ACE/121, the most recent EngAGE Arts Colony, located in Glendale, CA
The communities EngAGE serves offer either 100% low income rentals or, in some cases, a portion of the total number of units are set aside for low income residents. But there aren’t nearly enough apartments available to meet the demand. The affordable housing situation is at a crisis level in Los Angeles. Read the quotes and the full articles below to get details.
We desperately need statewide infrastructure projects (some of which Sacramento is attempting to address), but California is not alone in this situation. Every state is dealing with a lack of affordable housing.
The last time this issue was addressed on a national level was in November of 1990 when President George Bush signed the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act. In his statement, he said that the Act “presents us with an opportunity to renew our commitment to the goals we all share: decent, safe, and affordable housing for all Americans.” Has the time come for a national affordable housing master plan?
The California Health Report: California’s Lowest-Income Seniors Desperate for Affordable Housing
While it’s hard to quantify the exact demand for senior affordable housing in California, Los Angeles’ experience this month [October] with its overall affordable housing program offers a telling snap shot. This month the housing authority will open its waiting list for its Section 8 voucher lottery for the first time in 13 years.
Housing authorities anticipate 600,000 people will apply for the 20,000 spots on the wait list. Even then, some people could spend more than a decade waiting on the list, said housing authority spokeswoman Annie Kim.
KCET City Rising: Rising Rent Burden in Los Angeles
Housing experts estimate that Los Angeles needs to produce roughly 5,300 affordable housing units per year to keep up with the demand. The city has averaged only 1,100 units per year since 2006.
Articles by LA Times columnist Steve Lopez:
A Westside apartment with all the amenities for less than $500 — but you had to win the lottery
California has no more vexing problem than its catastrophic shortage of affordable apartments and homes. The state’s powerhouse economy is a world leader, but for the middle class and others, the gold rush is a mirage. The poverty rate is 20%. One-third of renters plow half their income into housing.
L.A.’s crisis: High rents, low pay, homelessness rising and $2,000 doesn’t buy much
It’s not as if solutions do not exist, but political consensus is hard to come by. Every pitch to create more affordable housing — rent control ordinances, requiring developers to include low-income units in new projects, and building on public land — gets pushback from developers, taxpayers, or residents who don’t want low-rent housing near them.
Three stories of hardship put a face on L.A.’s exorbitant housing costs
Last week, the California Supreme Court cited an affordable housing shortage of “epic proportions” and issued a ruling that makes it easier for municipalities to require developers to sell some housing at below-market rates.
