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Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism University of Southern California
Our Neighborhood

Activists Call For Affordable Housing Near Transit

Will the expansion of Los Angeles’ public transit system squeeze out the people who need it the most? 

Will the expansion of Los Angeles’ public transit system squeeze out the people who need it the most? That’s what affordable housing advocates are worried about.

More than 60 people from 25 organizations representing communities from all over Los Angeles gathered in Grand Park Monday evening to campaign about development around transit.

"We want to really make sure that the city is building affordable housing near transit, so that the core transit riders who need affordable housing who have overwhelmingly low income can still meet the access to the transit system,” the campaign director of the Alliance for Community Transit Los Angeles, Laura Raymond said. “We also want healthy community infrastructure, such as healthy food retail, bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure...”

Click here to listen to the radio story.

The alliance invited community residents and the city council to join the event and come up with solutions to the housing price questions raised by core transit riders. According to Reconnecting America, in Los Angeles, households earning less than $25,000 a year account for 70% of workers who commute via public transportation.

The LA Housing Department notes that new housing being built in the city, including in Transit Oriented Development areas, is unaffordable for many commuters; only 2% of non-subsidized units built in LA in 2014 were affordable units.

Click here to see the housing price of LA during the past five years.

Equitable is the word that the alliance was looking for.

“Who are we building this city for?…We are pushing out ten of thousands of people every year because of irresponsible and unaccountable development. So we are just asking city councils to join us in creating a new policy to help protect low-income renters near transit, and will help encourage better smarter development around transit” Director of Community Organizing, Mike Dennis, said.

No council members showed up at the event. Dennis assumed that there had been a schedule conflict.

“We are not surprised,” Dennis said. “It's the beginning of a campaign for us. And we are going to need to do more these kinds of activities to make sure that the council members know that people are demanding solutions and leaderships.”

At the event, the organizers shared the experiences of transit riders in the form of photographs and audio records.

Screenshot of the twitter page of the event.
Screenshot of the twitter page of the event.

“We collected stories. We talked to folks right there at Grand Park. A lot of folks waiting at the bus stops, mainly transit riders, because we wanted to understand how does the transit system impact their life, and what kind of future did they envision for LA.”

Dennis explained that similar activities will follow in the coming month.

"We are there to raise awareness.”

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