“If you build it, they will come.”
We’ve all heard the line made famous by 1989’s “Field of Dreams.” But instead of a baseball field on a farm in rural Iowa, Angelenos are grappling with the much bigger chellenge of how to deal with the city’s growing housing crisis.
And in L.A.’s case, whether we’re talking about an abundant homeless population or an abundance of low-income families, the people are already here.
We must build.
Measure HHH, which passed on Nov. 8 and is set to provide thousands of permanent housing units for the homeless, is a step in the right direction. While the debate over government’s role in society rages on, there is little doubt that, at the very least, it should work to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Given the cost of housing here, one need not be homeless to be vulnerable. Some areas (i.e., nearly the entire Westside), have become so expensive that they’re essentially off-limits to most who work in service and support positions there, creating ever-longer commutes for people at the lower end of the wage scale.
That dynamic is shifting east, as rising prices are sending residential developers to areas such as West Adams, which has seen a spate of buy-and-flip activity in recent months. The effect is one of squeezing a balloon, with affordable housing getting pushed farther and farther from the city’s core.
Measure HHH would relieve one narrow pressure point – if it isn’t undermined by Measure S, the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative.
That proposal, on the March ballot, would place a two-year moratorium on projects that require zoning changes or General Plan amendments. Yes, there is an exemption for 100 percent low-income projects, but even that exemption is lost if the project requires a General Plan amendment.
Trying to halt development through something as draconian as Measure S is a fool’s errand. The people are already here, the jobs are already here.
More could and should be done to ensure that new urban housing is not limited to hulking white towers of gentrification. But tying the hands of developers and grinding new construction to a halt isn’t the solution.
