American dreaming: City needs to promote homeownership
Daily News
November 03, 2003
A recent study by Loyola Marymount University that found Latinos are having a hard time buying homes in Los Angeles doesn't tell the whole story.
It's not just Latinos, the city's largest ethnic group, who are foiled by high prices and a housing shortage. It's tough for every working person to buy a piece of Los Angeles' American dream. The price of houses in Los Angeles grows about 10 percent each year, with workers' pay remaining relatively stagnant.
That's why the city's housing efforts should focus on promoting homeownership through loan programs and urging construction of smaller cottages and condos -- not just the megamansions for the more affluent -- in the suburban areas of the city.
Homeownership is the key to a healthy community and a stable middle class. The San Fernando Valley was built by hard-working families who moved in to buy the affordable homes and propel themselves to a happier life.
The lack of affordable homes -- not just affordable housing, as in rental units -- is narrowing that opportunity for each successive generation of Latino, Asian, black and white homebuyers, and helping turn Los Angeles into a land of have-nots and have-a-lots.
That's not to say renters must get short shrift. At the same time, the city should encourage development of higher-density housing, such as apartment complexes and high-rises, in areas designated as transit centers. The North Hollywood Commons redevelopment project around the Metro Red Line station is a perfect example of an area that would benefit from a denser housing stock.
The city's commitment to build a $100 million housing trust fund to ensure an ongoing availability to affordable housing is just a start, and there are serious doubts about whether it will be used to make this a healthier city. Without a larger blueprint for development citywide, outlining what types of housing are needed and where it makes sense to put them, the effort won't improve the quality of life in the city.
Many housing advocates seem to think that Los Angeles has a responsibility to provide housing for every person who decides to move here. It does not.
The city's responsibility is first and foremost to provide healthy and safe neighborhoods for the general good. Unfortunately, city policy over the past 30 years has done just the opposite.
If neighborhood councils are to have any value, they should band together and demand that the city create an honest and coherent general plan for the city and identify the neighborhoods where densification is permitted and the ground rules for future development.