This week in affordable housing news…:

ICYMI – Top news stories: 

Editorial: L.A.’s ‘mansion tax’ is a lifeline to ease homelessness, but it remains in limbo
Los Angeles Times
If any city needs a financial lifeline to help homeless people get permanent housing and prevent people from losing their housing, it is Los Angeles—where 36% of renter households pay half of their income or more on housing and over 45,000 residents live on the streets. The city got that support in Measure ULA (United to House L.A.), a 2022 ballot initiative to fund affordable housing and rental assistance and eviction prevention and protection programs. But ever since it passed, wealthy property owners have tried to avoid paying it, taxpayer groups continue to fight the law in court, and business groups have co-sponsored their own initiative, heading to the state ballot next year, seeking to void the LA measure.

How do California Senate candidates plan on tackling housing affordability?
Orange County Register
And after a year of workers’ strikes across the Golden State, housing affordability and other labor-related issues have taken center stage as key election issues in California’s U.S. Senate race. We spoke to the candidates who have, thus far, declared their candidacy for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein‘s seat about these issues. This includes the frontrunners, three Democrats current serving in Congress: Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee—who share a number of ideas for increasing federal support for affordable housing from boosting federal tax credits to expanding access to Section 8 housing vouchers.

Inside the world’s largest AIDS charity’s troubled move into homeless housing
Los Angeles Times
A Times investigation has found that many of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s more than 1,300 residents live in squalid conditions, with dozens under the threat of eviction—a stark contrast between the foundation’s public image and vocal pro-tenant advocacy. Under the direction of co-founder and President Michael Weinstein, the foundation has spent more than $300 million sponsoring rent control ballot initiatives in California and buying apartment complexes across the country, including more than a dozen in Los Angeles, mostly old single-room occupancy hotels. In a statement, foundation General Counsel Tom Myers said the organization has spent tens of millions of dollars renovating and repairing its properties and has increased occupancy by nearly 200%, meaning almost 1,000 people are off the streets that otherwise wouldn’t have been.