Los Angeles County, like urban regions nationwide, is experiencing a housing crisis that is largely the product of rising rents and insufficient housing supply. Thousands of severely rent burdened households pay over half of their incomes toward rent, and thousands more people are unable to afford rents are left chronically homeless. Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) presents a solution to the housing affordability crisis that is both quicker and cheaper than constructing new housing units and relies less heavily on government subsidies that tend to lengthen the development process.
NOAH refers to aging residential units that can be renovated and upgraded to generate affordable housing through a process that is both quicker and cheaper than constructing new housing units. NOAH investments allow for rehabilitation of housing units with minimal displacement and provide tenants with updated residences.
Recent Price School grads produced a case study examining the Normandie Lofts building in Los Angeles’s Koreatown neighborhood as an initial example of a NOAH project. The case study linked below highlights both the financial and social returns for this 50-unit residence, while also making the case for a broader portfolio of NOAH investments to meet affordable housing needs across Los Angeles County. Read the case study materials linked below for full details.
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- Hector Arechiga De Leon, MRED ’19, and Jake Bates, MPP ’19, present the Normandie Lofts case study at the Third Annual Impact Investing in Commercial Real Estate Case Competition
