BizFed Institute NextUp Housing Forum

Housing and Homelessness

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

There is a clear need to provide housing for the homeless and affordable/workforce housing in the Greater Los Angeles Region. Mayor Karen Bass has committed to greatly reducing the number of homeless on the streets of Los Angeles and it will take a multi-pronged approach with collaboration in the public and private sector to make this happen. We convene forums and workgroups whose aim to bring decision makers and stakeholders to the table and identify the best path forward while eliminating obstacle and combining resources to dramatically reduce homelessness.

BizFed Institute has partnered and collaborated with State, County, Municipal elected officials and their staff, business leaders (develops/builders/engineers/architects), public agency executives, mass transit organizations, community based organizations, innovative housing manufacturers, and regional stakeholders to combine our intellectual capital, time and resources to address the lack of housing inventory for the homeless and workforce. We believe if we can shrink the funnel of people going in to homelessness and open up the back end of people coming out then we can make a measurable and sustainable difference. This is our fifth year and we have established organizations like the Milken Institute helping us. We want to help Mayor Bass move 17,000 Los Angelenos off the streets in 2023- 2024. The challenge is we're facing a countywide shortage of approximately 500,000 units of affordable housing.

We will make a difference by figuring our how to ramp up funding, city staffing, social worker capacity, and partnerships with leaders at the county, state, and federal levels. We will also provide ideas and strategies for how the private sector can lean in. We've identified several builders that are committed to make a difference and in particular 2 companies that have made a difference and will be supported by our efforts. One of those companies can build transitional housing at $50,000/unit and another is a company that has built over 1,000 units for approx. $220,000 in Los Angeles. We provided a platform to amplify their voices and make the business community, elected officials and regional stakeholders aware of their work. These kinds of activities have provided a platform for public private partnerships as evidenced by their being recruited to help LA Mayor Karen Bass roll out her initiatives to end homelessness.

This is an on-going project that is in its 5th year! We'd like to return to doing 2 forums in the next 12 months so we can keep the momentum going. The whole idea is to change the mindset in the real estate industry by forming a coalition of the willing who understand that you can make money by building housing for the homeless and affordable/workforce housing. We can showcase the developers and builders who have done this on a mass scale and are becoming the defacto "go to" organizations getting in done. They're willing to show others how they were able to build units for $50,000 (homeless) and $220,000 (affordable/workforce) without giving away proprietary secrets. We want the business community to understand the "doing good is good business". The can be a part of the narrative that if you give people a leg up, they're likely to keep climbing. There are jobs that can be given to those living in the communities and a chance for home ownership to build generational wealth.