How many affordable homes and apartments are there?
About 100,000 households, 8 percent of all City households, live in affordable housing that is subsidized in some way. About 47,000 receive Section 8 Vouchers, about 8,000 families live in conventional public housing and about 52,400 live in privately-owned affordable units. Of the privately-owned affordable housing, roughly 70 percent are family units and 30 percent are for seniors1.
Income level |
Number of Units |
% of Total |
|---|---|---|
| 30% of AMI | 26,215 |
50% |
| 35-50% of AMI | 4,019 |
8% |
| 50-120% of AMI | 22,145 |
42% |
The City of Los Angeles funds construction of about 2,000 additional affordable units annually.
The Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) maintains a database of all the affordable units that includes the funding source, population served, address, number of units, and other important information about these units.
Types of Affordable Housing
Subsidized housing. Like regular market-rate housing, virtually all of the affordable housing that is developed today is privately built and owned — either by non-profit organizations or private businesses and corporations. These organizations use a combination of public subsidies and bank loans to construct new homes and apartments that are affordable to low- and moderate-income families. In part because modern affordable housing contains a significant amount of private financing that comes with investor and lender oversight, the developments are professionally managed to ensure that the new housing retains its value and remains attractive and affordable.
Mixed-income housing. When housing developments contain both market-rate and affordable homes or apartments it's called mixed-income housing. Developers generally build mixed-income housing because they have received some kind of public subsidy. Less often state or local laws require developers to reserve a few new homes and apartments for low- and moderate-income households as in the Coastal Zone, LA's Central City West Specific Plan Area and Community Redevelopment Agency Project Areas. Local inclusionary zoning/housing programs are commonly introduced for this purpose. Mixed-income developments help create affordable places to live in desirable areas where new affordable housing developments would not be economically feasible.
Senior housing. Because of the large number of low- and moderate-income seniors with fixed incomes, there are various public subsidy programs designated specifically for the construction of new apartments for the elderly. With a growing population of people age 65 and older, there is an increasing need for the development of new senior apartments.
Supportive housing. Supportive housing offers a place to live for individuals and families with special needs — including physical or mental disabilities. Supportive housing provides on-site services — such as healthcare, job training, and counseling — to help people live independently in their own apartments. Supportive housing is the favored model for housing homeless people.
Entry-level home ownership. In high cost areas like Los Angeles, many low, moderate, and even middle-income families wishing to buy their first home are unable to find anything that is affordable. Most subsidy programs for home ownership offer financial assistance to individuals and families trying to buy a home. In addition, there are also a few programs to encourage developers to build new entry-level affordable homes.
Rent stabilized housing. To help keep older apartments affordable to families, many cities, including Los Angeles, have rent stabilization ordinances that limit annual rent increases. Los Angeles' Rent Stabilization Ordinance provides stability for some renters and helps protect long-term tenants during times of rapidly rising rents.
Public housing. From the 1930s until the 1970s, local public housing authorities built large public housing developments that were entirely financed by the federal government and owned by local housing authorities. Many of these projects fell victim to crime and disrepair as federal housing policy and funds shifted away from public housing. While a number of public housing complexes across the country have been demolished and replaced with privately built, owned and managed housing, a significant stock of public housing apartments continues to provide homes for extremely low-income families in Los Angeles.
Rental Assistance. The Section 8 Voucher program helps some low-income people with their monthly rent. Section 8 is funded by the federal government and administered by the local housing authority.
1Units serving the disabled are included in both the senior and family categories.
