Will LA start building public housing again?

Government-owned housing that would serve a mix of incomes could help LA crawl out of its deepening affordability crisis, says Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin, who announced a broad package of housing legislation at City Hall today.

The Westside councilmember introduced what he’s billing as a local version of the “Homes Guarantee,” a national platform advanced by progressive housing advocates and Democratic Socialists to make housing a right.

“We need to be, in Los Angeles, treating housing as a human right, not as something to be traded,” Bonin said this morning, speaking with a coalition of about two dozen activists outside City Hall.

Bonin’s package includes a measure that calls on city staffers to research European models for social housing and how they might be brought to Los Angeles. It suggests several potential funding streams, including new taxes on house-flipping and out-of-state real estate transactions.