Places for Homes: Where Los Angeles Can Build More Housing

Abstract

Los Angeles does not have enough housing for all of its residents, especially families with average or below-average incomes. The city has up-zoned many neighborhoods, with another up-zoning now underway, to allow construction of over 1.5 million new housing units.

Los Angeles has very little vacant land that is buildable for residential housing, so finding sites to build 1.5 million more units is a difficult problem.

This strategy for increasing the density of housing on rent-stabilized properties comes from a survey of landlords. Landlords were asked whether they would be interested in redeveloping their property with more units if it was financially feasible. Thirty-four percent of landlords said they were interested, 32 percent said they weren’t sure, and 34 percent said they were not interested. This means that between one-third and two-thirds of rent-stabilized landlords are interested in developing more apartments on their property.

As many as 1.4 million additional apartments could be built citywide on existing RSO apartment properties, based on the 1.9 billion unused square feet in building size permitted under current zoning.

Most rent-stabilized properties have two-story structures that are 50 to 100 years old. They were built in a day when land was cheaper and L.A. was smaller. These properties already provide below-market rent for many Los Angeles households, but there is an opportunity for them to make a bigger contribution.

The types of help landlords said they need to build more apartments on their property include low-interest loans, reduced relocation costs for rehousing tenants during new construction, lower permit fees, and faster permit processing.

Keywords: Affordable Housing, City of Los Angeles, Density, Housing, Housing Department, Landlords, Multifamily Housing, Parcels, Redevelopment, Rent Stabilization, Rent Stabilization Ordinance, RSO, Tenants, Zoning, Housing Supply, Housing Development, Construction Sites

JEL Classification: H40, L10, L50, O20, O40, R10, R21, R31, R52, R58