The Brief

The city of Los Angeles permitted more than 17,200 housing units last year, according to a new annual progress report issued by city planning officials. That’s about 30% of what the city needs to produce every year in order to reach the housing goals handed down by state regulators.

Under state law, L.A. is required to plan for more than 456,000 new homes between 2021 and 2029. About 185,000 of those homes must be affordable to residents earning incomes that qualify as “low” or “very low.”

The goals reflect the reality that L.A. housing costs are increasingly untenable for many residents. A majority of L.A. renters put more than 30% of their income toward housing costs, a level considered unaffordable by federal government standards.

But across the board — for low-income as well as market-rate housing — L.A. is nowhere near keeping pace toward reaching its goals. Proponents for increased housing production said the latest numbers were disappointing, but not surprising.

“Housing advocates citywide have seen this coming for the last several years,” said Azeen Khanmalek, executive director of Abundant Housing L.A. “We have not seen fundamental change in the way we regulate housing and land use in the city of Los Angeles.”

Clara Karger, a spokesperson for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, said the city is facing broad economic pressures that limit new housing growth. But she said the mayor has implemented programs, such as Executive Directive 1, to speed up city approvals of new low-income housing projects.

"The mayor has taken executive action to accelerate the building of affordable housing, dropping project application wait times for these projects by 75% and expediting the approval of more than 30,000 units,” Karger said in an email to LAist.

Progress report was delayed by fires 

To comply with state housing law, cities must submit annual progress reports to California housing officials. L.A.’s latest progress report was originally due April 1, but the city was granted an extension because of January’s historically destructive fires.

The L.A. City Planning Department has now submitted the city’s numbers for 2024. And they’re far short of what’s needed to reach the city’s target. Of the 17,217 new homes permitted last year, about 3,000 were affordable to Angelenos who qualify as low-income.

Permitting levels in 2024 were slightly down from the 18,618 new homes the city permitted in 2023. Looking farther back, the city permitted 23,422 new homes in 2022.

What’s driving the low numbers?

Part of the downward trend has to do with high interest rates, rising material and labor costs and other economic factors that are largely out of the city’s control. But housing advocates attribute much of the development slowdown to local policy decisions.

The city’s Measure ULA, often called the “mansion tax,” is levied on real estate sales of more than $5 million. The revenue goes toward tenant assistance programs and new affordable housing development. But housing advocates argue it’s discouraging new development.

“Why are we putting new taxes on multi-family apartments where people like me could potentially afford to live?” said Zennon Ulyate-Crow, a volunteer with YIMBY Los Angeles who said he recently moved back into his parents’ home after graduating college because of L.A.’s lack of affordable housing.

A recent study found that if the tax did not apply to newly constructed apartment buildings, the city would likely have more affordable housing units on balance.

“I support the idea of wanting to have a mansion tax, but let's make sure that's a tax on mansions — not a tax on multi-family, affordable homes,” Ulyate-Crow.

What could move the needle? 

Housing advocates said there is some cause for optimism about future development in the city.

Khanmalek with Abundant Housing L.A. said he’s encouraged by the city’s moves toward a self-certification program, which could allow builders of smaller housing projects to attest that their plans are construction-ready and cut down on permitting times. He also praised the City Council’s efforts to change building codes to allow single-stairway buildings that reserve more square footage for apartments.

“There are these little things that are really heartening,” Khanmalek said.

Advocates said pending state legislation could also open up more L.A. neighborhoods to apartment development. Senate Bill 79 seeks to allow denser housing projects near transit, which could make apartment development possible in parts of L.A. where it is now restricted.

Currently, about 72% of the city’s residential land is reserved for single-family homes.

Lines stretched around the block Sunday at the Original Saugus Cafe in Santa Clarita. It was supposed to be the restaurant's last day before closing after 139 years — making it the oldest continually operated restaurant in Los Angeles County.

But earlier this week, a sign was posted on the door saying, "Reopening under new ownership soon," although there were few details about who would be running it.

The sign was a surprise to the Mercado family, who have operated the restaurant for nearly 30 years. The family now is in a legal dispute with the Arklin family, who owns the property, about the potential re-opening and who owns the historic name.

The background

Alfredo Mercado worked his way up from bartender to restaurateur, purchasing the business in 1998. Since then Mercado and his daughters have operated the restaurant, leasing from the Arklin family. For most of that time, according to the Mercado side, the two families maintained good terms. Property owner Hank Arklin Sr., a former state assemblyman who owned other properties in the area, kept a verbal month-to-month agreement with the Mercados — no written lease required.

That changed when Arklin died in August at age 97.

New terms, failed negotiations

Larry Goodman, who manages multiple properties for the Arklin family's company, North Valley Construction, took over the landlord relationship. In September, the Mercado family say they were presented with a new written month-to-month lease.

Yecenia Ponce, Alfredo's daughter, said the new terms included various changes to the existing agreement, including a rent increase and charges for equipment.

Months of back and forth negotiations about different options, including selling the business, ultimately fell apart. Their attorney, Steffanie Stelnick, says they are being forced out, without proper legal notice, and has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Goodman saying the family has plans to continue running the business.

LAist reached out to Goodman for comment repeatedly Wednesday and Thursday by phone but did not hear back.

Goodman told The Signal, a Santa Clarita valley news outlet, that Alfredo Mercado had changed his mind several times in recent weeks about keeping the business.

“I said, ‘Fine,’ then I got out and got someone to take it over,” Goodman said.

He said he'd been in contact with Eduardo Reyna, the CEO of Dario's, a local Santa Clarita restaurant, and that the cafe could re-open as soon as Jan. 16.

Who owns what?

The dispute also focuses on who owns the rights to the Original Saugus Cafe name.

Ponce said when her father purchased the restaurant in 1998, it was called The Olde Saugus Cafe, but the name was then changed to The Original Saugus Cafe. State records show that name registered as an LLC under Alfredo Mercado.

After Arklin’s death, however, the Arklin family filed a pending trademark application to lay its own claim to the name.

The Mercado family is resisting.

"As long as they don't buy the name from us, we're not handing it over," Ponce said.

Ponce said the family had no idea the landlord planned to continue operations.

"We truly did think we were closing," she said. "We were not aware that they had plans to continue."

She apologized to customers for the confusion.

Whether the decades-old restaurant name survives — and under whose control — may ultimately be decided in court.

Community leaders and politicians in Los Angeles are responding in outrage after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minnesota on Wednesday.

The fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good has sparked anger and fear in Los Angeles, which has been an epicenter of federal immigration enforcement since the summer.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, says the killing was upsetting but not surprising.

" Los Angeles has been witness of the escalating aggressiveness of these federal agents against the community," he told LAist.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the shooting, saying Good was trying to run agents over with her car. That account has been disputed by eyewitnesses, the mayor of Minneapolis and other officials. Bystander video also challenges the federal narrative, according to MPR News.

L.A. politicians have joined a chorus demanding justice for Good. Mayor Karen Bass posted on X, saying that ICE agents are waging "a purposeful campaign of fear and intimidation" on American cities.

"The senseless killing of an innocent and unarmed wife and mother by ICE agents today in Minneapolis is shocking and tragic and should never have occurred," she said in the post.

L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn called on Noem to withdraw ICE from U.S. cities.

“These ICE agents are undertrained and trigger happy and everyone who has seen this video knows ICE murdered this woman,” she said in a statement.

Some protesters also gathered outside the federal building in downtown L.A. Thursday morning to condemn the killing.