David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, a place where the lack of affordable housing contributes to homelessness.
Published July 25, 2024 5:00 AM
A for-sale sign hangs outside a $1.6 million house on L.A.’s Westside.
(
David Wagner
/
LAist
)
Topline:
Almost three-quarters of L.A.’s residential land is zoned for single-family homes. And city officials have chosen to leave those neighborhoods largely untouched in their plans to meet ambitious state housing goals.
What’s happening now: L.A.’s Planning Department will hold a meeting to gather public feedback on a slate of proposals to incentivize new housing and increase zoning capacity by more than 250,000 homes. Those plans currently exclude single-family neighborhoods. Instead, new housing is being channeled into already dense, renter-heavy districts.
The feedback so far: Those in favor of preserving L.A.’s single-family neighborhoods say they support this strategy. Affordable housing developers, homeless service providers and tenant organizers see it differently. They argue that the city is continuing to let wealthy neighborhoods off the hook when it comes to doing their share in accepting new housing.
Read more… to find out how these decisions could affect the neighborhood you live in, and how you can get involved in the process.
Everywhere you look, there are signs of the housing crisis gripping Los Angeles. Young families are fleeing the city. Eviction filings are way up. Hardly anyone can afford to buy a home.
But when you take a closer look at most L.A. neighborhoods, housing advocates say you’ll find little in the way of change to address this crisis. Palm tree-lined streets with rows of detached houses appear pretty similar to how they looked decades ago.
That’s because almost three-quarters of the city’s residential land is zoned for single-family homes. And L.A. leaders have chosen to leave those neighborhoods largely untouched in their efforts to create more housing.
“It really does limit where we can build,” said Tara Barauskas, executive director at Community Corporation of Santa Monica, a nonprofit that focuses on developing affordable housing in higher-income neighborhoods on L.A.’s Westside.
“If there's this policy emphasis on really trying to make serious change for building more affordable housing, but these big blanket exclusions are still in place, it's a contradiction,” Barauskas said. “We're not going to be able to make the big shift we need.”
What’s happening now
On Thursday, L.A.’s Planning Department will hold a meeting to gather public feedback on a slate of proposals to significantly boost housing production in order to meet a state-mandated goal of planning for nearly 457,000 new homes by 2029.
The city’s current zoning can’t accommodate that much growth. So officials have outlined plans to increase capacity by more than 250,000 homes. Those plans exclude single-family zones. Instead, new housing is being channeled into already dense, renter-heavy districts.
A now-leasing sign hangs outside an apartment complex in L.A.’s Palms neighborhood.
(
David Wagner
/
LAist
)
Those in favor of preserving L.A.’s single-family neighborhoods say they support that strategy.
“I do think the city has taken a really good approach,” said Cindy Chvatal-Keane, co-founder of the neighborhood preservation advocacy group United Neighbors. “There are plenty of places to put affordable housing without disrupting single-family.”
Affordable housing developers, homeless service providers and tenant organizers see it differently. They argue that the city is continuing to let wealthy neighborhoods off the hook when it comes to doing their share in accepting new housing.
How we got here
It has become a familiar debate in Los Angeles. Last year, Mayor Karen Bass decided to carve out single-family neighborhoods from her signature program to streamline affordable housing approvals. Before that, city council members voted to oppose state legislation allowing additional units on single-family lots.
Renter households outnumber homeowner households in the city of L.A. nearly two-to-one. But housing policy analysts say homeowners tend to have more political capital, vote more consistently and put up more organized opposition to change.
“The city does have a lot of very wealthy people — people who are almost exclusively single-family homeowners,” said Shane Philips with the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. “Those people have disproportionate influence on policy making, and I think that especially applies to land use.”
An American flag waves in the wind outside a single-family home on L.A.’s Westside.
(
David Wagner
/
LAist
)
Proponents for more housing say zoning patterns help explain why so many L.A. apartments are overcrowded, why more than half of local tenants are paying rents considered unaffordable by federal standards, and why renters looking for a new place to live are finding so few options.
“We're all aware that there is a need for housing, because every time we step out we see a homeless person on the sidewalk,” said Diana Corrales, who was born and raised in L.A. and recently moved back in with her mother.
Corrales said she lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic and could no longer afford the one-bedroom Ladera Heights apartment where she was living with her son. When she started hunting for another place to rent, she realized the options were beyond her budget.
“Everyone's scared of change, but we understand that there's a need for housing,” Corrales said. “Not just for us, but for everyone of all income levels, all walks of life.”
What’s in the plan
According to officials with the L.A. Planning Department, the city will be able to meet its ambitious state goals by focusing on areas already zoned for dense housing. They say L.A. can get there by incentivizing development in those neighborhoods. The proposed incentives would let developers increase the density of their projects and remove certain parking requirements, as long as they reserve some apartments for low-income renters.
The department did not make an official available for an interview, but told LAist in an emailed statement that their approach “promotes housing near jobs and transit, along major corridors, and away from environmentally hazardous and sensitive areas such as fire zones and sea level rise areas.”
This strategy aligns with ongoing efforts to update community plans across the city, which have so far sought to locate lots of new housing in dense neighborhoods like Hollywood and downtown L.A.
Officials say their plans also include new tenant protections. Renters currently living in rent-controlled apartments would have the right to move into new developments if their housing is demolished to make way for a larger building, officials say. But tenant advocates worry low-income renters could still struggle to make the transition and continue living in L.A.
City planners also intend to make it easier for developers to convert old commercial buildings — like deserted malls and empty offices — into housing through adaptive reuse.
None of these plans include allowing new apartment buildings on the 72% of residential land in the city reserved for single-family homes, according to the planning department. A UC Berkeley study estimated these zones make up a slightly higher percentage of the city’s residential land, 74% to be precise.
A map created by UC Berkeley researchers shows the L.A. neighborhoods zoned for single-family homes, highlighted in pink.
(
Courtesy UC Berkeley Othering and Belonging Institute
)
Many of these protected neighborhoods are in wealthy areas that remain largely segregated due to historic policies such as redlining, racial covenants and exclusionary zoning, a fact that the planning department has acknowledged.
Planning officials had originally considered adding new density to these areas. Then last October, the department said they would exclude single-family zones following public feedback.
Why you should care
For anyone not already steeped in local land use debates, topics like zoning, state housing goals and developer incentives may lead to snooze-inducing boredom.
But these policies profoundly shape L.A. neighborhoods. They help explain why Koreatown is bustling with younger, lower-income renters from many ethnic backgrounds while nearby Hancock Park is occupied by older, wealthier and whiter homeowners.
Similar dynamics are at play in Palms, a Westside neighborhood full of multifamily apartment buildings, and adjacent Rancho Park, a single-family area with a quiet, suburban feel. While walking through these neighborhoods, Mahdi Manji with the Inner City Law Center told LAist it makes sense to build more housing in both.
“The Westside is an area of massive growth,” Manji said, pointing to the UCLA campus a few miles north and the nearby tech employment hub of Silicon Beach. “At the same time, we are only seeing development in those very small areas that are already doing multifamily.”
Mahdi Manji, director of public policy for the Inner City Law Center, stands at an intersection in L.A.’s Palms neighborhood.
(
David Wagner
/
LAist
)
Listen
0:56
Checking out Palms with Mahdi Manji
A tale of two neighborhoods
Under the city’s current plans, Manji said, long-term tenants in Palms could see their rent-controlled dingbat apartments torn down to make way for larger, modern complexes. But developers couldn’t buy a Rancho Park homeowner’s property to create a three-story apartment building within walking distance of the Metro E Line.
Standing near a modest Rancho Park house currently on the market for $1.6 million, Manji said, “We're not saying we should be building a skyscraper here. But it might make sense to have a 10-unit building… It's about who gets to live in a neighborhood, who has the opportunity, who has a choice to live where.”
Many existing residents strongly oppose such ideas. Barbara Broide — planning and land use chair of the Westside Neighborhood Council, which represents an area that encompasses Rancho Park — said apartment buildings don’t belong near single-family homes.
“I don’t think blanket up-zoning helps Los Angeles,” Broide said. “The opportunity to have a home and a yard and have a neighborhood where you know your neighbors — which is something we work very hard for in neighborhood councils and homeowner groups — is important.”
Many homeowners argue they’ve already accepted a lot of change. Under Senate Bill 9, which took effect in 2022, single-family homeowners can split their lots and create duplexes. Last year, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 4, a law allowing churches to build affordable housing on their own land — even in single-family zones.
Next to a new apartment complex, “Palms” is written on a utility box in the Westside neighborhood bearing that name.
(
David Wagner
/
LAist
)
What happens next
No decisions will be made during Thursday’s feedback session. Planning department officials say they’ll listen to public input, incorporate the feedback and then send refined proposals to the Planning Commission in late September.
Finally, the plans will need to go before the city council for a vote. In order to comply with state law, the city must finalize its rezoning plans by February 2025.
Homeless service providers are among those eager to speak during Thursday’s meeting. Many hope the planning department will reverse course on excluding single-family zones.
“We can get people off the streets,” said Katie Hill, deputy director of South L.A.-based service provider HOPICS. “What we have not addressed is what happens to them after that. And that really just comes down to: do we have housing that people can afford? And the answer is no — nowhere near enough.”
Mariana Dale
has been tracking school recovery since the January 2025 fires.
Published January 7, 2026 5:00 AM
Marquez Charter Elementary reopened to students with temporary classrooms and new playgrounds Sept. 30, 2025.
(
Carlin Stiehl
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
By the end of January, students will have returned to two of the three public school campuses burned in the Palisades Fire one year prior. The buildings are still in progress, but Los Angeles Unified's superintendent promised they’ll be complete in 2028.
The backstory: The 2025 fire destroyed two Los Angeles Unified elementary schools— Marquez and Palisades— and damaged Palisades Charter High School, an independently run school on district property.
Marquez Elementary students returned in September to portables covering about one-third of the campus.
Palisades Elementary students continue to share a campus with Brentwood Science Magnet.
What’s next: In June, the LAUSD Board approved a $604 million plan to rebuild the three burned schools. District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring. The district plans to use money from the $9 billion bond voters approved in 2024 to help pay for the rebuild, but also anticipates reimbursement from its insurer and FEMA.
By the end of January, students will have returned to two of the three public school campuses burned in the Palisades Fire one year prior, though their classrooms are temporary.
“ I am just overwhelmed with gratitude for the constant support that has been shown for our school and for our families, our teachers, all of our administrators and staff,” said Principal Pamela Magee at a press conference Tuesday with Los Angeles Unified leaders. Pali High is an independent charter high school located on district property.
In June, the LAUSD Board approved a $604 million plan to rebuild the high school, as well as two burned district elementary schools— Marquez and Palisades.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the three campuses’ new buildings will open in 2028— shaving two years off of the original 5-year timeline.
“ These projects will come in on time or ahead of schedule,” Carvalho said. “These projects will come in at or below budget, and these projects will honor the resilience, the determination, the courage and yes, the suffering and the sacrifice of the community of the Palisades.”
About the costs and the design
The district plans to use money from the $9 billion bond voters approved in 2024 to help pay for the rebuild, but also anticipates some reimbursement from its insurer and FEMA.
District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring, said Chief Facilities Executive Krisztina Tokes. She said the plan is to rebuild with future environmental risks in mind.
“ From the earliest design stages, wildfire resiliency has been treated as a core requirement and not an add-on,” Tokes said. For example, using fire-resistant concrete blocks, installing enhanced air filtration systems and planting shade trees where they won’t hang over buildings.
Environmental testing preceded students’ return to the fire-impacted campuses. Director of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety Carlos Torres said the district continues to monitor air quality through its network of sensors and is developing a plan for periodic testing.
“We just can't just walk away,” Torres said.
Enrollment is down at all three schools compared to before the fires, but district leaders say they are confident families will return to the rebuilt campuses.
“I find it hard to believe that this community won't come back to its former glory,” said Board Member Nick Melvoin, who represents the Palisades. “We gave a lot of thought in an accelerated timeline to rebuilding for the next century.”
Marquez Charter Elementary
What’s the damage? The campus is a “total loss.” More than three dozen classrooms, administration buildings, the school’s auditorium and playground burned down.
How much has LAUSD budgeted to rebuild? $202.6 million
Where are the students? Students returned in September to portables covering about one-third of the campus. There’s also two playgrounds, a garden, library and shaded lunch area. Enrollment has dropped 60% compared to before the fire from 310 to 127 students.
What’s next? District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring.
Palisades Charter Elementary School teacher Ms. Davison talks with her students in their new classroom on the campus of Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet last year.
(
Brian van der Brug
/
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
)
Palisades Charter Elementary
What’s the damage? About 70% of the campus was destroyed including 17 classrooms, the multipurpose room and play equipment.
How much has LAUSD budgeted to rebuild? $135 million
Where are the students? Students continue to share a campus with Brentwood Science Magnet. Enrollment has dropped 25% compared to before the fire from 410 to 307 students.
What’s next? District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring.
Palisades Charter High School, pictured in December 2025, is scheduled to reopen to students Jan. 27, 2026.
(
Kayla Bartkowski
/
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
)
Palisades Charter High School
What’s the damage? About 30% of the campus was destroyed including 21 classrooms, storage facilities and the track and field.
How much has LAUSD budgeted to rebuild? $266 million
Where are the students? Students started the school year in a renovated Sears building in downtown Santa Monica. Enrollment has dropped 14% compared to before the fire, from 2,900 to 2,500 students.
What’s next? Classes will resume at the main campus Tues. Jan. 27 in a combination of surviving buildings and 30 new portable classrooms.
Astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana to lead university
Matt Dangelantonio
directs production of LAist's daily newscasts, shaping the radio stories that connect you to SoCal.
Published January 6, 2026 4:38 PM
Incoming Caltech president Ray Jayawardhana speaks during an announcement ceremony at Caltech in Pasadena on Tuesday.
(
Christina House
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
Caltech has selected astrophysicist and Johns Hopkins University provost Ray Jayawardhana as its next president.
Who he is: According to his introduction video, Jayawardhana goes by "Ray Jay."
His academic work in astronomy explores how planets and stars form, evolve and differ from each other. He's part of a team that works with the James Webb Space Telescope to observe and characterize so-called exoplanets — planets around other stars — with an eye toward the potential for life beyond Earth.
In addition to his time as provost at Johns Hopkins, where he oversees the university's 10 schools, Jayawardhana has also taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan and also had a research fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He got his undergraduate degree at Yale and earned his Ph.D. at Harvard.
Why now: In April, current Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum announced he'd retire after the 2025-26 academic year. Rosenbaum has led the university for the past 12 years.
What's next: Jayawardhana will step into his new role July 1.
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
The potential impact on California: The plans call for California, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Colorado to lose about $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children, almost $2.4 billion to care for children of working parents, and about $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk, according to unnamed federal officials speaking to the New York Times and New York Post.
Read on ... for more on the fraud allegations and Gov. Gavin Newsom's response.
The state’s Democrat governor, Tim Walz — who ran for vice president against Donald Trump’s ticket in 2024 — announced Monday he was dropping out of running for reelection. He pointed to fraud against the state, saying it’s a real issue while alleging Trump and his allies were “seeking to take advantage of the crisis.”
On Monday, the New York Post reported that the administration was expanding the funding freeze to include California and three other Democrat-led states, in addition to Minnesota. Unnamed federal officials cited “concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens,” The Post reported.
Early Tuesday, President Trump alleged that corruption in California is worse than Minnesota and announced an investigation.
“California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
He did not specify what alleged fraud was being examined in the Golden State.
LAist has reached out to the White House to ask what the president’s fraud concerns are in California and to request an interview with the president.
“For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” said an emailed statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal childcare funds.
“Under the Trump administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office disputed Trump’s claim on social media, arguing that since taking office, the governor has blocked $125 billion in fraud and arrested “criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers.”
Criminal fraud cases in CA appear to be rare for this program
When it comes to the federal childcare funds that are being frozen, the dollar amount of fraud alleged in criminal cases appears to be a tiny fraction of the overall program’s spending in California.
A search of thousands of news releases by all four federal prosecutor offices in California, going back more than a decade, found a total of one criminal case where the press releases referenced childcare benefits.
That case, brought in 2023, alleged four men stole $3.7 million in federal childcare benefits through fraudulent requests to a San Diego organization that distributed the funds. All four pleaded guilty, with one defendant sentenced to 27 months in prison and others sentenced to other terms, according to authorities.
It appears to be equivalent to one one-hundredth of 1% of all the childcare funding California has received over the past decade-plus covered by the prosecution press release search.
Potential impact on California families
The plans call for California, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Colorado to lose about $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children, almost $2.4 billion to care for children of working parents, and about $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk, according to unnamed federal officials speaking to the New York Times and New York Post.
In the largest category of funding, California receives $3.7 billion per year. The program is known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
”It's very clear that a freeze of those funds would be very damaging to the children, families, and providers of California,” said Stacy Lee, who oversees early childhood initiatives "at Children Now, an advocacy group for children in California.
”It is a significant portion of our funds and will impact families and children and providers across the whole state,” she added. “It would be devastating, in no uncertain terms.”
About 270,000 people are served by the TANF program in L.A. County — about 200,000 of whom are children, according to the county Department of Public Social Services.
“Any pause in funding for their cash benefits – which average $1000/month - would be devastating to these families,” said DPSS chief of staff Nick Ippolito.
Ippolito said the department has a robust fraud prevention and 170-person investigations team, and takes allegations “very seriously.”
It remains to be seen whether the funding freeze will end up in court. The state, as well as major cities and counties in California, has sued to ask judges to halt funding freezes or new requirements placed by the Trump administration. L.A. city officials say they’ve had success with that, including shielding more than $600 million in federal grant funding to the city last year.
A union representing California childcare workers said the funding freeze would harm low-income families.
“These threats need to be called out for what they are: direct threats on working families of all backgrounds who rely on access to quality, affordable child care in their communities to go to work every day supporting, and growing our economy,” said Max Arias, chairperson for the Child Care Providers United, which says it represents more than 70,000 child care workers across the state who care for kids in their homes.
“Funding freezes, even when intended to be temporary, will be devastating — resulting in families losing access to care and working parents facing the devastating choice of keeping their children safe or paying their bills.”
How to reach me
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is ngerda.47.
You can follow this link to reach me there or type my username in the search bar after starting a new chat.
And if you're comfortable just reaching out my email I'm at ngerda@scpr.org
Federal officials planned to send letters to the affected states Monday about the planned funding pauses, the New York Post reported. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, state officials said they haven’t gotten any official notification of the funding freeze plans.
“The California Department of Social Services administers child care programs that help working families afford safe, reliable care for their children — so parents can go to work, support their families, and contribute to their communities,” said a statement from California Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel.
“These funds are critical for working families across California. We take fraud seriously, and CDSS has received no information from the federal government indicating any freeze, pause, or suspension of federal child care funding.”
Destiny Torres
is LAist's general assignment and digital equity reporter.
Published January 6, 2026 3:30 PM
A home destroyed in the Eaton Fire on Jan. 8.
(
David Pashaee
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
California is investing $107.3 million in affordable housing in L.A. County to help fire survivors and target the region’s housing crisis.
What we know: In an announcement Tuesday, the state said the money will fund nine projects with 673 new affordable rental homes specifically for communities impacted by the January fires.
Where will these projects go? The homes will not replace destroyed ones or be built on burn scar areas, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. The idea is to build in cities like Claremont, Covina, Santa Monica and Pasadena to create multiple affordable housing communities across the county.
Officials say: “We are rebuilding stronger, fairer communities in Los Angeles without displacing the people who call these neighborhoods home,” Newsom said in a statement. “More affordable homes across the county means survivors can stay near their schools, jobs and support systems, and all Angelenos are better able to afford housing in these vibrant communities.”
