Institutionalizing Community Control: A Community Benefits Ordinance for Los Angeles

The median monthly household income in Chinatown is $3,400;9 a two-bedroom apartment in one of these luxury developments can rent for as much as $3,700 a month.10 The presence of Chinatown Station, we feared, would raise rents throughout the neighborhood and push out working-class Asian and Latinx r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of affordable housing & community development law 2023-09, Vol.32 (2), p.193-224
Main Author: Fang, Raymond
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affordable housing
Community
Community development
Evictions
Homeless people
Homelessness
Housing development
Land use
Laws, regulations and rules
Litigation
Low income areas
Low income groups
Low income housing
Neighborhood government
Neighborhoods
Nonprofit organizations
Power
Real estate
Reforms
Rents
Social aspects
Urban planning
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Summary:The median monthly household income in Chinatown is $3,400;9 a two-bedroom apartment in one of these luxury developments can rent for as much as $3,700 a month.10 The presence of Chinatown Station, we feared, would raise rents throughout the neighborhood and push out working-class Asian and Latinx residents, possibly even into homelessness.11 After the building's approval by city council, a local land-use and real estate attorney had approached us asking if we would like to sue to try to get some affordable housing in this development. First of all, we need to know what jurisdiction we would file the lawsuit in. Broadly speaking, a CBO requires that developers of real estate projects that have a cost above a defined threshold or that receive public subsidies over a certain amount negotiate a legally binding community benefits agreement (CBA) with community members, who would have standing to enforce the agreement through litigation.13 I argue that a CBO could serve as a "non-reformist reform" in service of a democratic political economy that builds "a state and society where we have a real say over the shape of our lives and our communities, on the streets, at home, and at work. By institutionalizing community control of real estate development, a CBO would begin to tilt the balance of power towards low-income communities of color, who are too often ignored in the real estate development process.
ISSN:1084-2268
2163-0305