More than 700 seek affordable units in Los Angeles
The lack of affordable housing has always been a serious issue in some cities. One of those cities happens to be Los Angeles. It’s not easy to afford a nice home in this city.
That point was underscored yesterday, when the Hollywood Community Housing Corp. offered Los Angeles residents the chance to enter into a lottery for 58 subsidized apartment units in a new buiding in the city. You can read coverage of the event in this story in the Los Angeles Times.
According to the story, by 11 a.m. more than 700 people had lined up down Santa Monica Boulevard to enter the lottery. It sounds like a heartbreaking event. A total of 240 people received applications for a lottery for the 58 units, while the rest left with nothing. Some of them left in tears.
The Los Angeles Times story says that the city’s shortage of affordable housing combined with the nation’s terrible economy has made such scenes commonplace. The subsidized apartments being given away yesterday will cost up to $1,023 for two-bedroom units. But that’s paradise to some of the 700-plus people waiting in line. Many of them are packed into tiny apartments that they can barely afford.
One person quoted in the story said she shares a two-bedroom apartment with her husband and three kids. The rent is a pricey $1,400 a month, she said. And the apartment rests in a dangerous neighborhood that has seen too many shootings.
These are the kind of stories that break your heart. For too long, it’s been a struggle for would-be homeowners to find somewhere affordable to live in their own neighborhoods. It was a struggle for me and my family, and we do OK financially, to find a house in our Chicago neighborhood three years ago. Prices were amazingly high. They’ve come down some since, but are still too high for many.
Perhaps the silver lining to the nation’s housing slump is the fact that housing prices are starting to fall in many overpriced communities. Let’s hope that when the housing mess ends and residential real estate begins its gradual rebound, we all don’t forget again about the need for quality affordable housing.
