News from the Price Center

When housing developers have too much power in the market, they can maximize profits by raising rents on the apartments they already own. But if rent control limits that option, developers have to go to Plan B if they want to make more money: Build more units. So is that the situation we have in the California housing market? Research suggests it is.

Price CSI Director recently co-authored an op-ed in the Los Angeles Business Journal with Los Angeles Business Council President, Mary Leslie, about how business should partner with the public sector to solve LA’s housing affordability crisis because “they have the most to lose.”

Featured in LAist: “A new report from the Los Angeles Business Council, led by USC public policy professor Gary Painter, finds that the high cost of housing is a big concern among L.A. employers. But with a few notable exceptions, most aren’t doing anything to address housing costs for their workers.”

Almost overnight, electric scooters, e-bikes, and dockless bicycles have become a fixture in cities across the United States and beyond. While these devices might seem like toys, or annoyances, or possibly safety hazards, decades of research and teaching on transportation planning leads faculty fellow Marlon Boarnet to a different conclusion: Light-duty, sustainable mobility should be a central part of our transportation future.

Recent expansions in transportation have done little to improve traffic flow in the East San Gabriel Valley where public transit use is just 3% – less than half of the county average. The East San Gabriel Valley is located directly to the east of Downtown Los Angeles on the eastern edge of the County. Traffic in the area is especially congested as morning and evening commuters from three separate counties, including Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino, travel through the region daily to get in and out of the Los Angeles. East San Gabriel Valley’s limited public transit system, coupled with excessive traffic congestion in the area, make residents particularly vulnerable to the consequences of inadequate transportation options.

All-time low unemployment rates for the City of Long Beach made headlines last June in the City’s Economic Development Department’s press release. Nonetheless, taking a look at unemployment rates by census tracts reveals that the City of Long Beach has tracts with some of the highest unemployment rates in all of Los Angeles County. NDSC takes a deeper look at racial disparity in income, and what the City of Long Beach is doing to address stark economic inequalities.

As real estate investors nationwide continue to dig into the Opportunity Zone program and how it could benefit their firms, University of Southern California professor Gary Painter wants to remind them of the bigger picture.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has granted $1 million to continue its support of the Homelessness Policy Research Institute (HPRI), a county-wide effort to foster collaboration among top researchers and policymakers working to end homelessness in Los Angeles County.

From think-tankers to bankers, from arts leaders to construction managers, a Noah’s Ark of mid-career professionals applied their new-found social innovation skills to solve deeply entrenched regional problems as the USC Price’s Southern California Symposium completed its maiden voyage.

The USC Sol Price Center for Social Innovation hosted the 2018 Social Innovation Summit: Innovations in Urban Housing on April 27 to identify innovation solutions to the major housing challenges facing urban cities.

The USC Price School of Public Policy celebrated Professor Gary Painter’s first published book and commemorated what Dean Jack H. Knott called a “remarkable year” for the USC Price Center for Social Innovation.

High rates of homeownership, defined as the percentage of housing units occupied by the owner of the unit, are typically associated with important neighborhood benefits and connections that are a key measure of a stable economy

Parks are a tangible reflection of the quality of life in a community.

“Pay for success” has emerged in recent years as an innovative way for governments to fund social-service programs without having to provide up-front funding or compensation for services that don’t achieve the desired outcomes.

The Neighborhood Data for Social Change (NDSC) platform will provide LA County stakeholders the numbers needed to advocate for a better quality of life within their communities.