Downtown is poised for an unprecedented amount of new development with 50 high-rise projects in the works. Housing and homeless advocates have called on the City to guide this huge wave of investment so that we end up with a downtown where people from all walks of life, not just the rich, can live, work and play downtown. Read Towards a Diverse and Healthy Downtown L.A. We need forward-thinking local policies that both protect affordable housing and encourage new construction, whether real estate is in a boom, a bust, or just chugging along.

This isn’t the first time advocates have called for equitable development in Dowtown L.A. In 2002 the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice and the LA Coalition to End Hunger & Homelessness' came together to form the Share the Wealth Coalition. In addition to creating the policy paper Share the Wealth: A Policy Strategy for Fair Redevelopment in L.A.'s City Center the coalition brought together about 500 concerned residents for a “Peoples’ Hearing” where key elements of the platform were presented to Los Angeles City Council Members Jan Perry and Ed Reyes and then CRA Commissioner Doug Ring.

During and after WWII, Los Angeles faced a severe housing crisis and over time built enough housing for its growing population. It’s time for local governments throughout the region to get serious about working with private developers to increase the supply of housing and to curb the kind of development that aggravates the crisis. The City of Los Angles has taken some important first steps, but we need a bold, comprehensive approach that protects the affordable housing we have, requires some of every new housing development across the city to be affordable, and increases the city funds for building new affordable housing.

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