LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will take new steps to pay for power infrastructure upgrades and enable faster building of 100% affordable and permanent supportive housing developments in the city.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Water and Power Commission approved a motion directing the utility to accelerate its processes for identifying what power sources affordable housing developers need and streamline the building process.

What You Need To Know

  • The Project PowerHouse pilot program was developed as part of the emergency declaration on homelessness the mayor declared in December

  • Instead of the developers paying for public right-of-way power system infrastructure improvements, LADWP will pay for them under the new pilot program

  • Nearly 42,000 people live without a permanent roof over their heads in the city of Los Angeles, according to the LA Homeless Services Authority’s 2022 point-in-time count

  • As part of Project PowerHouse, companies that have pending affordable housing developments will work with LADWP to determine their expected power needs at the beginning of their planning phase

“This is an important motion,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “We know that accelerating and lowering the costs of affordable and permanent supportive housing projects are essential to our agenda to urgently increase housing production in Los Angeles and save lives. We must take bold action to confront this crisis.”

The Project PowerHouse pilot program was developed as part of the emergency declaration on homelessness the mayor declared in December. The declaration gave her office the power to lift rules and regulations that slow or prevent the building of permanent and temporary housing for unhoused people and to expedite contracts that prioritize bringing unhoused Angelenos inside.

Nearly 42,000 people live without a permanent roof over their heads in the city of Los Angeles, according to the LA Homeless Services Authority’s 2022 point-in-time count. 

As part of Project PowerHouse, companies that have pending affordable housing developments will work with LADWP to determine their expected power needs at the beginning of their planning phase. Currently, that happens near the end of a project’s approval with the city’s planning department. 

Instead of the developers paying for public right-of-way power system infrastructure improvements, LADWP will pay for them under the new pilot program. In addition to reducing costs for developers, Project PowerHouse seeks to speed up affordable housing development with faster up-front coordination and LADWP approvals of electric service plans.

“Mayor Karen Bass has made clear her intention and one of her priorities is to promote and encourage developers to build affordable and permanent supportive housing that meets the needs of tens of thousands of women, men and families that presently make LA’s sidewalks, parks and freeway underpasses their homes of last resort,” LA Water and Power Commissioner Cynthia McClain-Hill said in a statement. 

“LADWP has a duty to address our city’s homeless emergency and support Mayor Bass in her administration’s efforts to fast-track the construction of new housing to help get Angelenos the homes they desperately need,” she added. “Project PowerHouse would be a solid, substantive step in that direction.”