OLD UCLA Lewis Center

Downtown LA Forum

Too Much and Not Enough:
Housing Costs and Scarcity

The 11th Annual UCLA Downtown Los Angeles Forum on Transportation, Land Use and the Environment

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Friday, May 18, 2018
8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities

There is a housing crisis gripping Los Angeles and cities around the country. The rent is too high for most people to afford without cost burdens, we are not building enough homes, low-income households are being displaced, and public subsidies are insufficiently generous. We are failing to provide safe and and adequate shelter for all.

The 2018 UCLA Downtown Los Angeles Forum will explore the depths of our housing crisis and how various solutions may combine to stem the tide of complex problems such as homelessness and housing precarity, segregation, gentrification and displacement, and the politics of housing supply. Our extraordinary panelists and speakers combine decades of experience in government, affordable housing finance and development, academic research, and housing advocacy and organizing.

8:30 – 9:00    Breakfast and registration

9:00 – 9:15    Opening Remarks

Michael Lens, Lewis Center associate faculty director and associate professor of urban planning and public policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

9:15 – 11:00    The Rent is Too Damn High
Housing costs have skyrocketed for almost everyone in Los Angeles, hitting renters the hardest. But different groups have divergent perspectives on the causes and ramifications of the crisis. How do experts view the problem, and how does their view differ from those experiencing homelessness and housing precarity? How does the homelessness problem relate to the middle-class affordability problem? What is the divide between “YIMBY” and “PHIMBY” advocates, and how can their proposed solutions interact?  

Moderator: Paavo Monkkonen, associate professor of urban planning, UCLA Luskin School

Panelists:

11:15 – 12:30    The Politics of Supply
Potential solutions of the housing crisis inevitably become entangled in California’s complicated politics, often pitting advocates for more supply against those concerned with community displacement. Big solutions are on the table in California with wide-ranging potential effects: repeal of the Costa-Hawkins Act, RHNA reform, and even the third rail itself, potential changes to Proposition 13. Fights over local control and pro-supply measures embodied by the recently failed SB 827 present additional political and policy battlegrounds. We will discuss the merits of these solutions, with particular attention to how they advance housing equity and affordability.   

Moderator: Michael Lens, Lewis Center associate faculty director and associate professor of urban planning and public policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Panelists:

12:30 – 1:45    Lunch Keynote: Kathy Nyland, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods

As director of the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Kathy Nyland oversaw the groundbreaking overhaul of the neighborhood council system to emphasize inclusive outreach, equity, and community engagement. She has strategized and advocated on behalf of neighborhoods and other underrepresented communities throughout her career as the founder of a neighborhood business association and chair of the City Neighborhood Council. Kathy has also served as chief of staff to a Seattle City Councilmember and senior policy advisor to the Mayor of Seattle.

1:45 – 2:00    Closing Remarks

Brian Taylor, Lewis Center director and professor of urban planning, UCLA Luskin School

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Location

California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities
1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

 

Previous Events

Since 2008, the UCLA Lewis Center, in partnership with the Institute of Transportation Studies, has hosted a forum in Downtown Los Angeles to engage policy makers and practitioners with research and case studies on the connection between transportation, land use and the environment. Each of the past events, their themes and associated programs are listed and linked below.