Second in a series
Re “Creating a Better Community by Stimulating Development, Assisting Homeless”
[Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a paper that City Council candidate Christopher Patrick King helped develop recently regarding housing, homelessness and suggested roles for developers.]
[img]2333|right|Christopher King||no_popup[/img]In a very powerful way, the critical issue becomes how to form creative solutions that pull together private investment, government, non-profits and businesses.
As John Maceri, Executive Director of the Ocean Park Community Center, says, “It’s good public policy that will” lead us in lifting up our neighborhoods while aiding those in need.
Through this paper, we seek to describe the current approaches that have been, or are being, used to incentivize developers to build affordable housing. We look at the roadblocks to building housing that can be utilized to house homeless individuals.
Most importantly, we seek to lay the framework for what can be done. From digging to donating, from volunteering to advocating, from neighborhood coalition building to development partnership formations, there are ways that all people can get involved.
Complex challenges necessitate multifaceted solutions. We seek to continue the work necessary to push these solutions forward more quickly for the benefit of the entire Los Angeles region.
Challenges in Current Environment
Conceptually, “affordable housing” and “homelessness” are difficult to define. Just because a builder may seek to develop “affordable housing units,” this does not necessarily mean that the units will help individuals who are homeless or in transitional housing.
Affordable housing can be for homeless individuals. But strictly speaking, it encompasses housing for individuals making less than the Los Angeles area median income, which is $52,595. Housing for senior citizens, work-force related housing for teachers and public servants, housing for students – these can all be examples of groups for whom “affordable housing” is developed.
This creates a challenge because when builders are given incentives by government, often they will prefer to build affordable units for groups such as senior citizens or work-force housing because there is less stigma. They perceive their investment will be a safer one when leasing to these groups of individuals.
Similarly, “homelessness” is a difficult concept to define. It’s widely believed that the 51,000 homeless in Los Angeles County is a drastic under-count because many homeless individuals do not necessarily sleep on the streets.
They may sleep in their cars, temporarily with family and friends, in inexpensive motels, or in temporary shelters. The make-up of the homeless community runs the gambit from homeless Veterans to homeless children to homeless families to homeless individuals.
Many suffer from “dual diagnoses,” meaning that the individual may have underlying challenges such as a mental illness combined with substance abuse, which complicates the ability to house these individuals and also necessitates additional supportive services beyond housing such as drug counseling and other social services.
These issues beg the question: Is it possible for a for-profit developer to create affordable housing geared toward various homeless populations and expect to make a reasonable profit? Or must any and all affordable housing be achieved only through government and the non-profit sector?
(To be continued)
