A controversial plan for affordable housing
The Neighborhood Congregational Church in Laguna Beach, CA, hopes to spread love by creating affordable housing, thanks to a new state law called SB4. The church plans to demolish two sanctuary buildings and has proposed constructing the city's first affordable housing in decades on its property.
SB4 fast-tracks building permits and bypasses local zoning restrictions for faith communities building affordable housing. With most of the state's residents unable to afford a house, other religious institutions in Southern CA have similar plans for their properties.
The Laguna Beach project has been met with resistance from residents. They agree that more housing construction is imperative but argue the church's plan will devalue surrounding homes and create traffic congestion and parking shortages.
What do you think? Does the need for affordable housing take presedence over residents' concerns, and is SB4 a viable option to make a tiny dent in the housing crisis?
Learn more details in this article from KCRW:
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/kcrw-features/church-affordable-housing-...
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Evangel
Los Angeles' St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral built affordable senior housing on their property several years ago and still manage to keep the rents very low. It's a very good thing, especially if it means helping low-income seniors live in dignity.
The need for more affordable housing can't be overstated, but anyone earning $100,000 per year should probably not qualify as a "low income" renter because the real low earners will end up homeless.
More often than not, plans for low income housing are stalled or killed by the pushback of unrelenting neighborhood associations, much of it due to selfishness and fear of "certain elements" invading the neighborhood. Not so much, though, when any Costco or massive shopping mall is planned which always bring more noise, traffic, and parking issues than any housing project.
TranZen Homestead
Thank you so much for this update on the homeless crisis. My name is Phong Tran and I am running for Governor of California in 2026 and here is my partial plan to fix this mess. I agree that building these affordable units will decrease the value of the local residents' homes and it would drastically increase traffic and pollution. The amount of people housed in these places will not make a dent in the homeless population but the negative affects on the local neighborhoods would be much more. It's another example of wasteful spending to put a bandage of a leaking dam that's about to burst. Since I was a Vietnamese Refugee, I know first hand the importance of a refugee camp. First, I would create safe spaces, similar to a camping ground, where each city would provide for based on the number of homeless people. It would be fenced to protect the residents inside. There will be 100's of these tents lined in rows. The homeless will be brought there to have a thorough accessment of where they are mentally, physically and financially. There will be teams of social workers, doctors, dentists and psychologists to diagnose each person in order to provide the proper care. College students and grads will have jobs in their related fields here to help these licensed professionals do this critical work. These students will not only get paid well in their fields of study but their student loans will also be paid off too the longer they stay on. Then we can properly help each person get back on their feet. 1-A homeless person who is financially burdened, will get help with finding jobs, training, financial literacy and low cost housing close to their job. 2-A homeless person who is mentally challenged will go to a facility where they specialize in helping them. We will help fund these places. 3-A person who is an addict will go to a facility where they specialize in helping them. We will help fund these places. 4-A person who is physically and mentally fine but they just like living on the streets, will go to a designated camp where they can live like that. This camp will have all the amenities like showers, toilets, cafeteria, mental health offices, job training, money literacy, grocery stores, etc. The only catch is that if these people want to eat, or drink or get anything, then they must work somewhere in this large homestead camp in order to earn money to pay for their stuff. We will help them but only if they help themselves. And so forth. This is a small portion of my plan to end homelessness. I bought 10 acres of raw land in Lancaster and provided homes and jobs on site that is off the grid and we showed that it takes very little money to provide shelter and abundance of food and the healthy jobs and lifestyles that go with it. It works. Please visit my two sites to learn more about me, my non-profit to provide homes and jobs for homeless vets and my quest to be the next Governor of California in 2026. Thank you very much for your time!
www.tranzenhomestead,com www.phongtran2026.com