To fix overcrowding in L.A., build more housing, mayoral candidates say
Housing advocates want the city to expand its housing supply by building more housing, especially in underdeveloped areas.
As the Los Angeles mayoral election cycle gets underway, housing advocates have taken a new approach to the debate about expanding housing.
The Housing Authority of Los Angeles on Friday released a report, “Affordable Housing Landscape Shifting: A Critical Look at Urban Incentives for New Supply,” that offers a more realistic vision for the future of housing for Los Angeles.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” said Housing Authority of Los Angeles Executive Director Mark Ridley-Thomas. “We have a chance to think differently about what housing we have and how we can use it to build more housing.”
Ridley-Thomas said the report comes on the heels of the release of the USC Center for Urban Research’s report, “We Can Now! Housing,” which found that the United States has a shortage of housing.
Ridley-Thomas said the report, while not explicitly an endorsement of any of the mayoral candidates from his own campaign or those running for any of the four other positions on the ballot, is part of his campaign’s plan to support what he said is a new and innovative approach.
“What we really need is a different and innovative thinking about what the future of housing looks like,” he said. “The question is how do we get from where we are to a new reality of what is possible?”
Ridley-Thomas said he is not necessarily endorsing any of the mayoral candidates. But the report, he said, is evidence that his approach has the potential to create more housing for the people of Los Angeles.
“We have an opportunity today to be a catalyst to make that happen,” Ridley-Thomas said.
The report by the Housing Authority follows a report released earlier this week by USC’s Center for Urban Research, which found that in the Los Angeles area, the supply of housing is the “most pronounced shortage
