Hahn Proposes Bond for Affordable Housing

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who has made affordable-housing development a central plank of his reelection platform, announced Wednesday that he wants to put a $500-million housing bond before voters as soon as next year.

The hastily unveiled proposal -- applauded by several business leaders and housing advocates -- could bolster the mayor’s resume before the March 8 election.

A bond could also make Los Angeles a leader in development of affordable housing nationally, after a decade in which the city made anemic commitments to help low-income families even as its housing became some of the most unaffordable in America.

“This is the most significant proposal we’ve seen in Los Angeles on housing in quite some time,” said Brendan Huffman, government affairs director of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

A bond would require a two-thirds majority vote, a threshold that has proved difficult to reach in Los Angeles.

In November, a county sales-tax measure to pay for more police officers fell short of that mark countywide and in the city of Los Angeles.

“A $500-million bond would be an incredible commitment,” added Jan Breidenbach, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Non-Profit Housing. “But I would like bonds a whole lot more if they didn’t take two-thirds to pass.”

San Francisco has failed twice in recent years to pass housing bonds.

And several housing advocates and council members whose support could be critical to help pass such a bond said they had virtually no warning that the mayor would make the announcement Wednesday.

Councilman Eric Garcetti, who favors the idea of a bond, said he had not been given any details.

Hahn said he would convene a task force to draw up a plan to put the bond on the ballot, most likely in 2006.

The mayor also announced a series of smaller housing initiatives, including a $10-million program to provide no-interest loans to help “moderate-income” families buy homes. A family of four earning less than $71,000 would qualify for the loans, according to the mayor.

“We’re in a classic supply-demand crunch,” Hahn said as he discussed his housing plans in front a new market-rate housing development just east of downtown.

National surveys consistently rank Los Angeles -- where the homeownership rate is only about 40%, according to the latest census estimates -- as among the least affordable housing markets in the nation.

Throughout the 1990s, housing advocates complained that the city did little to confront its growing affordability crisis.

After Hahn was elected in 2001, he created a housing trust fund at the request of local advocates. Although it has not been funded completely, it has helped pay for about 3,000 new units since 2002.

Nonetheless, Hahn’s mayoral opponents -- particularly Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, whom Hahn defeated in 2001 -- have criticized the mayor for providing significantly less than the $100-million annual goal set by the fund’s architects. Last year the fund allocated about $40 million, according to the city’s Housing Department.

Housing advocates have been pushing the mayor’s office to permanently dedicate money for the fund so it does not have to compete with other city programs for funding each year.

Hahn said Wednesday he was not ready to do that yet, saying the city’s finances remain too unsettled.