Produce Housing for All 

1Create strong institutions and reliable processes 

Recommendations: 

• Support strong public and private housing institutions and agencies that are each specialized and all seen as part of a single ecosystem. Participants particularly reflected on the potential for a vibrant sector of Limited Profit Housing Associations (LPHA) to provide a significant share of LA’s overall housing. Their unique financing system in Vienna relies on low-cost public financing and tenant contributions from moderate-income residents and works in collaboration with the public and private sectors. Unlike our Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, the financing for LPHA developments isn’t finite, as the revolving fund associated with each LPHA development grows with time. See the Limited Profit Housing Association section in the housing ecosystem or key takeaway on Ensure Permanent Funding and Simplified Capital Stack for more information. 

• Centralize the system of accessing affordable housing in LA County with a single point of contact and support services for application and placement. As LACAHSA becomes established and develops more staff capacity, it presents an opportunity to centralize housing placement and navigation services across the LA County region. Explore opportunities to create a clear lease-up process that can offer eligible residents a central process for securing affordable housing throughout the region.
• Implement social housing pilot projects, including through ULA, LACAHSA, and other initiatives.

2Ensure permanent funding and simplify the capital stack 

Recommendations 

• Continue to build permanent sources of financing for affordable housing and ensure permanent affordability. Participants reflected on the opportunities that come with a stable, and substantial funding source, as well as the importance of creating housing that supports diverse populations and needs. Participants were impressed with the resources and amenities surrounding housing that contribute towards a strong community and the use of the Four Pillars to address multiple policy priorities. Measure ULA and LACAHSA are steps in the right direction to ensure that affordable housing is permanently financed and affordable in LA. 

• Continue to explore the LPHA model to identify ways to simplify the existing financing process. While more research needs to be done, participants highlighted the availability of low-cost capital and innovative financing methods to consider, including the tenant equity contribution. The structure of programs being developed for ULA and LACAHSA present an opportunity to learn from the Vienna Social Housing Model and simplified capital stack. 
• Continue to explore ways to contain and control costs. Participants suggested streamlining labor rules to “de-bureaucratize” prevailing wage requirements and unionizing across the industry to allow prevailing wages for all. In California, the presence of multiple prevailing wage requirements dependent on funding sources translates to increased paperwork, monitoring, and compliance, which impacts Other options that participants suggested to control costs included considering bulk purchasing power, financing entities allowing for bulk purchase and holding, worker co-ops established for production materials with agreements with sustainable wood and materials companies. For the latter, participants suggested costs could be controlled by looking at costs over a period of time to determine an average that is set for pricing. 
• Explore a “public guarantee” for bank loans financing affordable housing. Such a guarantee can significantly reduce financing costs for affordable housing developers.

3Use public land and social housing zoning 

Recommendations: 

• Scale up social housing through land banking, public land development, and partnerships with other institutions. While Los Angeles does not have an exact equivalent to Wohnfonds Wien, there are three efforts in LA that present opportunities to further this concept: LA County allocated $40M to a land bank pilot in 2022; LA City’s Executive Directive 3 aims to identify publicly-owned sites for affordable housing development; and Measure ULA prioritizes public land for affordable housing. Additionally, the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a growing number of educational institutions - including the LA Community College District and the LA Unified School District - have expressed interest in developing affordable housing on their land and jurisdictions should explore partnerships with them.

• Continue using entitlements to incentivize development. Continue to explore ways to expedite entitlements to incentivize affordable and social housing development, building off the City of LA’s ED 1.
• Utilize zoning as a tool. Explore incorporation of the subsidized housing zoning category as an overlay zone as part of jurisdictions’ RHNA rezoning programs and revisit the use of historic buildings to open up the possibility of adding new units to roofs. 
• Further Equitable Housing Policies. Ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are represented in the discussion around land acquisition, given both the history of colonization as well as redlining and immigration policies in the United States.

Preserve Vulnerable Housing 

4Maintain existing housing stock 

Recommendations: 

• Dedicate public funding to new production and preservation of affordable housing. New production can take advantage of publicly owned land, while preservation can focus on existing housing at risk of losing affordability as well as opportunities to increase the density of existing housing in transit- and job-rich areas. Funding should also incorporate LA-specific challenges such as seismic retrofitting and the need for climate resiliency.

• Create financial incentives to retrofit existing housing that requires affordability commitments. This can include adding rental restriction covenants when public funds are used for retrofitting private market housing as well as renovations that increase the useful life of affordable housing. Research what affordability commitments are actionable and reasonable with existing landlords.
• Consider including essential services and other community resources within new housing developments. The development of ULA and LACAHSA programs present an opportunity to incorporate elements of Wohnfonds Wien’s Gentle Urban Renewal Program tailored to the local communities and jurisdiction’s housing policies to prioritize areas to improve the quality of housing, retrofits to support decarbonization and other climate goals, as well as quality-of-life improvements, such as increased access to open space, transportation, health services, children’s play areas, and major upgrades to underlying infrastructure.

Protect Tenants & Prevent Displacement 

5Support tenants 

Recommendations: 

• Establish and enforce strong tenant protections. This could include a codified Right to Counsel, enforcement of tenant anti-harassment protections, and tracking and accountability of Rent Stabilization Ordinances.
• Centralize the system of accessing affordable housing in LA County with a single point of contact and support services for application and placement. As LACAHSA becomes established and develops more staff capacity, it presents an opportunity to centralize housing placement and navigation services across the LA County region. Explore opportunities to create a clear lease-up process that can offer eligible residents a central process for securing affordable housing throughout the region. 
• Invest in care-first approaches. Strengthen neighborhood capacity in the LA region to create affordable housing, prevent homelessness, and support community-based restorative justice and conflict resolution programs, and other programs, similar to LA County’s Care First and Community Investment (CFCI) program https://jcod.lacounty.gov/cfci/.

Promote Equity, Inclusion, and Sustainability 

6Create mixed-income communities

Recommendations 

• Broaden the base of support for affordable housing by expanding eligibility, where appropriate, to include households earning more than the median income, while also prioritizing low-income households.

• Do not require affordable housing residents to recertify income eligibility after moving in.
• Design housing projects and neighborhoods to integrate mixes of incomes, household sizes, and types. Maintain the benefits of ethnic enclaves by integrating design, programming, and leasing practices that are culturally meaningful.

7Promote alternative housing models 

Recommendations 

• Continue pursuing alternative ownership models. Participants found much inspiration in the cooperative models and referenced the growing LA Community Land Trust (CLTs) movement as an opportunity to continue exploring and supporting these models. Participants also recognized the diversity of options that enabled mobility and choice. In addition to CLT and co-ops, other shared ownership models could include homesteads in more rural communities, and co-purchasing options amongst friends.

• Ensure greater resident agency. The nascent LA Housing Training Hub (the HUB), which may soon be funded through the United to House LA measure (ULA), is a resource that could enable greater resident ownership and engagement. The HUB would be a centralized resource for residents, developers, community-based organizations, and property managers who are implementing tenant management and/or ownership into the homes they are building. Resources provided would include training materials and support governance structures, resident councils, budgeting, and operations. The HUB intends to support buildings from pre-development through lease-up, and during ongoing operations.

• Continue to explore ways to increase wealth-building beyond homeownership. Participants expressed interest in creating a social housing system in the LA region by removing land and housing from the speculative market and ensuring affordability on the acquired land. They also called for restrictions on corporate ownership and the sale of residential property to corporate landlords. Exploration of opportunities to increase wealth and local economic power through renting, such as rental equity or dividend housing programs. These emerging programs create pathways for residents to build wealth and equity immediately, and get an ownership stake while renting, but without having to buy or sell property. They are structured to encourage investment in properties over time and prioritizing resident input in the ownership of the property. A nonprofit can own the property to keep it permanently affordable, and residents can have perpetual leases, building up their financial equity through participation in property management, sharing governance of the property, and completing work assignments to maintain the property. As they fulfill the lease, renters are contributing to the financial success of their housing and the quality of the living environment.

8Create a new housing narrative 

Recommendations

• Participants were extremely energized after learning about the Viennese model and brainstormed ways to develop a new narrative and more public support for this model in two broad manners: building off the LA region’s existing work to increase the base of support through narrative change; and being clear, thoughtful and strategic within a coalition. 
• Build off existing work to broaden the base of support through narrative change. Increase the base of support for social housing in LA by building on the existing work being led through the LA Housing Movement Lab to bring more people into the discussion. This can include expanding the number of groups who see the Vienna model first-hand and establishing a long-term table where a common language can be developed along with a plan to translate these findings more fully to the Los Angeles context.
• Being clear, thoughtful, and strategic within a coalition. Many participants appreciated the ability to have conversations across sub-housing and housing-adjacent sectors on the trip to exchange ideas and fill in gaps in their knowledge. They suggested continuing to be resources to each other after the trip, and raised questions about if a new coalition or other structure that is based on social housing and engages across sectors should be developed. Participants also identified the risk of internal miscommunication as a challenge when working in a coalition, drawing from experiences with Measure H and HHH in LA, and noted that having a common internal understanding is just as important as a unified external message. There was additional conversation around the appropriate geographic area for an effective coalition for social housing, and statewide, regional, and local suggestions were all discussed. Lastly, participants recognized that coalitions operate within a diverse and dynamic political environment of other intersecting and opposing coalitions. Participants recommended forthcoming efforts to be aware of political realities, which election cycle would work best for specific measures, and the sequencing of fights to ensure wins.