A Changing South LA: Housing Affordability & Public Transit

Joey Morales lives in a studio apartment with his wife in South LA near the new Metro Expo Line. He relies on public transit to get to work in Santa Monica. This is the story of the majority of Angelenos: renters and workers who struggle with lack of access to quality, affordable housing and livable wage jobs.

This is the story of a changing South LA.

[CesarGonzalez]

I was born and raised in Los Angeles for 35 years. This is the reason why I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. I love Los Angeles but it’s just too expensive!

[Bobxchen]

"require every developer to build a certain number of unit for the low income". Unless he is talking about Micro-apartment, I am afraid from the economic perspective this is impossible. It is like saying please build something that has a large mass but also has very small gravity on earth. Something that has mass WILL have gravity. Prices are determined by Overall supply and demand. A developer has NO control over the overall supply and demand. And the demand is Huge, as many many people want to move to LA.
The reasonable thing to do is to increase the overall supply of housing. I would suggest that the city government 1. relax the zoning rules such that developers can build as many units as possible on a piece of land. 2 . relax certain regulations, and shortening the permit process to reduce the cost of construction. both of these would increase the supply of housing and there reduce the cost of renting.

[nathanielcarreon]

Everybody knows renting has more inherent risks than owning. Nothing new here.

[Starfish]

Education is the key...i don't feel sorry for these people

[sambridhajungshah]

even such a ghetto[south central los angeles] with such a high gang violance and drugs are so expensive and unaffordable.how do gangs afford it