Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to news outlets about this year’s UCLA Quality of Life Index, a countywide survey that revealed that the deep income divide among Angelenos has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The lower-income folks are the same people whose income hasn’t come back to pre-pandemic levels, and they’re the ones getting clobbered by inflation,” Yaroslavsky told ABC7 News. This has occurred while many more affluent residents of L.A. County saw their incomes rise over the last three years, the survey found. On NBC Los Angeles’ “News Conference,” Yaroslavsky explained the index’s many findings, including a point of consensus about one way to expand housing options in the region: Three-quarters of respondents supported using vacant commercial and retail buildings for residential use. Coverage of the Quality of Life Index also appeared on news outlets including KCAL News, KTLA, Telemundo and the Los Angeles Daily News.