LOS ANGELES — With many Angelenos being priced out of the housing market, the city of Los Angeles is exploring ways of making homeownership more accessible. 

The efforts come as housing affordability continues to worsen. According to a 2024 report by Zillow, the LA Metro area is among the least affordable with tenants spending on average 36% of their income on rent. Keep in mind that LA is also heavily a renter city, with the latest census data showing over half of all, or around 2.5 million, LA residents live in rented units.

That same Zillow report also showed wages have not kept up with rent increases, with nationwide stats showing rents surged 30% between 2019 and 2023 while wages increased by 20% over that same period.

LA resident, Margarita Quintanilla, was one of those renters living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left after paying bills to have any form of savings.

She shares she lived crammed in a studio apartment with her family for years, frustrated because that was all they could afford. During the COVID pandemic, she said an opportunity to apply for alternative housing was presented. 

Quintanilla said she was skeptical, as she had never heard of such an effort, but decided to apply anyway. 

The application was for a unit designed as a community land trust model part of the LA-based organization, the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust. 

"I got a call, and they said we got it. And we couldn’t believe it. We walked in to check it out, and we wanted to cry. We couldn’t believe it. The space felt enormous to us," Quintanilla said.

She said they moved in to the home with just a bed for furniture and have been able to fill up the house in the past three years living there. Due to the rent being based on her income, she said she has been able to save in case of emergencies as well.

In their case, the organization buys the property and rents it out to people at a rate that is adjusted to their income. During that time it allows the tenants to make decisions on the maintanence of the building, preparing them for homeownership. Eventually, the idea is to give those residents the chance to buy the building while the organization keeps the land, ensuring owners have a permanent roof and the land is not returned to the real estate market for profit.

A couple of community land trust units already exists across the city through nonprofits, but now during the latest United to House Los Angeles Citizen Oversight Committee meeting, members passed guidelines that included permanent affordable housing programs such as community land trusts. 

Adjunct Professor of Global Housing at Cal State University, Long Beach, Miguel Fernandez, explains there are other countries that have already implemented different forms of social housing, which he said is an umbrella term for this effort. 

"Social housing is any type of housing in which public resources were used, usually for the purposes of providing affordable housing for persons who are low income, moderate income, often times referred to as the working poor," Fernandez said. 

Given the guidelines release by the committee would use Measue ULA or the mansion tax funds, Fernandez said these would count as a form of social housing.

Laura Raymond, director of ACT LA and member of the Citizen Oversight Committee, said the ULA funds are key as it would give developers a permanent funding source.

"So social housing, it's going to create a whole new set of buildings that are affordable to low income Angelenos and really people of all income levels. And so this is a critical way to both address the housing crisis and address rent burden, but also to address homelessness," Raymond said.

She explained the guidelines lay out how it would work.

"So these buildings will be owned by nonprofit organizations and the rent will be paid by tenants. They will not be more than 30% of anyone's income, and the rents will go towards maintaining the building, making sure the building can operate. But it's not for profit, it's just for ensuring the building. And so it's a nonprofit enterprise," Raymond said.

The guidelines are now sent over to LA City Council for an expenditure plan, although Fernandez said he expects there will be people who are opposed. 

"Individuals who believe in the free market and believe that government should not be involved at all in the provision of affordable housing, that the market itself would respond to the needs of the consumer and would build housing if there were no regulations or [regulations] were relaxed," Fernandez said.

He points to the current housing model as to why developers would also try to stop this.

"Say I am a developer, I will try to always maximum the price. I'm going to build housing that is going to get my the best return on my investment," Fernandez said.

Still, Quintanilla hopes these alternative housing efforts go through, saying everyone deserves the peace of mind she now has.

"We have peace and tranquility because we know we can’t get evicted, actually we can eventually buy this house and I can have something to pass on to my daughter and grandchildren or retire without a worry about losing my home," Quintanilla said.

According to the guidelines, the programs would receive 10% of ULA funds for such alternative housing proposals.