The Los Angeles Business Council today issues the following statement:
The Los Angeles Business Council applauds the Los Angeles City Council for considering a motion to permanently codify Mayor Bass’ Executive Directive No. 1, which was issued as a temporary emergency order to cut red tape and reduce approval time for 100% affordable housing projects. As the motion, introduced today by Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Nithya Raman and Council President Paul Krekorian, states, “the results of ED 1, even in six months, have been nothing short of dramatic.”
An independent study released last month by the LABC Institute recommended making Executive Directive No. 1 permanent and expanding its scope to mixed-income housing after demonstrating it could dramatically boost housing production. The study found Los Angeles would have added 36.3% more affordable units and 31.9% more market-rate units than were actually completed had the directive applied to all housing projects from 2010 to 2022, the period under review.
LABC has long advocated treating the housing crisis with the same urgency and dedication of resources that we’ve harnessed to address other regional crises. Six in 10 renter households in L.A. are cost-burdened and the homeless population has surged. L.A. must produce more than five times the number of housing units between 2021 and 2029 than were built between 2010 and 2019 to meet goals set by the state and augmented by the city.
We look forward to working with the City Council to implement ED 1 along with other policy changes that can further enhance the City’s ability to expedite new housing production, which our region desperately needs.
