CRA/LA
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About Us

How CRA/LA Activities Benefit Los Angeles

Economic Development
We help neighborhoods prosper by assisting existing businesses that want to expand and by attracting new businesses, including shops, hotels, offices and industrial users.

Housing
We use specially earmarked housing funds from property tax increment in our project areas to create affordable multi-family housing — either by rehabilitating existing structures or building new ones. Our programs have made possible the construction of energy-efficient and smoke-free affordable apartments near public transit. We also create needed housing especially for seniors, for students, and for the homeless.

Mixed Use
Some of our developments are planned to incorporate a variety of uses, such as condominiums with ground-floor shops,  apartments with community or social services facilities, and entertainment centers with shops, office space and condominiums.

Public Improvements
We upgrade streets and sidewalks, street lightning and building exteriors in our project areas. As a result, walking, riding and driving through a neighborhood becomes an easier and more pleasant experience. Public improvements also  help neighborhood attract new businesses and keep existing ones.

Community Development
To boost the overall livability of neighborhoods in our project areas, we improve public services such as transit centers, public libraries and parks. We also have a public art program.
 undefined Build Quality Housing

A key goal of CRA/LA is to make our neighborhoods more livable and economically diverse by building quality housing. Throughout our history, we have provided loans to developers for housing construction and rehabilitation. We have also created home-ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families.

To date, we have helped create more than 29,000 housing units. More than 75 percent were built specifically for households with very low, low and moderate incomes. For detailed information about our housing programs, click here.

Investing That Makes a Difference
As of December 2008, we have invested nearly $200 million in affordable housing throughout the seven regions of our project areas. (“Affordable” means housing costs that are within the budget of a household earning 120 percent or less than the median income of the area.)

While our focus is on creating affordable housing, our investment has also made possible private financing that has spurred development of 9,424 units with no income restrictions.

Maintaining Rental Affordability
We currently monitor nearly 22,500 rental units in more than 575 developments throughout Los Angeles. Our oversight ensures compliance with regulations that set affordability levels within each development. In this way, we help ensure that the units remain affordable, and meet health and safety standards.

Expanding Home Ownership
Since 1981, more than 500 low- and moderate-income families have purchased their first home with help from our $17 million investment in home loan funding. Nearly half the families have already repaid their loans, enabling us to reinvest $9.5 million in new housing loans.

Housing for the Homeless
We partner with our sister agencies — the Los Angeles Housing Department and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles — to develop Permanent Supportive Housing for the chronically homeless. These partnerships build new units that include onsite job training, health programs and social services.