Ahmanson Ranch
leaves a void

The recent purchase of Ahmanson Ranch by the state of California was a victory, but it was a one-sided victory. The truth is that California’s housing affordability crisis continues to deepen.

Last year alone the state’s population increased by more than 600,000 people and every day more than 700 new people call Los Angeles home. Yet, by national standards, California only built slightly more than half the number of homes needed. Even though a recent poll showed that 86 percent of Californian families want to live in a single-family home, housing shortages led to only 58 percent of those families being able to afford the cost of ownership.

Elected officials, environmentalists, business and community leaders and homebuilders need to come together to find new ways to preserve, protect and respect the environmental resources of California in such ways that would also generate housing-solutions for California’s growing and diverse population.

Put simply, the demand for housing in California is so high while affordable homes so scarce that it’s turned into a crisis that threatens the stability of our communities and the welfare of our state. The issues we face aren’t easy, but we need to start working towards a solution.

Where are our families going to live? Can California meet the needs of our growing population?

To manage the environmental issues and housing needs we’ll face in the future, we’ll need to be committed to working alongside one another to find credible solutions for affordable housing throughout the state. Answering these questions will require us to look to leaders who can envision and foster a sense of cooperation between those making the decisions that affect housing as well as the environment.

The good news is that when we do find credible solutions, new housing not only provides us with new parks, libraries and schools that everyone benefits from, it also paves the way, through jobs and commerce for the funding of vital services, and instills in residents the personal pride that glues them to their communities. And in many cases this in turn leads to the popular support of many of the services that make the preservation and maintenance of our environmental resources possible.

In the future there needs to be more two-sided victories, where communities benefit from the cooperation between city officials, preservationists and the development of new affordable homes. If we can do this, I think that in the end we’ll find that homeownership will not only strengthen families, stabilize communities and foster economic prosperity, but it will also help make us more aware of and take pride in our surroundings and environment.

Now is the time to work together to solve California’s housing crisis.

Ray Pearl

Executive Officer

Building Industry Association

Greater Los Angeles

and Ventura Chapter