AIA|LA ADVOCACY REPORT
June 3, 2025
Ten Years of AIA|LA Design For Dignity: Addressing Los Angeles’ Housing and Homelessness Crisis
As we reach an important milestone with the 10th annual Design For Dignity conference, it’s important to highlight the top recommendations identified over the course of the past decade. Some of them have been implemented, and yet many have not. What can we do to make these recommendations more actionable?
Los Angeles faces a deeply entrenched housing affordability and homelessness crisis, a systemic issue rooted in flawed design, governance, and resource management rather than a mere emergency. Decades of exclusionary zoning, financial speculation, and an inadequate social safety net have culminated in a dire situation where over 75,312 individuals lack adequate shelter, and thousands more face imminent displacement. While significant efforts are underway to build affordable and supportive housing, the sheer scale of the problem necessitates a radical rethinking of current approaches, prioritizing housing as a fundamental human right.
The urgency of this crisis is now further amplified by the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, such as the recent devastating wildfires. These events not only displace thousands, exacerbating existing housing insecurity, but also highlight the critical need for resilient, rapidly deployable housing solutions and a streamlined recovery process. Just as we would respond to an earthquake or hurricane, the homelessness crisis demands an immediate, cost-effective approval process for high-production housing projects to provide shelter within 90 days (for temporary or modular structures) and at least within a year for permanent structures. Other jurisdictions approve and build housing much more quickly. Why can’t we? (Perhaps the City’s bungling and borderline malicious mismanagement of the Venice Dell Community Housing project should be examined as a case study for why the City of LA approval process is so ineffective, for instance?)
Our collective response to these wildfires offers a critical opportunity to demonstrate how a coordinated, immediate, and compassionate approach can also address our ongoing housing crisis regionwide. By treating housing insecurity with the same urgency as a natural disaster, we can unlock innovative solutions and accelerate the delivery of safe, dignified housing for all Angelenos, strengthening our communities against future challenges.
A key impediment to progress is the pervasive lack of standardization and efficiency across city agencies, leading to unnecessary delays, increased costs, and project complexities. The current system often appears confrontational rather than collaborative, with individual employee processes hindering timely approvals, particularly for crucial affordable housing initiatives. There is a strong consensus on the need to streamline permitting, align processes with funding deadlines, and simplify housing covenant approvals to expedite project delivery.
To effectively address the housing crisis, we must move beyond bureaucratic hurdles and adopt a comprehensive, “all-of-the-above” strategy. This means not only building more units but also actively embracing alternative performance standards and innovative housing designs. Recognizing that flexibility is key to project success, we must also revive classic and traditional middle-income housing solutions like courtyard apartments, increase the availability of backyard homes, and implement pre-approved “kit-of-parts” housing systems to significantly expand and diversify our housing supply.
Furthermore, preventing homelessness through universal housing choice vouchers and strengthening social safety nets is crucial. Reframing the public narrative around homelessness, fostering community engagement, and designing inclusive neighborhoods are also vital for long-term solutions that promote wellness and connection. The call for action is immediate and urgent, requiring a “whole community approach” and a willingness to embrace radical experimentation to create equitable and resilient housing for all Angelenos.
To learn more about the 10th annual Design For Dignity Conference, please CLICK HERE.
25 Recommendations to Address Housing Affordability and Homelessness:
- Implement a Parallel Permitting Process: Establish and publish a clear, standardized permitting process for each agency to ensure predictable turnaround times, independent of zoning code ordinances.
- Align Permit Processing with Funding Deadlines: Agencies must be fully aware of funding deadlines and staff appropriately to avoid project delays.
- Expedite Housing Covenant Approvals: Streamline the review and approval of housing covenants and clearances by standardizing wording and reducing finicky requirements.
- Standardize Departmental Processes: Eliminate individual employee variations in processes for corrections, approvals, and communication within and across departments.
- Foster Public Service Mindset in Agency Representatives: Train agency staff to understand the intent of the code and actively assist petitioners in finding reasonable and acceptable alternative solutions, promoting a public service approach rather than impedance.
- Establish a “Housing Innovation Ordinance”: Create a pilot program that advances swift, innovative, and cost-effective solutions to affordable housing, exempting these projects from burdensome regulatory conditions.
- Expand Housing Typologies and Kit-of-Parts: Promote diverse housing types, including mixed-use backyard homes, and establish pre-approved “kit-of-parts” for expedited plan checks of ADUs and smaller homes.
- Declare Housing as a Human Right and Legislate By-Right Development: Advocate for legislation recognizing housing as a human right and allowing projects with at least 50% affordable units to be built by-right, potentially with over-the-counter approval.
- Modernize and Expand Section 8 Program: Make housing choice vouchers universally available to low-income households and update the Section 8 program to be more appealing to housing providers.
- Incentivize Acquisition and Rehabilitation of Existing Housing: Offer property tax abatements to private capital for purchasing and rehabilitating existing housing, preserving neighborhoods, and extending affordability covenants (> 50 years).
- Implement a Fully Coordinated Online Submittal and Approval Process: Create a one-stop digital platform for all city agency approvals to streamline processes for applicants and departments.
- Eliminate Site Plan Review for 100% Affordable Projects: Remove site plan review for entirely affordable housing projects and raise the threshold for all housing in general to 200 units.
- Audit and Consolidate Departmental Clearances: Review existing departmental clearance processes, reconfigure authority, and consolidate or eliminate clearances that are not essential to fire, life, and safety.
- Develop a Compelling Catalogue of Best Practices: Create a well-designed, compelling, and accessible “catalogue” of best practices, precedents, and successful projects to show stakeholders.
- Launch a Media Campaign on Community Wellness: Initiate a public awareness campaign on the wellness benefits of healthy and complete communities, and the dynamic relationship between housing, health, community interaction, and a sense of belonging.
- Decriminalize Homelessness and Drug Addiction: Advocate for policies that decriminalize homelessness and drug addiction at the federal level, and replace investments in the penal system with investments in prevention, well-being, physical and mental health.
- Dignify Current Street Conditions: Immediately act to dignify the current condition of our streets with bathrooms, showers, shade structures, and hygienic amenities for those currently living on our sidewalks and in neighborhood encampments.
- Reform Transitional Height Restrictions: Modify transitional height restrictions that effectively downzone commercial boulevards, allowing for greater density in appropriate areas.
- Advocate for Property Tax Exemption Without Government Financing: Petition the State Board of Equalization to remove the requirement that developers obtain government financing to qualify for property tax exemptions.
- Expand Definition of Dwelling Unit: Broaden the definition of a dwelling unit to be simply a room with a sink, a toilet, and a refrigerator, allowing for models with shared kitchens and shared showers to provide more affordable options.
- Promote Density Bonus Incentives: Encourage the development of workforce housing (80% to 120% AMI) through density-bonus incentives.
- Inventory Regulatory Impediments: Create and maintain an inventory of all building code and zoning code-related impediments that are slowing down the market’s ability to deliver housing more expeditiously and more affordably.
- Streamline and Consolidate Design Guidelines: Analyze, adjust, and synchronize all of the various design guidelines and architectural specifications mandated by the multiple sources of funding for affordable housing.
- Promote Conversion of Commercial/Office Space to Housing: Amplify efforts to convert commercial and office space to housing, expanding opportunities to build and finance ADUs, and broadening the adaptation of modular and pre-fabricated components.
- Prioritize Homeless Prevention: Elevate the urgency of homeless prevention by establishing stronger policies and protocols to keep everyone housed. This includes addressing root causes like public and mental health challenges, financial speculation, economic malfeasance, and systemic racism.
AIA California Finalizes 2025 Legislative Bill Positions
The AIA California Board of Directors routinely reviews and takes positions on legislation that impacts the architecture profession—whether that impact is positive or negative. At its April 24, 2025 meeting, the Board finalized positions on 61 bills. A full list of bill positions is available here.
This year’s Legislative Session saw 2,397 bills introduced. Among these were numerous proposals addressing issues closely aligned with AIA California’s policy priorities, particularly in the areas of housing and climate action. Key topics included CEQA reform, permit streamlining, building code updates, density bonus laws, adaptive reuse, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), pro-housing designations, passive housing strategies, tax credits, zoning changes, and homeowners insurance reform.
AIA California staff conducted a thorough review of all introduced bills, identifying approximately 100 with direct relevance to the profession. These were assigned to three subcommittees—Climate Action, Housing Steering, and Advocacy Advisory, comprising about 40 AIA CA members collectively.
Each subcommittee evaluated the legislation and made recommendations to the Board. The Executive Committee then reviewed those recommendations before the Board voted to adopt formal positions.
As bills often undergo significant amendments during the legislative process, AIA California actively monitors updates and brings any substantially altered legislation back to the committees and Board for reassessment as needed.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a closer look at some of the most impactful bills this year and what they mean for the profession.
To view the complete list of AIA California’s 2025 bill positions, CLICK HERE.
The AIA LA & LACP Professional Volunteer Program (PVP)
Architects & designers passionate about improving the design quality of newly proposed projects throughout the City of Los Angeles are encouraged to participate in the Professional Volunteer Program (PVP), which is a collaborative design review program organized by AIA LA & Los Angeles City Planning (LACP)’s Urban Design Studio.
This year, we will be coordinating thirty-one virtual design review sessions, which will serve as opportunities for architects and designers to help the Los Angeles City Planning’s Urban Design Studio critically review upcoming projects throughout our City.
June 3 (10am)
June 10 (10am)
June 17 (10am)
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Will Wright, Hon. AIA|LA
Director, Government & Public Affairs
t: 213.639.0764
e: will@aialosangeles.org
www.aialosangeles.org
