Dec 26, 2024 | Housing, Opinion
Dick Platkin
December 26 2024
The city, county, and state of California are spending billions to eliminate homelessness, yet the number of homeless people is still increasing. For example, by mid-2023, the State of California had spent $17.5 billion on homelessness. LA County has allocated about $800 million for fiscal year 2024-25, and the City of Los Angeles has budgeted $961 million. Let me explain why I think the numbers of homeless and overcrowded people are still increasing, despite so much local spending. The problem is NOT a housing shortage.
Dec 19, 2024 | Housing
Dick Platkin
December 19 2024
Most Angelenos know that the cost of housing has risen much faster than family incomes in recent decades. The above chart reveals that in LA County the cost of housing has soared since 1970 while median family income has barely moved. The result is that housing in Los Angeles – like most of the US – is increasingly unaffordable. This is why so many people double-up, become homeless, or move to cheaper housing markets. They have been priced out of market housing, and the option of public housing barely exists.
Dec 16, 2024 | Housing
Chuck Collins
December 16 2024
BILLIONAIRES & HOUSING – The housing affordability crisis – and how to solve it – has become a major focus during election season, for good reason. Millions of American families struggle to afford and keep a roof over their heads, find themselves unsheltered, or have become frustrated in the hope of owning their own home. The over-focus on expanding housing supply through for-profit development misses a key contributor to the housing crisis: the concentration of wealth and power.
Dec 16, 2024 | Housing
By Kota Suzuki, Data team intern
Dec 16, 2024
The average Bay Area household is getting smaller. According to experts, that means more housing is required to accommodate a stagnating Bay Area population.
The shrinkage in household size can largely be attributed to young people living solo as well as older empty-nesters. The trend isn’t unique to the Bay Area — both ends of the age spectrum are increasingly opting to live with fewer people, a shift that is undoubtedly impacting the housing market.
Dec 11, 2024 | Housing
By J.K. Dineen
Dec 11, 2024
Last week New York housing advocates celebrated the passage of the “City of Yes” legislation, a plan to rezone the city of 8 million in order to encourage the construction of 82,000 units over the next 15 years, with Mayor Eric Adams calling it “the most pro-housing piece of legislation in city history.” But for those who track housing politics in the Bay Area, the news stood out for another reason: 82,000 happens also to be the number of units state housing officials are mandating that San Francisco — a city with one-tenth of the population of New York
Nov 30, 2024 | Housing, Politics
BY ANDREW SHEELER
NOVEMBER 25, 2024 4:55 AM
THE U.S. HOUSE GETS A YIMBY CAUCUS
California Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have said “Yes In My Back Yard.”
Members of the newly-launched YIMBY Caucus want to boost affordable housing nationwide by pushing policies aimed at boosting the construction of those homes.
“The cost of rent is far too high. We must act to expand affordable housing options,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, a co-chair of the caucus.
