Councilman Kevin de León wants 25,000 housing units for homeless by 2025
When the Los Angeles City Council opens its 2021 term on Tuesday, Councilman Kevin de León will introduce a range of motions with the goal of creating 25,000 new housing units for homeless people by 2025.
In an interview, De León was light on details about how the city might generate enough housing to almost double the number of units available to homeless people. Still, he said it was useful to have an ambitious but attainable goal that elected officials and the public could rely on as a yardstick for success and failure.
With the motions that will be introduced Tuesday, De León is attempting to tackle problems that experts agree contribute to the homelessness crisis: A lethargic and convoluted system for permitting and approving housing projects. Not making full use of publicly owned lands. An insufficient supply of interim and temporary housing amid a pandemic that’s made living in shelters dangerous. A wave of evictions that could come as a result of the pandemic-driven economic downturn.
De Leon also mentioned the frustratingly slow progress of housing projects funded by Proposition HHH — the $1.2-billion bond for homeless housing that Los Angeles voters approved more than four years ago. So far just seven projects totaling 489 units have opened.
De León also applauded the state’s effort to purchase apartment buildings, along with motels and hotels, for homeless people last year through Project Homekey. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget includes $750 million for more of these purchases, and De León wants the city to make more such acquisitions — though he declined to state an exact figure for the city funds he’d like to see spent on the effort.