Sally Juarez first learned of LA Mayor Karen Bass’ signature affordable housing policy –– Executive Directive 1 (ED1) –– when she read that her own landlord was using it to demolish her rental home in Eagle Rock. In its place will be an eight-story affordable housing complex.
Juarez, 71, a retired educator, pays $568 a month for her two-bedroom craftsman bungalow, thanks to rent control.
She’s been there for 48 years.
“This is my home,” says Juarez. “My children were born here. My grandchildren were born here. I have two great-grandchildren that were born here. This is the heart of my family right here. And she's trying to take that by letting somebody knock us down and build affordable housing.”
In her first week in office, Bass signed Executive Directive 1 as an emergency measure to combat LA’s affordable housing shortage. It fast-tracks approvals for affordable housing construction, while eliminating public hearings and environmental reviews.
Over the past 18 months, the bold program has attracted a deluge of developer applications to build more than 18,000 deed-restricted affordable rental units across much of LA.
While providing much-needed low-income housing, the policy has also drawn backlash from LA homeowner and tenant groups who say some of the proposed affordable housing projects are bad for their neighborhoods.
Many developments have been deemed “out of scale” by neighborhood groups and LA City planners. Projects currently in the ED1 pipeline would demolish at least several hundred rent-stabilized units, displacing low-income renters like Juarez.
Last week, with concerns mounting, Mayor Bass rolled out new, stricter limits on how and where developers can build using ED1. Those changes include new design requirements, and exemptions from fast-tracking in LA’s local historic districts, as well as on properties with 12 or more rent-stabilized units.
Still, the controversy continues.
Eagle Rock resident Sally Juarez, 71, sits on the porch of her rental home, which is targeted for demolition by an affordable housing project approved under LA Mayor Bass’ Executive Directive 1. Photo credit: Aaron Schrank/KCRW
Juarez has a banner hanging in her front yard that says, “Save Our Homes From ED1.” It’s to let the neighbors know about the 155-unit development planned here.
“Not everybody's aware of what ED1 is,” says Juarez. “When they walk by, they'll ask. ‘Affordable housing’ sounds good, but when you investigate what affordable housing is, then you learn, ‘oh, that's not so good. I would not be able to live there.’”
The vast majority of the 240 projects in the ED1 pipeline must be “affordable” to someone earning just over $70,000 a year –– or 80% of the Los Angeles Area Median Income.
That means tenants in the new building in Eagle Rock could be charged nearly $1,800 for a studio apartment.
Displaced renters like Juarez are supposed to be offered spots in the new development once it’s built.
“We're not going to be waiting around in an area that's overpriced already,” says Juarez. “I would not be able to afford to live here.”
The home Juarez rents is one of 17 rent-stabilized units on the property, so you might expect Bass’ new rules exempting properties with that many homes from development would spare her bungalow.
That’s not the case. The new rules only apply to new applications, according to the Los Angeles Planning Department. The eight-story tower is moving ahead.
Sally Juarez hung signs outside of her Eagle Rock rental home to draw attention to collateral damage from the mayor’s signature affordable housing policy. Photo credit: Aaron Schrank/KCRW
City officials could not confirm the exact number of rent-stabilized units targeted for demolition under ED1 building plans. Last year, the mayor claimed 46 new affordable housing units had been proposed for every rent-controlled unit to be demolished. Clara Karger, a spokesperson for Mayor Bass, estimates that there are about 10 projects currently planned on properties that have 12 or more RSO units.
Some advocates for renters say Bass’ new tenant protections don’t go far enough, and should be applied retroactively to protect tenants like Juarez and many others.
“The vast majority of [rent-controlled] homes in LA are in buildings with 11 or fewer units, and they are just as valuable as those with more units,” says SAJE policy director Maria Patiño Gutierrez. “Redevelopment of those sites should not be expedited. A review process is necessary to ensure that the benefits … outweigh the trauma of relocating existing families.”
The new exclusions for properties with 12 or more rent-stabilized units still leave more than half the city’s rent-stabilized units vulnerable to future ED1 development, according to data provided by the Los Angeles Housing Department.
“ED1 is the newest way for real estate investors to profit off the eviction of long-time residents and bypass environmental protections,” organizers with the LA Tenants Union wrote in a statement provided to KCRW. “Even with the new amendments, more than 300,000 [rent-controlled] units are at risk of demolition, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of naturally affordable units in the city with California state tenant protections.”
Renters facing displacement development in LA Council District 13 are circulating an informal petition calling on Mayor Bass to protect buildings with two or more rent-stabilized units.
Karen Bass speaks in a media conference in LA, November 17, 2022. Photo credit: Shutterstock.
Last summer, under pressure from homeowner groups, Mayor Bass modified ED1 to declare single-family home zones ineligible for fast-tracked low-income housing. That change exempted more than 70% of LA from the affordable housing fast track. Bass’ newest revisions also exempt local historic districts.
Jeff Kalban, founder of the Sherman Oaks-based United Neighbors group, praises Mayor Bass’ latest changes, many of which his group had called for.
“We want LA to stop being so centered on building affordable at any cost that you make it a family-unfriendly community,” says Kalban. “What we don't want is things out of scale. Some of these developments are fairly good, but some of them are just atrocious, where people are asking much too much and more guidelines are needed.”
Tenants and pro-housing groups face off outside LA City Hall before a June council meeting. Photo credit: Aaron Schrank/KCRW
Meanwhile, pro-development groups like Abundant Housing LA oppose most of the new restrictions on ED1, fearing they will weaken the program.
The group organized a pro-housing event outside of City Hall last month, calling on Mayor Bass and the LA City Council to expand and strengthen the ED1 policy. A few dozen advocates gathered, holding handmade signs with phrases like “Codify ED1” and “Build It Bigger.”
But the pro-development pep rally was disrupted by Eagle Rock tenant Sally Juarez –– chanting “ED1 will make me homeless!” –– along with organizers with the LA Tenants Union and other renters facing displacement from ED1.
They brought new signs displaying messages of their own, like “Affordable Housing Is A Scam.”
Abundant Housing LA’s policy director Scott Epstein wants to see more affordable housing across the city, though he agrees it should not be coming at the expense of existing renters. He says the geographic carve outs Mayor Bass gave to wealthier areas like single family zones and historic districts are part of the problem.
“That's baking in the segregationist exclusionary patterns that we've seen in the city for decades,” says Epstein. “And then we are surprised when folks are displaced? We need to take the displacement pressure away from existing multifamily stock and towards the places where we don't have those trade offs.”
A pro-ED1 rally organized by Abundant Housing LA was disrupted by tenants facing displacement and LATU organizers. Photo credit: Aaron Schrank/KCRW
The mayor’s updates don’t just limit where future ED1 complexes can be built, also how. They codify a strict limit on the number of incentives and waivers developers can use to evade local zoning standards in their pursuit of height and density.
“The added complexity makes it hard to move these projects quickly,” says Epstein. “When you review all of these extra design standards, these things add up to a lot more planner time. The city is already not always meeting its stated goal of getting these approvals in 60 days.”
Land use attorney Dave Rand has been guiding dozens of projects through the ED1 process –– including the largest approved so far, a 35-story, 523-unit apartment tower in Hollywood.
He says Bass’ executive directive has been transformative.
“It has been so powerful in its streamlined approval process and its flexibility,” says Rand. “Those two things have been so powerful that they have moved the market. They have moved for-profit developers to providing 100% affordable housing with no public subsidy or investment.”
The latest changes won’t bring ED1 to a screeching halt, Rand says, but he does worry about any further restrictions gutting the program.
For example, the policy has not required construction workers to be paid prevailing wages.
“Remember, we have 18,000 units in the pipeline,” says Rand. “Far fewer have secured financing and have gotten under construction –– in fact, barely any. If you add prevailing wage mandates to the program, they will not get built. That is a surefire way to end ED1 as we know it.”
In her recent memo, Mayor Bass wrote that she would support “labor standards” for ED1, but stopped short of mandating them.
The mayor’s executive directive is by definition temporary, but the LA City Council is currently working to codify the policy into permanent law –– and making even more changes.
Sometime after they return from recess at the end of this month, councilmembers will consider a proposal requiring ED1 projects larger than 40 units to pay prevailing wages and health care benefits.