In a departure from its main task of building and operating rail and bus lines, LA Metro will be scouring its property holdings for surplus, vacant and underused land that could be transformed into housing for the homeless.
As part of the effort to offer up unwanted land to housing developers, LA Metro has a goal of achieving 10,000 new housing units on its excess land, the agency reported. Solis spoke of an affordable housing complex with 232 units built on land once reserved for a new county jail at 1060 North Vignes St., near L.A. Union Station. She said adjacent land owned by LA Metro could be used for similar purposes.
“There is property there to be considered,” he said. “It is important to create opportunities for people who don’t historically have access to housing near transit.” She declared L.A.’s homeless crisis an emergency and has launched a program to remove the homeless from tents and encampments, and into motels and hotels.
Advocates for low-income housing and working class riders of Metro buses and trains supported the motion, particularly for Metro land located within the city of L.A. Theoretically, this land could be used in conjunction with Measure ULA dollars, which are earmarked for increasing affordable housing. The city of L.A. measure, known as the “mansion tax,” places a tax of 4% on sales of property worth $5 million, and 5.5% on sales that exceed $10 million.