Blumenfeld said.
California requires each city and county to adopt a long-term comprehensive general plan for development. The law mandates that each general plan include a housing element to facilitate the improvement and development of housing.
The approval by the state Department of Housing and Community Development ensures that Los Angeles will be eligible for Jobs-Housing Balance Incentive grants and other special payments.
Many housing activists agree that putting the plans into action will be the real challenge for the city. While the City Council discussed the housing element, nearly 100 people gathered on the steps of City Hall to dramatize the need for affordable housing.
Atop a small Christmas tree sat a sign that said: “No Venice Development Without Affordable Housing.” Bricks, boards and two bags of cement lay next to it, symbolizing the foundation of a home.
During the holiday season, some “people are looking for a home,” said Jan Breidenbach of the advocacy group Housing L.A. “People are looking for a place to raise their children.”
The coalition of organizations has pushed for the creation of a $100-million housing trust fund in the city. “We are very close to having the housing trust fund,” Breidenbach said. “We have been talking to the mayor and to the City Council. We have support.”
