Homes-vs.-Schools Dilemma

And the winner gets ... a weedy vacant lot, studded with nasty trash, in the heart of a crowded neighborhood considered dangerous after dark.

What’s the contest? It’s an urban tug of war over any large patches of open space free of environmental challenges. It pits families who need housing against families who need schools.

The classroom shortage is directly linked to the scarcity of affordable housing, and many families need both decent schools and decent dwellings. Proportionally, Los Angeles is home to more renters than any other U.S. city except New York. Nearly two out of three L.A. households rent. There are few bargains. High rents--like the $1,100 a month paid by two sisters, with six children between them, for a two-bedroom apartment situated in the flight path of LAX--force many families to double up and even triple up. At home two children often share a bed. At school they cannot share a desk, but where will they live if their apartment building is torn down to make room for a new school?

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) faced that question during her eight years on the Los Angeles school board. During her tenure, the board moved away from taking apartments, in part because tenants and owners often couldn’t afford replacements even with a generous purchase or relocation package.

Hardest hit were families who doubled up in one apartment. The law would not allow the school district to relocate both families to a small place that remained affordable on two low salaries. Each family typically moved into a hotel, which was more expensive. After the relocation money ran out, they got evicted. The district all but quit building schools. The result is today’s overcrowded year-round campuses. The district is now trying to catch up, and some homes are certain to be lost.

Goldberg is looking for solutions that will serve both needs. Next month she will convene nonprofit housing developers, low- and moderate-income housing advocates and representatives from school districts and city housing departments to propose ways to work together. Schools, libraries and parks could be planned together to allow joint use. Multistory schools would require less land and leave more for housing. Schools and housing could be built simultaneously in some areas, though not as part of the same construction project.

As she writes her invitation list, Goldberg should consider adding Eli Broad, the billionaire real estate developer with a passion for improving public education, David Abel from Better Neighborhoods, Better Schools and of course veteran affordable housing experts like Jan Breidenbach of Housing LA.