LOS ANGELES by Sophie Spencer
Spencer Signature Assignment - Design Solution to Create Accessibility to Housing Session C - Race, Class, and Housing Justice (MASCJ52000) Craig Willse 1 June 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1- Abstraction 2- Knowledge is Not Equally Spread 3- Zillow 4- Multiple Ways to Access Information 5- Bungalow Courts & Housing Courts 6- Linking Housing through Public Space 7- Historical & Theoretical Analysis 8- Housing LA County 9- Chirpla Los Angeles 10- HACLA 11- Bibliography
p. 3 p. 4 p. 5 p. 6 p. 8 p. 10 p. 12 p. 14 p. 15 p. 16 p. 17
ABSTRACTION This zine draws upon the design solution to create accessibility to housing for Los Angeles. We review issues, historical and theoretical analysis, and social movement resources. Other than building more public housing/ low-income housing, it is that knowledge is not equally spread. Housing needs housing literacy to navigate the space, and the city needs to create a system to help straightforwardly find information. We discuss multiple ways to access information in non-tech applications. For example, visually through symbols, recognizable colors, and signs. A great example is our public transportation systems that already do this. We discuss public housing/ low-income housing and what that looked like historically in Los Angeles. We discuss other ways to create visual cues. For example, linking housing through the greenery, and public space, creating bike lanes, footways, tree-lined greenways, and pedestrian bridges. We conclude from the observation that our infrastructure and information are currently spread out. Because there is no one system to follow, for example, now property owners and landlords have to put up that system themselves for housing. There is a lack of "communication" (not in the traditional sense - not word by mouth) to find housing; people can search for housing in one system, and one housing system might be entirely different from the next.
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KNOWLEDGE IS NOT EQUALLY SPREAD Issue
In terms of local residents facing issues with public housing, it is that knowledge is not equally spread. One of my most significant issues in housing, other than the lack of affordable housing, is that there is no way to find them easily. One of the problems lies in that housing requires prior knowledge, and without previous knowledge, you do not know what is there. Housing needs housing-literacy to navigate the space. For example, even the words to look for what you need will help a lot but if you do not know, how do you know where to start? Housing is connected to word of mouth. It would be best if you were connected to a Public Housing network or be connected to a community. Community, in general, is good, but for the outside, people who are not in specific groups and do not have prior connections have a hard time finding out about information. Finding information in itself is one of the issues. I am proposing that there needs to be, for example, Zillow does a great job, even though they are using inner knowledge to bump housing prices and buy property.
Zillow recently said they would stop making “new offers in its home-flipping operation for the remainder of the year, though it continues to close on properties that were already under contract” (Clark et al., 2021, p.1). Zillow investors have been buying “single-family rental homes during the pandemic, chasing the inventory-starved housing market for properties they can buy and rent” (Clark et al., 2021, p.1). Zillow tweaked their algorithms that “power the business to make higher offers, leaving it with a (group) of winning bids” (Clark et al., 2021, p.1). In 2021, zillow bought more “than 3,800 houses in the second quarter, making progress toward its stated goal of acquiring 5,000 homes a month by 2024. Then the company acquired roughly 8,000 homes in the third quarter” (Clark et al., 2021, p.1). All this property consumption led to a complication and the “company struggling to find workers to renovate the properties” (Clark et al., 2021, p.1).
ZILLOW
Besides the horrible idea that a private company is commodifying housing, a human need, a human right … What I mean by “Zillow is a great example” is their website. Their website is understandable to most people who use it. There is a straightforward way to gauge your price ranges, a precise map, and everything is color-coordinated; it is helpful for all you users. I propose that the local government and/or the US government should create their own “Zillow” web technology and app technology.
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MULTIPLE WAYS TO ACCESS INFORMATION Issue
non-tech applications: symbols, recognizable colors, & signs A great example of our public systems that already do this is our public transportation system. You can access their information in multiple ways. They have local government apps and websites. Most importantly, in non-tech applications, you can visually understand the symbols, recognizable colors, and signs and know what that system serves. The colors across stations and stops almost form an invisible line that you can easily connect visually in your head to create a map.
SYMBOLS, RECOGNIZABLE COLORS, & SIGNS Currently, it is pretty much up to property owners and landlords to put up that system themselves for housing. So all the housing is scattered and is not in one concise place. People can search for one system, and one housing system might be entirely different from the next. If we want to build public housing, there needs to be one easy thing that connects them all. It could either be through similar architectural cues & colors and/or public space and landscaping. This transitions into my other suggestion that LA City looks completely different from the valley housing. In LA City, apartments are more visually visible even if they are not all quote-unquote connected. The valley apartments have no cues that tie them all together. If we add visual cues to connect them all, people can easily make a visual map in their heads and compartmentalize all this information even without prior knowledge. Best example is a “UX designer” for cities.
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BUNGALOW COURTS & HOUSING COURTS Issue In California history, due to settler colonialism, old Spanish styles are popular in California. They famously have courtyards that homes and buildings today and from the past took inspiration from. In the first three decades of the twentieth century, “the population of Hollywood grew from 700 to over 150,000” (Raftery, 2016, p.1). Because of rapid urbanization, the need for affordable housing was met in part by the hundreds of bungalow courts.
ST. ANDREWS BUNGALOW CT. APARTMENTS 1544 N ST ANDREWS PL, LOS ANGELES
For example, St. Andrews Bungalow Court is an “excellent example of a bungalow court, a type of multifamily housing which proliferated in Hollywood between 1910 and 1930” (National Register, 1998, p.1). These grouping units of historical styles were “clustered around landscaped common space” (Raftery, 2016, p.1).
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WESTMINSTER DR. PASADENA - HABITAT FOR HUMANITY 655 WESTMINSTER DR. PASADENA, CA 92205
All the front doors and/or patios face each other, creating a shared space and green space, buffering from each other, and a walkway in the middle connecting all the houses to the street. These spaces had privacy, outdoor space as well as affordability, and community. However, since the “1950s, over 30% of bungalow courts have been demolished and replaced with parking lots, higher density residential and commercial uses (Raftery, 2016, p.1). There is another Bungalow Court that is affordable housing for low-income individuals and families. It is Westminster st. Pasadena - Habitat for Humanity, the “government assisted low income Housing under section 236 of the national Housing act” (Westminster, 2017, p.1).
ST. ANDREWS BUNGALOW CT. APARTMENTS 1544 N ST ANDREWS PL, LOS ANGELES
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LINKING HOUSING THROUGH PUBLIC SPACE Issue MINNEAPOLIS “SKYWAYS SYSTEM"
Another way I suggest is to connect all housing through greenery and public space. For example, creating bike lanes, footways, and tree-lined greenways to connect the spaces. Other examples of systems connecting the buildings are through bridges. Pedestrian bridges, for example, have been seen in Minneapolis called the “skyways system,” binding all buildings together. Or seen underground in Chicago called the “pedway system.”
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OSAKA, JAPAN “FOOTBRIDGES”
Also commonly used in Osaka, Japan, are “footbridges” connecting train stops, malls, offices, and apartment buildings through pedestrian bridges. When you are on these bridges, it does not feel like a traditional bridge; it feels like a continuation of the building you were in. We see this in Los Angeles through small examples like parking lots connecting malls or airports. But we have rarely seen it in other applications.
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HISTORICAL & THEORETICAL ANALYSIS Historical & Theoretical Analysis
Historically, Los Angeles has seen many layers on its land. What is the history of the problem? The problem can be traced to when it was established. The city population was at 4,000 people when California became a state in 1850. Los Angeles was still a small town compared to San Francisco and Sacramento (Novak, 2013, p.1). The problem to link the city planning and what keeps up the problem is the zoning. Los Angeles would not be where it is today without public transportation. People may say Los Angeles was “built” as a car city, but history starts with the cable cars that connected the whole city. The cable started “in the 1880s and 1890s;” these were cheaper and simpler (Onion, 2014, p.1). During this time, Los Angeles was in an “age of public transport” (Onion, 2014, p.1). Those railways reached most parts of Downtown, the Los Angeles Railway Company owned them, “which ran the local electric streetcar system from 1895 to 1945” (Onion). The article by Rebecca Onion mentioned that this era was a “utopian one” due to the ability of people to move more freely. Henry E. Huntington owned the two railways by the early 20th century. According to this article, “The Los Angeles Railway Company experience was not always great for early-20th-century passengers either.” Cars were introduced to the masses, and the streets became crowded with vehicles. People were not taking public transportation as often anymore (Onion, 2014, p.1). With Downtown becoming the hub of life, it was getting crowded, and white-flight was occurring. People started to move more westward. You can see these changes in the architecture and even in the landscape. About 4.5 miles from Downtown, streets are lined with palm trees and big houses.
In the Cheryl Harris article, they pointed out that having the white racial identity became property one owned that entitled them with privilege and this system. Owning property came with freedom, the ability to be educated, travel freely, and own land. She describes the origins of property rights in the United States that are “rooted in racial domination” (Harris, 1995, p. 277). As well, the construction of “white identity and the ideology of racial hierarchy was intimately tied to the evolution and expansion of the system of chattel slavery” (Harris, 1995, p. 278). The racialization of identity and the racial “subordination of blacks and Native Americans provided the ideological basis for slavery and conquest” (Harris, 1995, p. 277). The former involves the “seizure and appropriation of labor, the latter entailing the seizure and appropriation of land” (Harris, 1995, p. 277). Both exploitative! Both force and ratified by law. We need to de-commoditizes housing! Today the locations of public parks are because of “residential segregation and urban development” (García et al., 2016, p.397). These discriminatory practices were not only used in housing but recreational spaces also. ESRI blog introduced that Los Angeles is overcoming the “damaging legacy left by redlining” (Wright, 2020, p.1). Even after the ban, the impact of “the economic and racial segregation” is still with us today. One example is Los Angeles’ urban sprawl is a well-known fact, but a little-known fact is the inequality of tree canopy. The urban heat island effect is also about environmental justice and the inequality of tree canopy. As seen even from Google Maps view or on an airplane coming into LA, one can see with their own eyes that a full tree canopy is only in specific neighborhoods. This affected the number of trees planted and maintained. Research links redlining to lack of shade. This lack of shade “contributes to dangerous urban heat island (effects)” (Wright, 2020, p.1). Redlined areas, on average, are “5 degrees warmer than others,” and some areas are “up to 12.5 degrees warmer” (Wright, 2020, p.1). These economic and racial segregations not surprisingly had serious consequences. There were a lot of economic changes as a result of White flight, suburbanization, and “inner-city job loss brought with it a reduction in local government resources, including funds for public parks” (García et al., 2016, p.397). With people spreading around LA, cars and roads became the priority. Cities were designed from the bird’s eye view and not from the human perspective.
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HOUSING LA COUNTY Social Movement Resources
Housing LA County is website from the city giving resources to find all of Information for Tenants Facing Eviction, Information for Persons/Families Facing Homelessness Homeless Shelters and Emergency Housing Local Governments and Housing Authorities State and Federal Resources Special Needs and Permanent Supportive Housing Regional Homeless Initiatives Accessible Housing Senior Resources Tenant Rights, Fair Housing and Legal Assistance HIV/AIDS Landlord Resources Housing Planning and Advocacy Nonprofit Housing Developers Other Resources (Socialserve, n.d, p.1) Links for Housing LA County - Social Serve https://www.socialserve.com/la_county/Resources.html?ch=LAC
Chirpla Los Angeles is a website from CHIRP (Comprehensive Housing Information and Referrals for People Living with HIV/AIDS), which is a program of PAWS/LA (Pets Are Wonderful Support, Los Angeles). They get grant funding from HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS) that HCIDLA administers (Los Angeles Housing & Community Investment Department (About Chirp, 2020, p.1). They provide resources under Affordable Housing, Government Services, Housing Advocacy, Housing Rights and Legal services, Internet Apartment Finder Sites, Roommate Resources, and Sober Living Resources. They also have information on Transportation. (Resource links, 2020, p.1) Links for Chirpla http://www.chirpla.org/page/about-chirpla http://www.chirpla.org/resource-links
CHIRPLA LOS ANGELES
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HACLA Social Movement Resources
The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)’s website provides resources like Section 8 and Public Housing. Their other programs are Asset Management, Contracts And Procurement, Human Resources, Development Services, Strategic Initiatives, and Vision Plan. The HACLA was established in 1938 by City of Los Angeles Resolution No.1241. HACLA has become “one of the nation’s largest and leading public housing authorities, providing the largest supply of quality affordable housing to residents of the City of Los Angeles” (About HACLA, 2022, p.1). Their mission is to “preserve, enhance, and expand deeply affordable housing and improve the quality of life for Angelenos with a focus on People, Place, and Pathways to Opportunity” (About HACLA, 2022, p.1). The HACLA’s annual budget is more than $1 billion. Their funds come from “five main sources: HUD’s annual operating subsidy, HUD’s annual Capital Fund, Section 8 administrative fees, rent from public housing residents plus other programs and capital grants from various sources” (About HACLA, 2022, p.1). In the Section 8 part, they discuss that the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) has “committed permanent supportive housing (PSH) assistance to over 27,000 households of formerly homeless and chronically homeless individuals and families through the following rental assistance subsidy programs” (Section 8, 2022, p.1). Links for HACLA https://www.hacla.org/en/about-us https://www.hacla.org/en/about-section8/homeless-initiatives https://www.hacla.org/en/about-publichousing
Bibliography About Chirp/LA. ABOUT CHIRP - LA Chirp LA. (2020). http://www.chirpla.org/page/about-chirpla About HACLA. HACLA. (2022). https://www.hacla.org/en/about-us Clark, P., Natarajan, S., & Perlberg, H. (2021). Zillow Seeks to Sell 7,000 Homes for $2.8 Billion After Flipping Halt. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-01/zillowselling-7-000-homes-for-2-8-billion-after-flipping-halt?sref=ExbtjcSG García, Jennifer J.; Gee, Gilbert C.; Jones, Malia (2016). A Critical Race Theory Analysis Of Public Park Features In Latino Immigrant Neighborhoods. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 13(2), 397–411. doi:10.1017/S1742058X16000187 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/du-boisreview-social-science-research-on-race/article/critical-race-theory-analysis-of-public-park-features-inlatino-immigrant-neighborhoods/F0A62F6440A1A06D1B3E75E1C3A07589 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. (1998). United States Department of the Interior National Park Service. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/98000244_text. Novak, M. (2013, April 26). Nobody Walks in L.A.: The Rise of Cars and the Monorails That Never Were. Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nobody-walks-in-la-the-rise-of-cars-and-the-monorailsthat-never-were-43267593/ Onion, R. (2014, July 25). A Transit Map of 1906 L.A., With Copious Streetcars. Slate Magazine; Slate. https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/07/transit-history-in-los-angeles-a-1906-map-of-thecity-s-streetcar-system.html
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Raftery, C. (2016). The Bungalow Courts Of Hollywood, California Hollywood Bungalow Court Survey, Preservaton (Preservation) Analysis, And Recommendations. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161454506.pdf. Resource links. Resource Links - Chirp LA. (2020). http://www.chirpla.org/resource-links Section 8 - Homeless Initiatives. HACLA. (2022, April 29). https://www.hacla.org/en/about-section8/homeless-initiatives Socialserve.com. (n.d.). External Resources. Housing.LACounty.gov. Los Angeles Housing Resources. https://www.socialserve.com/la_county/Resources.html?ch=LAC Westminster Housing Group 1. Cause IQ. (2017). https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/westminster-housing-group-i,237071323/ Wright, D. (2020, August 11). Student-Led Mapping Locates Areas in Los Angeles in Need of Shade Equity. Esri. https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/blog/los-angeles-shade-equity/.