Hey Church Family,
Once again, thank you to everyone who sent a letter last week. I will be updating you on matters regarding renters and rental relief in the weeks to come.
This week, I wanted to briefly highlight something that COVID has highlighted for many: the problem of overcrowding in our neighborhood and city. When people think of the housing crisis in Los Angeles, they think of how high the rent is or how many people have been forced into homelessness. Both of these are real problems, but the fact is, even those who can afford rent and avoid homelessness are only able to do so by living in very crowded living quarters due to the scarcity of rental units. The overcrowding problem is especially an issue on the Eastside, where the virus has taken a disproportionately high toll. There was a great (and tragic) New York Times piece that lays out these issues in great detail:
Los Angeles may not have the population density of New York, may not have as many skyscrapers or high-rise apartment buildings or jam-packed subways, but the county does have a higher percentage of overcrowded homes — 11 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — than any other major metropolitan area in America…Perhaps nowhere else in America can the unequal toll of the virus be felt more dramatically than in Los Angeles, where suburban sprawl and freeways demarcate the neighborhoods of the haves and the have-nots.
Because living in over-crowded housing makes it much harder to self-isolate and find well-ventilated spaces, we have seen how COVID quickly spreads through whole households in our neighborhood:
The NY Times article goes on:
And now that the virus is coursing through the city’s densest neighborhoods, it has underscored the crisis in economic inequality and housing affordability that, even before the pandemic, was one of the region’s most pressing issues.
In El Sereno, a largely Latino working-class neighborhood in East Los Angeles, Domingo Miguel Aguilar, the family patriarch who lives with three generations in a small, two-bedroom bungalow, lost his mother in Guatemala to Covid-19. In his home, almost everyone became sick. His wife, who had been living in Bakersfield while working at a fruit packaging plant, died.
Unfortunately, overcrowded housing is not a problem we can solve overnight; it requires the city to plan and take proactive steps to address housing issues over the long-term. But politicians do not typically do a great job of planning beyond their time in office, so they will likely avoid this responsibility without pressure from the public.
The City of LA will have the chance in 2021 to create a 10-year plan for housing in our city. It is called the “Housing Element” and is required by California state law to be done by every municipality. Unfortunately, Los Angeles has released an early sample of their plan, and analysis suggests that the proposed plan will prove inadequate to the goal of reversing affordability and overcrowding concerns:
But you have a chance to push it in a better direction in the coming weeks by doing two things:
1) You can send a letter opposing the current plan for being inadequate to address our housing issues
2) You can take a survey to give the city input on the priorities you think should be included in the housing element update process. It is vital to fill this out and will not take anymore than 5-10 minutes. People who give input in these processes tend to be disproportionately white, wealthy, and well-connected, and thus not affected by housing being unaffordable (they may, in fact, benefit when housing prices go up). You can make the process fairer by voicing your priorities for the city, including:
Preventing displacement of existing residents from their community
Providing more housing for all residents of the city
Making exclusive neighborhoods open themselves up to all residents
Creating more funding for affordable housing
As always, thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any questions!
Thomas