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Monkkonen on UCLA as a Model for Affordable Housing

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Paavo Monkkonen spoke to Curbed about UCLA’s new guaranteed student housing plan. UCLA is the first University of California school to offer four years of housing for first-year students and two years of housing for transfer students. Meanwhile, the city of L.A. continues to struggle to produce affordable housing. According to Monkkonen, the biggest lesson to be learned from UCLA is the power of consolidating everything from planning to financing in one department and essentially becoming a public-housing developer. “UCLA develops its own land-use plan and then executes capital programs like the construction of dorms,” Monkkonen said. “Proactively planning for housing to be built rather than setting up rules and waiting to see if developers build or not is the kind of paradigm shift we need.” He also recommended expanding affordable housing closer to schools in order to benefit students, families, teachers and staff.

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Yaroslavsky Cautions Against Splintering Electorate

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Director of the Los Angeles Initiative Zev Yaroslavsky was featured in the Orange County Register discussing the lengthy requirements for political parties to qualify for the California ballot. Only 19 parties have been on the ballot in the 112 years since California started the nomination process, and California state laws make it difficult for new parties to break through. “I don’t think it should be impossible, but it also should not be so easy that you could have 30 parties on a ballot,” Yaroslavsky said. “I don’t think most voters like to throw away their vote to very minor parties.” Yaroslavsky expressed concern that lowering the bar for new parties to get on the ballot can further complicate and splinter the electorate. If a party can’t even drum up enough support to get on the ballot, he asked, what kind of impact could it actually make?

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Yaroslavsky on Newsom’s Message to California

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Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to CBS2 News ahead of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2022 State of the State address. Californians are concerned about pressing issues including homelessness, public safety and criminal justice reform, Yaroslavsky said. “The average person does not see the progress that’s been made, and I think that’s what the governor has to address,” he said. On the state’s response to COVID-19, “There’s a lot that went right with it just as there was a lot that went wrong with it. He ought to thank the people of California for what they’ve done to put this, so far, in the rear-view mirror.” Newsom survived a recall attempt last year and is running for re-election. Yarsoslavsky commented, “Now people are asking the question, ‘What are you going to do going forward? What’s your plan? You’re asking us to re-up you for another four-year contract. What are you promising and what can you deliver?’ ”

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Roy on Court-Ordered Psychiatric Care for the Unhoused

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Professor of Urban Planning and Social Welfare Ananya Roy spoke to the Guardian about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed Care Court program, which would force some unhoused people with severe mental illness and addiction disorders into psychiatric treatment. The plan aims to address the growing issue of homelessness in Los Angeles by requiring people with serious mental health issues to accept treatment and also mandating that counties provide services. However, the proposal has received backlash from disability rights and civil liberties advocates. Roy, who serves as director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, said the court proposal is part of a trend in California of criminalizing the unhoused. “There is seemingly a lot of compassion for the unhoused, but that is coupled with a deliberate and enforced state of stripping the unhoused of rights in the name of saving them and doing good,” Roy said.

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Millard-Ball on Moving Past Easy, Cheap, Quick Climate Fixes

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning Adam Millard-Ball was featured in a CapRadio article about Sacramento County’s in-progress climate action plan, one of many plans adopted by California cities to combat climate change at a local level. Several of the plans have been criticized for sticking to safe solutions and failing to address equity. ​​“Cities aren’t really getting outside of their comfort zone,” Millard-Ball said. “They don’t force the city to do something it wasn’t already going to do.” Radical change will be required for these plans to be effective in the future, he said. “In order to make change, there’s not going to be 100% agreement on these difficult decisions if cities are serious about reducing emissions,” he said. “We’ve already done most of the kind of easy, cheap, quick fixes that everyone can agree on.” The article cited research co-authored by Millard-Ball on equity in urban climate planning.

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Luskin Summit Draws Inspiration from Europe to Combat Homelessness

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A panel of experts from around the world joined the Feb. 23 Luskin Summit webinar “International Models of Social Housing: Lessons for California” to brainstorm strategies to address housing affordability and homelessness. California Assembly member Alex Lee welcomed attendees and kicked off the event by noting that nearly half of California residents qualify as rent-burdened as a result of the affordable housing crisis. Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Paavo Monkkonen led the conversation about the successes of social housing and urban planning in Europe that could be adopted in California. Researcher Kath Scanlon from the London School of Economics noted that the goal of social housing is to solve housing affordability, but a successful social housing program will start by alleviating some of the pressure in the housing market. “For a variety of reasons, not everyone is going to be able to house themselves in the way we think they should be housed,” Scanlon said. “If California wants to step up, it will not be straightforward, but you have to start somewhere.” Helsinki’s housing program manager, Hanna Dhalmann, discussed Finland’s largest and most successful municipal housing company. “The first step is to give people real homes,” Dhalmann said. She recommended starting by investing in building affordable housing and turning housing shelters into apartments. Finally, former Deputy Mayor Jean-Louis Missika described how Paris was able to significantly expand housing production. Vivian Rescalvo, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Luskin School of Public Affairs, offered a closing statement for the event.

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Stiffer Housing Requirement Will Benefit Angelenos, Monkkonen Says

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Paavo Monkkonen spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the state’s ruling that Los Angeles must add more than 250,000 homes to its zoning plan. State housing regulators rejected the city’s proposed long-term plan for growth and will require the city to rezone to accommodate the additional quarter-million new homes. City leaders must fix the housing plan by October in order to access billions of dollars in affordable housing grants, which will be necessary to support the growing number of low-income and homeless residents. Monkkonen agreed that the state’s ruling was justifiable given the city’s rejection of more assertive state-led rezoning proposals in favor of greater local control over where growth should go. “Allowing more housing more quickly will benefit Angelenos,” he said. “City officials shouldn’t drag their feet on taking the necessary actions to allow more housing, and should act at the pace that a crisis demands.”

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Monkkonen Calls for Collaboration on Student Housing

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Paavo Monkkonen was featured in a CalMatters article about the California State University system’s application to build affordable housing for nearly 3,400 students. The revised plan calls for $823 million in total funding for housing projects across 10 campuses, with $535 million coming from a new state housing grant and the rest from outside funds. The proposal comes as tens of thousands of college students struggle with unstable housing situations and even homelessness. Some campuses are currently building new living facilities to accommodate long waiting lists of students seeking campus housing, but student housing is often expensive. Looking ahead, Monkkonen said the state should better coordinate the student housing construction efforts of California’s public colleges and universities to share financing and other ideas. “This is a very obvious place for knowledge sharing,” he said. “We’re all on the same team.”

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On the Evolution of Voter Access in California

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Alisa Belinkoff Katz, senior fellow at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy and associate director of the Los Angeles Initiative, and Sonja Diaz, founding director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, spoke to ABC7 News about the complicated history of voter suppression in California. Despite major strides in voting access, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a report co-authored by Belinkoff Katz found that California voters do not reflect the diversity of its people. She described the origins of the “exclusion of low-income people from the vote,” starting with Chinese immigrants and some Native Americans during the 18th and 19th centuries. Diaz added that some people are still being left out today because of the color of their skin, their class or their ZIP code, as well as redistricting decisions that dilute their voting power. 

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Diaz on Latina’s Nomination to State’s High Court

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Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to media outlets including the Sacramento Bee and Associated Press about the first Latina nominated to serve on the California Supreme Court. Gov. Gavin Newsom said his selection for the open seat, Appeals Court Justice Patricia Guerrero, is a “keen legal mind and well-regarded jurist.” The daughter of Mexican immigrants who grew up in the agricultural Imperial Valley has worked as a federal prosecutor, law firm partner and Superior Court judge, and now sits on the 4th District Court of Appeal. Latinas sit on high courts in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New York and Texas, Diaz said, but despite the growing influence of the Latino electorate in California, no Latina has yet served in a statewide constitutional office or as U.S. senator. “Despite the important contributions that Latinas make to power California’s economy, they continue to be underrepresented in positions of power,” she said.

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