Los Angeles has raised 1.2 billion dollars to build housing
for the homeless thanks to Proposition HHH and now is the time to get
those homes built faster to help more of the people in need of those
homes.
Over the next decade, the government of Los Angeles wants to build
10,000 units of housing to help the chronically homeless. These houses
would be a permanent support house for the homeless. The problem with
this is that the developers who want to build the houses have to go
through a long series of overly complicated reviews as well as quite a
few heated outreach committees, along with a very watchful eye of
government oversight committees before they can even apply to build the
houses needed. The process of going through all of these reviews and
meetings can take well over a year.
There are over 34,000 people who are homeless right now in Los Angeles
and the city is in desperate need to find a way to build these homes in a
quicker manner than the system that is currently in place to get the
homes up and running for these people in a reasonable, responsible
manner.
Eric Garcetti was out urging people to approve Proposition HHH while
also making his pledge to help somehow streamline the project forward
for the permitting process.
The city has come up with a proposal for a new law that will cut out
some of the many steps during the review process of those proposals that
qualify as permanent supportive housing. The planning department will
put out the proposal for public comment before 60 days before they send
it to the planning commission and then to the City Council for approval.
The main goal of this proposal is to help speed up the process to get
these houses built because the city recognizes that there is a crisis
with the homeless. This proposal will give the developers leeway to
build houses quicker by right, meaning if properties or buildings are
zoned by right, then the developers will be able to skip some of the
required reviews by the city and committees. An example of this would be
a number of city-owned sites have been zoned to be public facilities or
conversions of residential hotels, which in turn would help the
developers already have the right to build these houses for the homeless
in a much quicker manner than they would otherwise. Industrial zones or
single family residential zones would now allow developers by right
building of these houses.
Developers would still have restrictions as to how they could build the
houses, but most houses built for the homeless usually follow a certain
guidelines which pass all requirements in zoning. Other rules in the
zoning protect the homeless from developers building houses that
wouldn't meet safety standards.
These are some of the proposed steps to help get these houses built in a
faster manner so that the homeless will have a place to live and get
their lives back on track.