Los Angeles residents are sounding the alarm on soaring housing costs, with a new survey revealing widespread financial strain and growing support for aggressive policy changes to boost housing construction across all income levels.
According to a poll released Thursday by the Los Angeles Business Council Institute, seven in 10 Los Angeles voters said housing is difficult to afford. That included more than half of homeowners and 86% of renters. The survey of 751 registered voters, conducted in mid-April by FM3 Research, carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
The frustration is pushing many to consider leaving. Three-quarters of renters surveyed said they have considered moving out of Los Angeles, compared to 63% of voters overall, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Mary Leslie, president of the Los Angeles Business Council, said the findings underscore mounting pressure on city officials. “Despite billions of dollars in investment and new policies, housing concerns have only become more acute for Angelenos throughout the city, regardless of their age, income, or race,” she said. “The voters are demanding more be done to create a more livable city, and that means more housing for everyone from the unhoused to middle-class families throughout Los Angeles.”
Nearly nine in 10 Los Angeles voters across the demographic and political spectrum view housing affordability and cost of living as a very serious or serious problem, eclipsed only by homelessness among a list of a dozen issues facing the city.
Despite deep skepticism about government’s ability to deliver results, voters are coalescing around a range of policy solutions aimed at increasing housing supply and reducing costs.
By a margin of 71% to 23%, voters favor expanding a Los Angeles law that fast-tracks low-income housing to include new apartments for middle-income residents in commercial and industrial areas near public transit. Nearly two-thirds support automatic approval for new apartment projects that dedicate 20% of units for low-income residents.
Voters overwhelmingly support building rental housing for veterans, low-income families and seniors, public service workers like teachers and firefighters, and middle-class families with children.
Among statewide proposals, 79% of Los Angeles voters support making underutilized state land available for new housing and leveraging new technologies and construction methods to reduce development costs. Similar majorities favor encouraging housing growth in suburban areas and expanding first-time homebuyer programs.
By a two-to-one margin, voters favor a bigger state government role in local housing decisions, the New York Post reported. Some 40% say the affordability gap is so serious that the state government should assume a bigger role and require cities to build more housing, twice the number who favor keeping local control.
The poll reveals clear tensions when it comes to where new housing should be built. Only 40% of voters favor building new apartments in neighborhoods that currently have only single-family homes, and nearly half of homeowners believe that affordable housing for low and moderate-income renters will lower home values.
Renters are also skeptical that housing production will drive rents down. Less than three in 10 renters think more affordable housing will reduce their rent. Yet they still favor, by nearly a two-to-one margin, increasing the number of new housing units to address the lack of accessible and affordable housing.
Confidence in government remains shaky. Only 23% of voters have some or a great deal of confidence in Los Angeles city government to address housing, 25% in the county, and 30% in the state government.
Just one in six Los Angeles voters believe the city is headed in the right direction, and only one-quarter believe the state is on the right track.
The survey findings will frame discussions at the 24th Annual Los Angeles Business Council Housing, Transportation and Jobs Summit on Friday, including a panel with leading gubernatorial candidates Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Tom Steyer and Antonio Villaraigosa.
John Fairbank of FM3 Research said the alignment on housing policy is unusual. “It’s rare to see Angelenos this aligned on the urgency of the housing crisis and the need to expand supply across income levels,” he said. “Very few voters believe the city is headed in the right direction, underscoring a deep frustration with the pace of progress.”
By a 20-point margin, voters oppose or are likely to oppose a statewide initiative that would raise the approval threshold from 50% to two-thirds for local special taxes and overturn voter-approved local taxes like Measure ULA, Los Angeles’ so-called ‘mansion tax’ that funds homelessness prevention and affordable housing.
Despite new policies and programs to spur housing development, many approved market-rate and affordable housing projects in Los Angeles have yet to break ground. The pace of new housing construction significantly lags the city’s annual housing goals, rents continue to rise, and homelessness remains stubbornly high despite intensive city-led efforts.
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