The Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies

This report explores establishing community ownership structures in Fresno’s Chinatown in order to ensure local residents and business owners benefit from the anticipated redevelopment spurred by the planned California High Speed Rail Station. Chinatown Fresno is characterized by a historic diverse immigrant community, historic disinvestment and multigenerational business ownership. It faces significant gentrification risks with incoming investments. Conducted for Emerging Markets Development Corporation, this report assesses the feasibility and potential process of implementing a Neighborhood Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) or other models to build wealth for community members and prevent their displacement. Methods included surveying U.S. community ownership models, analyzing current plans for Chinatown Fresno, examining tax increment financing, and interviewing key stakeholders in government, philanthropy and the private sector. Findings reveal strong local investment in the neighborhood's future, extensive planning efforts lacking cohesive financial feasibility assessments, and the potential for master-planned pro forma development to enhance the implementation of state and federal grants and coordinate external investments. It also suggests a Joint Powers Authority to align public resources and foster predictable investment conditions, with a Neighborhood REIT proposed as a vehicle to blend institutional and local investments, distributing returns to community members. The report aims to advise urban planners, foundations, community organizations, and government officials on how community ownership ideas can be incorporated into Chinatown Fresno and promote wealth building, prevent displacement, and achieve sustainable, inclusive redevelopment.

This project focuses on carless and car-deficit households in the Westlake-MacArthur Park and Pacoima-Panorama City neighborhoods that have experienced challenges in traveling to their destinations due to their limited access to household vehicles. Car ownership in the U.S. is causally linked with positive economic outcomes such as being employed, gaining employment, working additional hours, and earning higher wages (Brown, 2017). In the U.S., however, “carless” households, or zero-car households, make up 7% of all households, and “car-deficit” households, households with fewer cars than drivers, make up 15% of all households (Blumenberg et al., 2020). Those who do not own a vehicle or do not always have access to one due to financial and health/age constraints, however, are left to navigate on modes other than the private vehicle to meet their transportation needs.Using quantitative and qualitative methods, I find that carless and car-deficit respondents from Pacoima-Panorama City reported carpooling and riding the bus as their most used transportation modes, whereas Westlake-MacArthur Park reported higher use of transit such as bus and rail. Over half of all carless and car-deficit respondents, however, shared that they have skipped and/or rescheduled trips to healthcare, school, work, and other destinations due to transportation issues. Furthermore, both neighborhoods reported similar concerns related to safety, time associated with transit use, and saw low rates of participation in public programs that aim to alleviate the cost of transportation.

Los Angeles County's 15-year initiative to overhaul its transportation infrastructure aims to reduce car reliance and promote public transit, walking, and cycling through dense, transit-oriented development (TOD) near stations. Despite significant investment, numerous challenges remain including bureaucratic obstacles, declining per capita ridership, and concerns about displacement and gentrification. The study evaluated LA Metro rail stations' impact on nearby communities, using ACS data from 2009 to 2022 to analyze demographic, housing, and mode choice changes within a half-mile radius of stations built between 2010 and 2020.Findings indicated increased population density, racial diversification, and higher education levels near stations. Median household income and housing costs surged, signaling economic growth and gentrification. Urban renewal was evident with increased construction activity, rising rent and home values, and rise in remote work. Decline in public transportation usage was less significant near stations compared to city-wide. To enhance Los Angeles' existing TOD policies, several recommendations were proposed. Encouraging diverse housing types near transit stations through mixed-use zoning, multi-family homes, and ADUs can increase density without major disruption. Innovative housing models like community land trusts and modular housing can improve affordability. Implementing robust anti-displacement measures, such as extending rent control, can safeguard low-income residents from gentrification. Promoting economic development near transit stations through local hire policies can reduce unemployment and foster economic stability. Lastly, expanded monitoring of TOD areas are necessary to better understand residential and travel behaviors, refining strategies to promote sustainable development and ensure inclusive, resilient, and thriving transit-oriented communities in Los Angeles.

The travel experiences of unhoused women in Los Angeles present a critical yet underexplored aspect of urban mobility and homelessness. This report aims to fill the gap in literature addressing the unique travel patterns and challenges this group faces, emphasizing the need for solutions tailored to their mobility needs. Interviews with unhoused women in Los Angeles were conducted to gauge their travel patterns and primary safety concerns. Interviews took place in Van Nuys and Little Tokyo to reflect the differences in travel experiences between the suburbs and the inner city. Homelessness resources are more concentrated in Central City Los Angeles, where Little Tokyo is located, providing a model for what could be possible in terms of mobility, safety, and access to public transportation. Conversely, in Van Nuys, resources are sparse and spread out, compelling unhoused women to travel greater distances and optimize their travel time by multitasking.Key takeaways include reliance on community networks, increasing preference for biking as an affordable and eco-friendly travel mode, and the use of bikes and fare-free transit for feelings of autonomy and independence. Additionally, despite concerns about safety when alone, unhoused women are still wary of law enforcement, and anti-homeless measures like 41.18 lead to continuous displacements, disrupting daily routines.Findings suggest addressing the fundamental issue of housing, implementing robust data collection, partnering with homelessness advocacy groups, securing funding for essential amenities, and making infrastructural improvements to support the autonomy, mobility, and safety of unhoused women. All in all, a comprehensive approach is necessary to provide effective relief.

Los Angeles County is in an affordable housing crisis. This crisis is particularly pronounced for low-income workers. With the government and private sector unable to solve the crisis on their own, many labor unions are looking for ways to get involved. Our client, UNITE HERE Local 11 (UH11) – a hospitality workers’ union – is looking into creative methods of addressing the housing crisis for its members, other hospitality workers, and the rest of the region’s working class. This report investigates two solutions: converting hotels and motels into housing and establishing housing cooperatives. This research employs a mixed-methods approach consisting of literature reviews, document analysis, quantitative data and spatial analyses, and expert interviews. On the hotel/motel conversion side, our findings suggest that there are opportunities to convert hotels/motels into housing, but further municipal action is needed to implement this model at scale. Our findings on the cooperative side suggest that financial, tax, and legal challenges may stymy the establishment of new cooperatives, but community land trusts present a feasible intermediate model. Our report concludes with several recommendations: regarding conversions, UH11 should pilot conversion projects and advocate for certain state and local reforms to further facilitate conversions; and regarding cooperatives, UH11 should partner with existing community land trusts to develop cooperative housing. With these strategies, UH11 can play a pivotal role in expanding affordable housing options for its members and other low-income workers in Los Angeles County and provide models for union-led initiatives to address housing insecurity in other high-cost metropolitan areas.

This report, prepared for Councilmember Bob Blumenfield's office, explores the potential of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to address housing challenges in Los Angeles' Council District 3. The district's varied socioeconomic and demographic composition presents both opportunities and challenges for ADU development, influencing the spatial distribution of ADU rates. Parcel- and neighborhood-level characteristics are analyzed to understand key associations with ADU occurrence, revealing that household income and zones with stringent development standards are significant predictive factors of ADU rates. Ownership patterns and ADU uses are explored, highlighting investor involvement and the benefits of ADUs as sources of rental income, housing for family members, or personal amenity space.The report also focuses on the impact of ADUs on housing affordability. ADUs provide significant additional income for homeowners, offsetting mortgage payments and making homeownership more achievable. However, significant barriers to ADU development persist, especially when it comes to making ADUs available as rental units to the broader market. High construction and operation costs, lack of accessible information, community resistance, and homeowner hesitations toward non-family tenants all contribute to the unrealized potential of ADUs. Moreover, the observation that rents for ADUs are not significantly more affordable compared to comparable multi-family units, coupled with homeowners' reluctance to rent ADUs with affordability restrictions, limits the potential of these units to serve as affordable housing sources.The report’s findings aim to guide ADU development not only within Council District 3 but also across broader scales, assisting in identifying trends and formulating policies that enhance housing strategies statewide.

Producing less than 20,000 units on average annually in California, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) cannot meet the outsized demand for subsidized housing alone . This report examines alternatives to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit in the State of California, with particular emphasis on the Los Angeles market. This report analyzes project feasibility in today’s conditions, as well as an analysis of the financial impact that certain international policies could have on affordable housing development at the project level. The analyses aim to illustrate possible project models as additional options beyond LIHTC, and demonstrate the value of including higher income projects within an affordable housing system on being able to leverage more debt, equity and other financial resources and thereby produce more affordable housing at all levels.

Extreme commuting is increasing worldwide, especially in urban areas, driven by factors like limited affordable housing and job opportunities. In Los Angeles, individuals, particularly those in lower-income jobs, often face long commutes due to affordable housing constraints and proximity to job centers. Extreme commutes refer to spending 180 minutes or more traveling to and from work. This report expands on this concept to define ‘extreme travel,’ which aims to include travel to all destinations.This report examines how extreme travel affects economic, social, environmental, and health outcomes for lower-income people living, working, or studying in the San Fernando Valley (SFV) through a collaborative effort with Pacoima Beautiful (PB). PB is an environmental justice community-based organization primarily serving Northeast San Fernando Valley Latinx communities. The report investigates the causes of extreme travel, the impacts on socioeconomic, health, and environmental outcomes, and transportation challenges associated with extreme travel using a qualitative research approach. The data collected includes fourteen semi-structured interviews and 93 survey responses. The interviews allowed for in-depth conversations and documentation of first-hand experiences, while the survey provided data to compare experiences between people experiencing extreme travel and people who do not. Findings reveal that people who experience extreme travel face barriers to accessing transportation services, affordable housing near job centers, and quality jobs closer to home. Moreover, people with extreme travel feel it negatively impacts their social, economic, health, and environmental outcomes. The findings can inform policy and planning efforts, particularly in anticipation of the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project, and contribute to environmental justice and transportation equity discourse.

California faces a severe housing crisis, characterized by soaring rents, limited affordability, and increasing homelessness. Latinos, in particular, suffer disproportionately from housing insecurity, which is defined as a spectrum of housing precarity – ranging from homelessness to substandard living conditions. This report employs a mixed-methods approach to analyze housing insecurity in California. Its quantitative analysis introduces novel housing insecurity estimates, using data from the California Department of Education and the American Community Survey. Qualitative data from literature reviews and semi-structured interviews provide deeper insights into the factors driving housing insecurity and potential policy solutions.The findings reveal a high prevalence of housing insecurity, especially among Latinos. In 2022, approximately 1.3 million Californians were housing insecure, significantly higher than the 820,961 in doubled-up housing in 2021 and nearly eight times the 171,521 counted as homeless in 2022. Latinos, comprising 39.5% of the state's population, represent 68% of the housing insecure. The majority of housing insecure individuals reside in Southern California, with over 55% concentrated in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties, and Latinos account for 71.8% of this housing insecure population.Ultimately, this analysis underscores the imperative of broadening the conceptualization of homelessness support to encompass a spectrum of services for those experiencing housing insecurity. By adopting the inclusive framework of housing insecurity, policymakers and stakeholders can develop tailored interventions to address some identified causes of housing insecurity, including housing affordability, access to transportation, culturally competent services, and immigration support.

This report aims to investigate the community engagement process so planners can more effectively work with communities and reckon with the historical trauma caused by planners in the past. Planning as an industry is responsible for the forceful removal of communities under the name of “urban decay” and is a direct cause of why some communities remain impoverished today. This history has not been long forgotten; it continues to live on in the communities directly affected, and trust when working with public agencies is low. Public agencies must understand this trauma as they work with these communities to build a better future. This report chronicles the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station joint development process by interviewing Little Tokyo residents and other stakeholders involved with the process and examining archival documents. While relatively small, Little Tokyo has a long history of asserting its autonomy in community development issues. I highlight the history of community-based organization and planning that has sustained Little Tokyo into the community it remains today. Through my findings, I recommend a history-informed planning process among public agencies. A holistic approach to planning must be taken that considers the community context in historical and contemporary terms. While the process of community engagement can be long and expensive, it is a way for public agencies to repair their relationship with communities that have been wronged in the past.