Los Angeles Seeks Speedier Way to Build New Affordable Homes
In 2022, LA Mayor Karen Bass directed city agencies to fast-track 100% affordable apartment projects to relieve the city’s housing crunch. Here’s how that push is working.
An apartment complex under construction in Los Angeles in January.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images North AmericaArchitect Brian Lane calls it “1,000 ways to no.” That’s the wall of red tape that he and his colleagues at the Santa Monica-based firm Koning Eizenberg hit when they propose affordable housing projects around Los Angeles. Regulations and code enforcement lead to delays, which drive up costs, kill projects, and exacerbate Southern California’s stifling housing shortage.
But over the last year, builders say that this bureaucratic morass has eased somewhat, thanks to the mayoral order known as Executive Directive 1.