Ending LA’s Housing Shortage

Affordable housing and homelessness

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

LA County faces a devastating housing shortage, worsened by recent wildfires that destroyed tens of thousands of homes. Even before the fires, LA City lacked 400,000 homes, including 270,000 affordable units, and 75,000 Angelenos were homeless. Low-income residents and people of color are hit hardest—nearly half of Black Angelenos are severely rent-burdened, and 22% of housing-insecure evacuees lost their homes vs. 15% of housing-stable peers. YIMBY LA members have also been displaced.
This crisis stems from systemic failures: exclusionary zoning, racist permitting policies, and decision-making processes that silence marginalized voices. The shortage is worst in high-opportunity areas, locking out low-income residents from jobs, schools, and stability. YIMBY LA works to dismantle these barriers and build abundant, inclusive housing so all Angelenos can thrive.

YIMBY LA is tackling Los Angeles’s urgent housing shortage—made even more critical by recent wildfires—through a unique model that combines civic engagement with legal enforcement. We are the only organization in the region that empowers everyday Angelenos to advocate for abundant housing in local planning processes while also using legal tools to back their voices with the power of state law.
We will scale our proven, community-led model by growing our base from 2,300 to at least 3,000 members. Our “Leads”—community members trained to recruit and mobilize their peers—will drive this growth.
We’ll train and empower advocates to show up at local land use meetings and push for systemic reforms. The biggest policy opportunity right now is streamlining: policy proposals like fee waivers and allowing private inspectors (LA only has 50 building inspectors for the whole city!) could speed up urgently needed housing construction.
We’ll equip members with legal knowledge—especially around CA’s Housing Element law, which requires cities to rezone to meet housing targets. For example, LA must zone for 400,000 new homes. When special interests pressure cities to ignore this, it’s vital that residents make the legal requirements clear.

By October 2026, if YIMBY LA is successful, Los Angeles and key job hubs like Santa Monica and Pasadena will have adopted rezoning plans that meet state housing laws and place affordable homes in high-opportunity neighborhoods—near transit, schools, and clean environments—not just in historically marginalized areas. Permitting will be streamlined, cutting approvals from years to months. Specific housing projects will be approved; allowing thousands of families will move into new, stable homes.
In the long term, LA County will see lower rents, more housing choices near jobs and loved ones, and a reversal of segregationist land use patterns. Stable housing will mean shorter commutes, cleaner air, better health, and reduced homelessness. Our work will help create a more fair, equitable, and thriving Los Angeles for all.