About the Dashboard
The NDSC team collaborated with a subcommittee of the Leadership Table for Regional Homeless Alignment focused on Goal 5 of Measure A (increasing affordable housing in LA County) to establish a baseline for tracking LA County’s progress in producing and preserving affordable housing and to develop strategies to build housing in a quicker and more cost effective way to meet Los Angeles County’s regional affordable housing goals. The NDSC team provided data to help the subcommittee assess how Measure A funds could support affordable housing through production, preservation, and subsidies/vouchers.
This dashboard summarizes the data policymakers used to set baseline metrics for Measure A’s affordable housing investments. Click below to explore each section.
Key Takeaways
114,160
New Rental Units in LA County
Between 2018 and 2023, 114,160 new rental units were issued Certificates of Occupancy across Los Angeles County. Of those, just 3,955 (3%) were considered affordable to the lowest income households in the county making less than half of area median income.
30%
Severe Rent Burdened Households in LA County
In Los Angeles County, single-parent renter households, renters over the age of 65, and Black renter households experience severe rent burden more often than other groups.
578,800
Shortfall of Affordable Units in LA County
Los Angeles County has a shortfall of approximately 578,800 rental housing units that are affordable and available to households making less than 50% of area median income or experiencing homelessness.
Current Production of New Rental Units
Between 2018 and 2023, 114,160 new rental units were produced across Los Angeles County. Of those, just 3,955 (3%) were considered affordable to the lowest income households in the county making less than half of area median income.
Between 2018 and 2023, the City of Los Angeles produced just over 94,800 new rental units. While the City of LA is home to approximately 39% of LA County’s population, it contained 83% of the new rental housing stock in the county across these years.
Between 2018 and 2023, 35 cities in Los Angeles County built less than 20 rental housing units each.
The data dashboard below shows new rental housing production for Los Angeles County from 2018 to 2023. This information is presented in total (on the left) and by year (on the right). Flip between the pink tabs on the top of the dashboard to view rental housing production across cities, grouped by population size, in LA County.
Severely Rent Burdened Households
As of 2023, over 500,000 LA County households across income groups were considered severely rent burdened, meaning they pay more than than half (50%) of income on rent and utilities.
Unsurprisingly, the lowest-income households in our region tend to have the highest rates of severe rent burden – nearly 80% of Extremely Low Income households are severely rent-burdened, compared to just 6% of Moderate Income households. Explore severe rent burden rates across income groups in the visualization below. Click the Methodology button below to learn more about how household income groups are defined.
In Los Angeles County, single-parent renter households, renters over the age of 65, and Black renter households experience severe rent burden more often than other groups. To explore severe rent burden rates across demographic groups, flip to the tab titles “Demographics” on the top of the dashboard below.
Shortfall of Affordable Housing Units
As of 2023, there are over 869,400 households in LA County that are making less than 50% of area median income and/or experiencing homelessness (Click the Methodology button below to learn more about how household income groups are defined). However, there are currently only 290,600 rental housing units that are affordable and available to these households (Click the Methodology button below to learn more about how affordable and available units are defined). That means that LA County has shortfall of approximately 578,800 rental housing units that are affordable and available to households making less than 50% of area median income or experiencing homelessness.
The dashboard below shows, from left to right: the number of households at different income levels in LA County, the number of housing units that are affordable and available at each income level, and the difference between the number of households and affordable and available units (or the “shortfall”) in red.
In the “Income Level of Household” menu on the right of the graph, users can toggle between different income groups to see how the shortfall impacts households in those income groups.
- For example, when selecting only “Extremely Low Income (0-30% AMI)” and “Unhoused (Sheltered & Unsheltered)” from the menu, users can see: the shortfall is the most extreme for the 568,000 Extremely Low Income and Unhoused households who only have 112,200 housing units affordable and available to them, leaving a shortfall of over 455,700 units.
- By comparison, when selecting only “Low Income (50 – 80% AMI)” from the menu, users can see: there’s a surplus of just over 200,000 affordable and available rental units for the 400,000 Low Income households making between 50 – 80% of Area Median Income.
Other features of this dashboard:
- Toggle different inputs to see how the shortfall changes, including changing how affordability is defined (i.e. the share of income spent on housing) or factoring in overcrowding.
- In the tabs on the top of the dashboard, users can view the shortfall for cities across Los Angeles County, sorted by population size (shortfalls shown for all households making less than 80% of Area Median Income).
About Measure A
Funding Source
Measure A, passed by LA County voters in the November 2024 election, is a 1/2 cent sales tax to continue and grow the funding of services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County.
Key Objectives
- Increase the number of people moving from encampments into permanent housing to reduce unsheltered homelessness
- Reduce the number of people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders who experience homelessness
- Increase the number of people permanently leaving homelessness
- Prevent people from falling into homelessness
- Increase the number of affordable housing units in LA County
Implementation
Generating over $1 billion annually, Measure A funding will be shared by LA County Cities and Councils of Government (COGs), the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA), and the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA). LACAHSA is a body made up of leaders including the LA County Supervisors, elected officials representing cities countywide, as well as nonprofit and community leaders.
This project was made possible through support from the California Community Foundation.
