Move LA’s policy brief on affordable housing (click here or below) proposes a program the state Legislature and local government agencies could approve to help address California’s affordable housing crisis while also helping to reduce traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and both air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
We believe that the crux of the state’s housing crisis is the specific and severe shortage of below-market-rate housing affordable to low- and moderate-income renter households. We also believe that expanded market-rate development, while perhaps important for other reasons, will not contribute in a significant way to solving this crisis of affordability.
And to address both our air pollution and climate challenge we recommend that: Affordable housing development should be a priority near transit service and should include safe and robust pedestrian and bicycle access as well as significant urban greening.
As a result of our affordable housing shortage, 1.7 million renter households with low, very-low and extremely-low incomes pay more than half of their incomes for housing. Another 1.2 million renter households—again, almost all low-, very-low, or extremely-low income—pay more than 30% of their limited incomes for housing.
Many of these households are families of color. This intolerable situation is a key driver of homelessness, which leads to reduced educational achievement among children who live in these households as well as increased medical problems among household members. This situation is also related to greater exposure to and worsened outcomes for the coronavirus.
Addressing the housing affordability concerns of these families is a significant equity and racial justice issue, and impose serious social costs as well as significant financial costs on the public. California’s senior population is especially at risk of intolerable housing cost burdens.