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Why Vienna? Why Now?

 

Why Vienna? Why Now?

Los Angeles is grappling with an unprecedented housing crisis. The majority of LA’s residents are rent burdened, with many households paying over half their income to keep a roof over their heads. On any given night, more than 75,000 residents of Los Angeles find themselves without a home. Yet, despite decades of effort aimed at ending the housing crisis, the problem has continued to worsen.

Vienna is recognized around the world for its highly successful social housing system which began over a century ago. Founded on the belief that everyone has a right to housing, Vienna has proactively developed high quality social housing for decades. Today, a majority of Vienna’s residents live in high quality, environmentally sustainable social housing, spending a fraction of their income on housing compared to residents of Los Angeles. 
Much like Vienna in 1918, Los Angeles’ new housing initiatives were fueled by a powerful movement for housing justice from those most hurt by the high price of housing. After decades of broad-based, multi-sector organizing, tenant rights advocates, housing developers, philanthropic partners, and political leaders in Los Angeles demanded a huge increase in affordable housing, greater tenant involvement in management, and better tenant protections, as set out in the LA Tenant Bill of Rights, an initiative led by the Keep LA Housed Coalition and endorsed by 46 organizations. Many of these local leaders and movements see social housing as a missing piece in LA’s current housing ecosystem.
2022 became a pivotal year for housing in the LA region when voters, the Governor, and the state Legislature approved two major housing initiatives for LA City and County. The approval of “Measure ULA” (Measure United to House LA), endorsed by more than 200 local organizations and approved by 58% of Los Angeles voters in the November 2022 elections, created a new sustainable funding stream for housing, homeless prevention, and tenants in the City of Los Angeles that went into effect in January 2023. The approval of SB 679 in 2023 formed the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA), a new regional housing finance agency created to make housing more affordable, increase housing options, and help people stay in their homes. Passed with the support of coalition of elected leaders, community organizations, local jurisdictions, housing and homelessness experts, and community stakeholders, LACAHSA has the authority to bring in new revenue, acquire land, and create an integrated approach to housing across the County’s 88 cities and unincorporated areas. These two initiatives have set the stage for a substantial increase in public investment in housing and created a paradigm shift in how Los Angeles approaches affordable housing.
On the tails of this pivotal year for housing, the Los Angeles Delegation traveled to Vienna to learn how Vienna’s Social Housing system works, and to bring home lessons for Los Angeles. 
 
Supervisor Holly Mitchell Talking About Experiential Learning
 
 
Key Takeaways From the Los Angeles Delegation in Vienna

Produce Housing For All

  1. 1 Create strong institutions and reliable processes: A network of government departments makes up a rich ecosystem of institutions and processes that all support the housing system.

  2. 2 Ensure permanent funding and simplify the capital stack: The robust social housing system relies on a permanent funding source for housing, simplified project financing, and substantially lower construction costs compared to the US. 
  3. 3 Use public land and social housing zoning: The social housing system is based on substantial government involvement in land acquisition and ownership as well as zoning that incentivizes mixed-income affordable housing development.

Preserve Vulnerable Housing

  1. 4 Maintain existing housing stock: A priority on maintaining and upgrading social housing over the long term is supported by funding commitments and a set of policies that govern how new residential structures are made and how existing residential structures are maintained and improved over time.

Protect Tenants & Prevent Displacement

  1. 5Support tenants: Once housing is created and occupied, its residents are afforded a significant degree of stability for both renters and homeowners. Housing stability is protected vigorously by the government.

Promote Equity, Inclusion, and Sustainability

  1. 6Create mixed-income communities: The Vienna social housing system benefits a broad base of the city’s population and in turn, creates socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods. 
  2. 7Promote alternative housing models: Housing affordability is created and maintained through alternatives to the predominantly market-driven models found in the United States. Examples include offering alternative forms of ownership, resident cooperatives, and limited profit housing that provides middle class housing at affordable prices and is not subject to market price increases.
  3. 8Create a new housing narrative: Social housing is deeply embedded in Viennese culture and is supported by a large percentage of the population, including those on the right and the left. Though there are differences of opinion about some policies, people see how the system benefits them individually and the city as a whole. This support was cultivated over time and could be replicated in LA. 

[1] Economist Intelligence Unit.

[2] https://www.lahsa.org/news?article=927-lahsa-releases-results-of-2023-greater-los-angeles-homeless-count

[3] “A Foundation for Equity”, Gender Equity Policy Institute, Aug 2022

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