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OPEN LETTER - As Los Angeles residents consider the re-election of Mayor Karen Bass versus electing her challenger Councilwoman Nithya Raman, I would like to pose three questions about the city’s housing/homeless crisis to them. Their answers should help inform all of us in our choice of whom to support.
As I see the situation, the city has for decades been building the wrong housing products, simply because the city does not have the funding to build enough of its preferred 430 sq. foot permanent supportive housing (PSH) units to house the roughly 44,000 people living on our streets.
For example, the average cost today to build one PSH unit funded by Proposition HHH has increased to $850,000, which does not include the cost of wrap-around services or even land costs when city owned land is available.
So, using the $850,000 per unit figure, it will cost the city $37 billion dollars to put our entire homeless population into permanent housing. This figure is more than twice the city’s 2026-27 budget of $15 billion.
The first question then for the candidates is from what source(s) will the city receive the $37 billion? Both the State of California and the city itself are technically bankrupt. Even if President Trump signs the bi-partisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, it does not allocate any new funds, but instead allows more of the city’s current Community Development Block Grant to be used to build affordable housing. This will amount to millions of dollars, not billions.
The next question is, if the $37 billion is not available from the city’s own funds or external sources, would you as mayor change city policies to favor less expensive housing models?
For example, the city once had 16,000 single room occupancy (SRO) units, basically small hotel rooms without kitchens, with communal restrooms and showers, much as we commonly find today in many college dormitories. The city failed to protect these and about 11,000 were demolished by their private-sector owners in the 70s and 80s, before the city took action to save the remaining 5,000. New SRO units can be built for less than half the cost of the standard 430 square foot PSH units the city prefers to build, meaning that whatever funds are eventually available would build twice as many SRO units…and house twice as many people as the city’s current practice.
Another example that dramatically stretches available dollars for homeless housing is SHARE Collaborative Housing. SHARE’s program is an innovative, evidenced-based public/private partnership that houses anyone - including people experiencing homelessness and those with disabilities - using existing, fully furnished single-family homes. SHARE creates family-like environments where participants form community and kinship within the house. Rent for shared rooms are between $600-$900 per person, paid for by the residents using their own benefits, such as SSI (Supplemental Social Security), County welfare and eventually from finding part or full-time work. Caseworkers connect residents to support groups and needed health, mental health, educational, and vocational services. The only funding needed from government is to cover the cost of the caseworkers. The program, which currently operates 50 homes throughout the County and in every L.A. city council district, has high tenant retention rates and high matriculation rates; i.e., they go on to school and/or jobs, and eventually find their own apartments or reunite with their families.
However, the city of Los Angeles has been resistant to shifting funding from their typical brick-and-mortar PSH apartments, that are very expensive and slow to finance, permit and build, to building new SRO units, or funding the SHARE program or other less expensive models.
If these models do not find favor with Ms. Bass and Ms. Raman, my final question would be to ask for their plan to fund and build – in a timely manner - enough housing to finally find homes for the 44,000 souls now camped on our sidewalks, in our parks, and by our schools.
(Mark Ryavec served as staff to Mayor Tom Bradley’s Citizens Advisory Committee on the Redevelopment of the Central Business District and as Chief Deputy Assessor of Los Angeles County. He currently is the president of Venice Stakeholders Association.)
