Voters in the city of Los Angeles overwhelmingly cite the high cost of housing and homelessness as serious problems, but lack confidence in the ability of local and state government to make the city more affordable.
Those findings come from a poll commissioned by the Los Angeles Business Council and released Thursday ahead of June’s primary for mayor and governor, in which housing and homelessness are sure to play a big role.
This year, as in previous LABC polls, homelessness and housing affordability were the issues most on the minds of voters, with 95% saying homelessness was a very serious or serious problem, while 87% ranked housing affordability the same way.
Overall, 63% have given at least some thought to moving out of Los Angeles because of housing costs, with 37% saying they have seriously considered it.
The concern over housing and homelessness doesn’t differ much from previous years.
Voters did show a rising concern about taxes, jobs and public safety even though fewer people considered those issues as serious as the number of people on the streets and the cost of rent and mortgages.
Overall, 60% said the state was on the wrong track, while 67% said that of the city.
When it comes to housing, few thought officials could right the ship. In all, 66% said they had “not too much” or no confidence the state government could improve housing affordability in the city. But they expressed even less confidence in the city and county governments to solve the problem. Forty percent wanted the state to take a greater role in boosting construction locally, while 20% did not.
Forty-eight percent said the city should “substantially increase the number of new housing units to address the lack of accessible and affordable housing,” while 34% said the city should not do so.
While only a plurality wanted the city to “substantially” boost the number of homes, a clear majority favored items to boost at least some construction, such as speeding the approval process for apartment buildings if they include some below-market units and allowing for denser housing along major transportation corridors.
Nearly 70% also supported caps on rent increases, while 44% of voters wanted the city to focus on building short-term homeless shelters to get people off the streets, compared with 25% who wanted to focus on permanent housing with services.
FM3 Research conducted the poll on behalf of the business council; it surveyed 751 registered voters in mid-April.
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