But it will transfer over, and the mayor has asked me to ensure that we use those assets and authorities in the most effective and integrated way to help continue his commitment to affordable housing. One of the advantages of the CRA, at least theoretically, was that the agency integrated under one roof economic development, planning, and housing.
As housing moves into City Hall, is the integration of policy and implementation less likely? When the universe of redevelopment was all within the redevelopment agency, you could argue the potential was there for efficient development. Whether that was true or not is for others to say, but the potential for efficiency obviously existed.
In some ways an opportunity has been afforded to us by moving the authorities to city hall. Before leaving City Hall for HUD, you participated in many Los Angeles discussions on how to better leverage housing and transportation programs and responsibilities.
Has progress been made? Will the absence of a Redevelopment Agency spur more collaboration between city departments and agencies? There is a really healthy level of discussion about how we would integrate to bring opportunity—as they relate to housing, economic development, and community services—to neighborhoods that are going to receive new transit opportunities. What should our TPR readers be looking for over the next year to benchmark your success given the optimistic scenario you are sharing with us?
I think they can look for some formalizing of vision as it relates to transit oriented development, where the mayor includes all of the stakeholders that a city needs to make up a vibrant community. Given these circumstances, how are you addressing housing affordability and supply?
The cuts at the federal level, the exhaustion of the state funding on Prop 1C, and the dismantling of community redevelopment have all brought very serious consequences to the city as we move forward. I am looking forward to a very open and collegial conversation with my colleague Doug Guthrie at the Housing Authority on how to take advantage of their opportunities, capital, and authorities that I think often go unused in the city.
That partnership has not been effective over time, and we know that it can be. I think continued work with the county, particularly in efficiently working on chronic homelessness, is also going to happen.
Mercedes, does Los Angeles have a housing supply problem? A production problem? Or an affordability problem? The need in the city is great. About 61 percent of renters are rent burdened, which means they pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent.
We have to understand that we have a rent burden, and we still have a great need for subsidies. We always have to start with the need. I do think that if we understand that need and map it against opportunity along transit and in neighborhoods, we can do a better job. With housing affordability directly related to job creation, how will you be linking your housing initiatives with fostering economic development?
A real estate-led recession hit us particularly hard because that is true. I would say, absolutely, the issues of economic development are tied to our challenges on housing affordability.
So absolutely economic development and housing are connected. Again, how do you link them? There are many ways, but the one that has perhaps the longest-term opportunity before us relates to planning our transit system. As you were leaving LA to take join the Obama Administration, there was a policy scuffle between industrial landowners and residential developers over the zoning of scarce industrial land in downtown LA and along the river.
Do you have thoughts, in your new position, to better balance planning and economic development with housing? It is a combination of blue collar jobs and high tech jobs, and there needs to be a balance.
I would say that so much opportunity has been crystallized with the passage of the federal transportation bill, and hopefully if Los Angeles agrees to extend Measure R, it will give us the opportunity to construct our future.
The transit system is the anchor of what will be our future for neighborhoods, and along those lines will be opportunities for jobs, housing, and other services. The balance of that has to be looked at with the prism of what the transit system will become. Lets turn back to the integrated and consolidated plan being developed for HUD, which you have some experience with.
Can you talk about where we are in that planning process? The consolidated plan expresses to the Department of Housing and Urban Development of how LA plans to invest our community development block grant dollars, our home dollars, which is our affordable housing money directly from HUD.
Enter your email address:. I look forward to working hand in hand with her to build more affordable housing, invest in communities, revitalize our urban core, and build the foundation for more housing options for our hard-working families.
She was principal advisor to former Secretary Andrew Cuomo on civil rights policy including, fair lending and fair housing enforcement, and led investigations and negotiations of housing discrimination cases resulting in landmark settlements. She also advised the Secretary on rural housing and economic development policy, supervised farm worker and Colonias Community Builder specialists in five states, and served as a U. From to , Ms. No comments:. Newer Post Older Post Home.
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