Housing inequality in Los Angeles is focus of new UCLA Data for Democracy brief
Professor Ananya Roy studies access to housing and housing justice movements around the world. In describing her work, she uses the term “housing justice” because as she says: “I was so tired of doing research on the ‘housing crisis.’ I wanted to think about how this moment of crisis is also a moment for uplifting and foregrounding new ideas about housing.”
Roy shares her thinking about the issue in Housing Inequality in Los Angeles, the latest in a series of UCLA Centennial Initiative Data for Democracy research briefs engaging students, teachers and schools in UCLA research about issues impacting equality, opportunity and social change. The brief on housing was produced by the Data for Democracy team in collaboration with the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and in partnership with the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project.
Digging deep into the issues that affect housing in the L.A. region, the Data for Democracy brief invites K–12 students across Los Angeles to examine charts, graphs, tables, maps and interviews about housing insecurity and movements to create housing justice in local communities. The brief is available online and is shared with students and teachers in area schools. Access and use of the briefs is free.
Housing Inequality in Los Angeles shares and explores data about who owns and who rents homes in Los Angeles and how this has changed over time. The research also digs into the high burden of rent on Los Angeles families. The new brief takes a close look at the number of homeless residents in Los Angeles, how this has changed over time, and how homelessness differs by race and ethnicity. The research focuses particular attention on what the brief refers to as “houselessness,”as the most visible and urgent aspect of housing inequality in Los Angeles.
Data representations in the brief show that 55 percent of residents of Los Angeles County are renters, a much higher rate than the 30 percent of renters in other communities across the nation. The data details that the share of renters has been increasing over time and that black and Latino households are more likely to be renters than other racial and ethnic groups.
