Expanding Affordable Housing Through YIGBY

Housing and Homelessness

San Gabriel Valley

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

Los Angeles City and County have the highest number of people experiencing homelessness in the country-with an estimated 65,000 unhoused individuals in 2022. The need for affordable housing extends beyond people experiencing homelessness. It also includes low-income individuals and families on the verge of losing their homes because they cannot afford rent. According to the latest Housing Needs Assessment for Los Angeles, there has been a 25% increase in market rents since 2018, and inflation is greatly reducing the income available to meet housing costs. Furthermore, 60% of renter households pay more than 30% of their income on housing-more than any major American city. To keep families in their homes and to build diverse, thriving communities, LA County needs new affordable housing. As part of the solution, Many Mansions is utilizing innovative approaches to build more housing that reduce the length of the development timeline while simplifying complex finance mechanisms.

In Los Angeles, there is a shortage of land to build housing. However, houses of worship present special opportunities to address the crisis through new strategies to develop housing on underutilized land. As part of an aggressive strategy to expand the supply of affordable housing in the County, Many Mansions seeks funding to advance YIGBY, a key growth initiative within this emerging real-estate and social services landscape. Flipping the script on NIMBY (Not in My Backyard), YIGBY (Yes In God's Back Yard) is a creative approach to affordable housing that is gaining acceptance nationwide. As an early adopter of this approach, Many Mansions will pilot YIGBY at the La Canada United Methodist Church where we have been selected to build 30-50 units of affordable housing on their excess land. Collaboration is the hallmark of our growth and will continue to drive our expansion. Many Mansions has over 10 partners on our pipeline projects, such as other nonprofit developers and school districts (including LAUSD). An LA2050 grant would help Many Mansions to pilot our YIGBY initiative and share key learning with other nonprofits on this exciting development avenue. In addition to reducing the housing shortfall, YIGBY has the potential to decrease land costs and mitigate other risks, increase organizational sustainability by diversifying funding sources, and quicken the pace of predevelopment-allowing us to house and serve more Angelinos in a shorter period of time.

We are committed to addressing the root causes of homelessness and housing insecurity by expanding the supply of affordable housing. YIGBY is a feasible solution that has immediate potential for scaling. A 2020 policy brief by the Terner Center identified nearly 5,000 acres of faith-based land in LA County that could potentially be utilized for affordable housing. Recognized as an effective option, the government is looking to pass a bill to streamline the approval process for housing development owned by religious institutions under California Senate Bill 4. Furthermore, YIGBY enables these institutions to extend their mission of serving vulnerable populations while gaining a valuable source of revenue. In addition to piloting YIGBY in La Canada, we plan to partner with more faith-based organizations to build affordable housing for vulnerable populations and the unhoused on their land, as well as increase the ability of other affordable housing nonprofits to adopt this approach.

The impact of the planned activities will be measured by 1) entering written partnership agreement(s) for affordable housing development on faith-based land, 2) acquiring site control of these properties (e.g., long-term ground leases), and 3) building additional partnerships around the YIGBY growth initiative by creating marketing collateral and sharing our learnings with the broader affordable housing field through workshops and conferences. Many Mansions' long-term growth plan is strategic, ambitious, and guided by the highest performance standards. Targeted outcomes over the next few years include: - Increasing usage of underutilized land for affordable housing - Reducing predevelopment costs due to YIGBY and other innovative approaches (from $550,000 through entitlement approvals to $300,000 on average) - Expanding the number of non-traditional funding sources secured - Decreasing the length of time in preconstruction phase (from 36 to 24 months on average)