Los Angeles has one affordable housing unit for every six households that need affordable housing. The subset of affordable housing that is deeply subsidized to make it affordable for high-need chronically homeless residents is less than a third of what is needed.

In the November 8 election, Los Angeles voters approved the first steps for making headway on these shortfalls. Measure JJJ, led by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, will provide affordable housing for 43,000 Los Angeles residents, including homeless residents, over the next 10 years and pay living wages to workers who build the housing. Measure HHH will provide $1.2 billion to build 8,000-10,000 units of safe, clean affordable housing for homeless residents.

These initiative are a tide change, acting on an urgent need that has been neglected for over a decade. Additional funding streams are still needed help the 400,000 households that need affordable housing, but Los Angeles is off to a good start.