L.A.'s Urban Poor Face Worsening Housing Picture

25 October 2006 - 7:00am

As the city's core continues to gentrify, many low-income families are being left with few if any options for affordable housing.

"Average rents in the city have jumped 82% in the last 10 years, to $1,750 a month, according to surveys of large properties by RealFacts, a Bay Area real estate consulting firm. In pockets like Echo Park, they've more than doubled.

In addition, apartment buildings that once housed low-wage workers have been torn down or converted to condominiums at an accelerating rate. The city has seen a loss of about 9,000 rent-controlled units — the only kind of apartments tracked — just since the start of 2005, according to Housing Department records."

Source: The Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2006
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If hundreds of people in your community raised reasonable concerns about a planning program you developed, how would you respond? Perhaps you might call a community meeting, or ask community elected officials to reach out to community leaders.