AIA LA Roundtable Discussion: “United to House LA”

AIA LA Roundtable Discussion: “United to House LA” Ballot Initiative

RSVP HERE for zoom access details.

AIA LA is coordinating a roundtable to learn more about the “United to House LA” ballot initiative. This forum will serve as an opportunity for the architecture & design community to learn more about this prospective ballot initiative, which aims to raise about $875 million annually to create the “Los Angeles Program to Prevent Homelessness and Fund Affordable Housing.”

If more than 50% of voters pass it in November 2022, the measure would impose a local real estate transfer tax on properties selling for more than $5 million.

The measure has received endorsements from Move LA, Inner City Law Center, The LA Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, IBEW Local 11, LA/OC Building & Construction Trades, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, Community Power Collective, ACCE, East LA Community Corporation, CHIRLA, SCANPH, SAJE, TRUST South LA, and UNITE HERE Local 11.

Please make plans to join us to learn more about this initiative and to gain a better understanding of its pros & cons.

CLICK HERE to read the full text of the ballot initiative.

Presenters:

Joan Ling – Lecturer in Urban Planning, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Joan Ling is a real estate adviser and policy analyst in urban planning.

She has experience in real estate financial analysis, affordable housing and urban mixed use development, and state and local land use and housing policy, legislation and regulation.

Ling is Board Director, Housing California and MoveLA and former Treasurer, Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles and former Executive Director, Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

Her current research focus is on the nexus between land use policy and real estate development as well as analysis of community benefits project and program level feasibility.

Mahdi Manji – Public Policy Advocate, Inner City Law Center

Mahdi joined Inner City Law Center as a Public Policy Advocate in May 2020. He advocates for land use policies to increase the production of affordable housing and increasing revenue for affordable housing in Los Angeles County with a focus on ending segregationary residential patterns and closing the racial wealth gap.

Prior to joining ICLC, Mahdi worked with the ACLU of Southern California where he planned and managed ACLU SoCal’s Schools and Communities First Campaign efforts. He has worked on electoral and issue organizing campaigns in Los Angeles, Orange County, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia including organizing efforts to defend the Affordable Care Act in pivotal Orange County congressional districts. Mahdi is a graduate of UCLA.

Eli Lipmen – Director of Programming and Development, Move LA

Eli served on the Leadership Board of Move LA for over six years, working to bring new stakeholder groups into the coalition and campaigning for Measure M. He joined Move LA in August 2017 to work on fundraising, advocacy, and organizing strategy. He serves as the co-chair of the South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone (SLATE-Z) Transit Work group and leads the student transit pass pilot program, a project funded by The Schmidt Family Foundation Just Transit Program. Eli has worked with nonprofits large and small to improve donor engagement and outreach efforts, including the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, AJC, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles. In 2014, he wrote and designed a major white paper on hunger in Los Angeles County and has worked on legislation on the local, state and federal level on issues ranging from human rights to the environment. Eli graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications and the London School of Economics. He serves as President of the Los Angeles City Commission overseeing local Neighborhood Councils, the largest system to integrate grassroots democracy into local governance in the United States. Eli is a fierce advocate for Move LA’s mission; his family of five lives in the West Adams neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles where they regularly walk, bike, and ride Metro around LA.