Low Income Housing in Los Angeles – Living in a big city like Los Angeles can be hard, financially. The housings in this area are exceptionally expensive because there’s always an increasing demand of new housing and the limited land available for new buildings. This is especially hard for people and families with low income. In most cases, they spend most of their family monthly income to pay rent. People who are less fortunate even have to become homeless, because they simply cannot afford to rent a home.
That is why this post will be focusing on providing information on low-income housing in Los Angeles area. Just like many other states, the California State has the Area Median Income (AMI), which is basically the average income for California State. People who are considered low income are the ones who earn 80% of AMI, while people who are considered very low income earn about 50% of AMI, and extremely low income people are the ones that earn less than 30% of AMI. It is often that the main criteria for cheap housing are this AMI percentage number.
Low Income Housing Los Angeles Programs
Low Income Housing in Los Angeles Listing
The first source is from the government program. The California Department of Housing and Community Development have made a listing of affordable rental housing directory on their site. This listing is divided based on each county in California, which includes the Los Angeles area. This very comprehensive list of affordable housing in Los Angeles is divided based on various local areas in Los Angeles County. You get the address, office contact information, phone and email of the landlord, the number of bedrooms and the type of the housing. More info about this opportunity is available in our reference section.
There’s also the Federal government’s program that is called the Section 8 program that may be the best solution for some people. There’s a lot of competition for getting the affordable rental housing from the California Department of Housing and Community Development listing. The Section 8 program helps low-income families to pay a part of the housing rental cost directly to the landlord. You can visit their official site in our reference section. This is an excellent program that has helped a lot of low-income people and families in the United States, but in general, you have to wait for a while because the waiting list is rather long.
You can also look for public housing. Public housing is also a popular choice for people with low income. There is some preference offered for people with special circumstances, for example, low income people who are attending higher learning, families which elderly or disabled head of the family, working with minimum wage at least 20 hours per week, etc. There are many people interested in this program, so it is understandable that there’s also a waiting list, much like the Section 8. However, the waiting time for this program is generally shorter. To apply for a public housing, you should send your application to the Housing Authority Application Center’s office. More information can be seen from their website, available in the reference section.
References :
- U.S. Department of Housing and urban Development
- Image: hacla.org
