UNIDAD Statement Regarding July 1 Revisions to ED1

On July 1, 2024, Mayor Bass issued a third revision to her Executive Directive 1 (ED1), which streamlines 100% affordable housing development in Los Angeles. UNIDAD has been tracking the ED1 developments since it was issued in December 2022.  While we support the development of new affordable housing, we must ensure it is done equitably to prevent displacement and gentrification and reduce the health disparities of low-income communities of color, who remain most vulnerable to past and current systemic inequities. Housing experts often talk about the solution to our housing and homelessness crisis being centered around the Three Ps: production of new affordable housing, preservation of existing affordable housing, and protections for tenants. Our goal is to ensure that the preservation and protections are not lost as the city focuses in earnest on production. We must balance the Three Ps in order to solve our housing crisis.

• Exempting rent-stabilized (LARSO) properties with 12 or more units from streamlined redevelopment is a good step forward, but doesn’t go far enough. The vast majority of LARSO homes in Los Angeles are in buildings with 11 or fewer units, and they are just as valuable. Redevelopment of LARSO buildings should not be expedited; a review process is necessary to ensure that the benefits of redeveloping a LARSO property outweighs the trauma of relocating existing families. 
• We strongly support the Priority Occupancy Process that the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) has been directed to develop, and we look forward to partnering with LAHD to make this process successful across the city’s affordable housing development strategies.
• The changes to the tenant relocation process are also a significant improvement–tenants will now have adequate time to respond to confusing income surveys and verification requests, and we hope the improvements to relocation services will result in actual support to families navigating this stressful experience.
• While the new provisions to limit streamlining on contaminated hazardous waste and oil and gas sites are a step in the right direction to ensure that low-income BIPOC communities do not continue to be relegated to dangerous and toxic land in this City, they does not go far enough; they still leave out some hazardous sites due to zoning mistakes. Currently, DTSC’s list is not comprehensive and leaves out many sites that are known to be contaminated by community members, demonstrating a need for community hearings to adequately capture where contaminated land is located. Additionally, we still believe that environmental assessments must be required for developments located near hazardous sites, including alignment with language in 2023’s SB 4 that specifies setbacks for projects near freeways and industrial land uses, as well as ensure compliance with SB 1137’s 3,200-foot setback from current and former oil and gas sites.
• We are disappointed that the directive does not include provisions to ensure affordable housing is also developed in single family zones, especially in areas where affordable housing is often blocked. However, for any such changes, UNIDAD’s principles of equitable development must be applied, as well as value-capture strategies, to both prevent displacement and gentrification, as well as to uplift and advance racial justice and equity in access for sensitive communities. In South LA, for example, many single family homes are owned by corporate landlords such as Invitation Homes, a subsidiary of Blackstone, which is increasingly driving displacement in our communities and could further put residents at risk. Without adequate provisions to account for such extractive practices in South LA and other similar communities, allowing single family zones to be upzoned without adequate value-capture strategies and protections for low-income BIPOC residents would encourage corporate landlords to further harm and displace communities. Therefore, provisions must be sensitive to the needs of neighborhoods that have historically been BIPOC and respond to the homeownership needs of Black residents and homeowners, given the anti-black racism that has underscored redlining policies and access to homeownership opportunities.

We applaud the Mayor for taking action when Council won’t–the Affordable Housing Streamlining Ordinance that would make the rules permanent has been sitting for over a year now. The City Council should stop stalling and adopt the Affordable Housing Streamlining Ordinance, with the modifications made by this latest update to ED 1 and UNIDAD’s recommendations from our letters on June 24, 2024, October 25, 2023, August 24, 2023, and June 20, 2023.