By Walter Moore, Candidate For Mayor Of Los Angeles, WalterMooreForMayor.com

“Affordable housing” is the term billionaire developers and their bought-and-paid-for career politicians throw around to convince you to pay ever-higher taxes to subsidize the developers’ projects and profits.

Do you know the definition of “affordable housing?”  It means a person’s total housing expenses (including utilities) are no more than 30% of the person’s income.

The median income in California in 2006 was $64,563 per year.  At that income level, “affordable housing” is anything at or below $1,614 per month. 

In the City of L.A., however, the median income in 2006 was significantly less:  $44,445 per year -- just 69% of the median for the whole state.  At the $44,445 level, “affordable housing” is anything below $1,111 per month.

The median income in Glendale was $51,308.  In Upland, it was $64,894.

Does the City of L.A. have some kind of inherent disadvantage compared to Glendale and Upland? No.  The City of L.A. is simply mismanaged.

If L.A.’s median income were average -- not even above-average, mind you, but just “average” for the state -- the so-called “affordable housing crisis” would disappear overnight.  According to the latest figures, as published in the Daily News, rents now “average $1,630 in the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana metropolitan area.”  That’s just $16 per month more than the $1,614 “affordable housing” figure based on California’s median income.

Rather than trying to increase the wages of L.A.’s middle-class working taxpayers, Mayor Villaraigosa and the high-density developers for whom he works focus instead on taxing those workers to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidies each year for “below-market” housing projects.

As a result, our quality of life suffers through higher density and lower after-tax incomes.  More and more people with lower and lower incomes move into the city -- illegally, from Mexico.  That, in turn, drives down the median income for the area, which in turn means we wind up with less affordable housing, not more. 

The developers and career politicians then use that to justify still higher taxes on you, for more subsidies, to accommodate still more low-income people from Mexico.  The vicious cycle continues year after year, as the City declines further into Third World status.  How crazy is that!

Wouldn’t it be nice if L.A. had a Mayor who would fight for middle-class taxpayers instead of billionaire developers?  Let’s find out:  contribute today to the Committee to Elect Walter Moore.