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Equitable Rent: Rent Stabilization Standards in the City of Los Angeles

September 16, 2024 / By Anthony W. Orlando, Daniel Flaming, Ken Baar, Patrick Burns / City of Los Angeles Housing Department

One-fifth of Los Angeles renters have incomes below the federal poverty threshold. Half of them spend over 90 percent of their income for rent. Vulnerable renters are more likely to be under 35 years old, live alone, and have annual incomes below $20,000.

Excelling for the 2028 Olympics: Restoring, Not Displacing, LA’s Unsheltered Residents

September 4, 2024 / By Anthony W. Orlando, Daniel Flaming, Gary L. Blasi, Sam Tsemberis / Economic Roundtable

Los Angeles’ most glaring flaw as host of the 2028 Olympics is the nation’s largest population of unsheltered homeless individuals. If LA fails to make inroads on the problem, 2028 will be a disaster for unhoused people and LA’s reputation. Restoring the lives of unsheltered residents will be an Olympic achievement.

Photograph of diesel freight truck chassis and containers at the Port of Los Angeles by Daniel Flaming, taken March 10, 2022. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Coming Soon! A Warehouse Near You: Changes Following on the Heels of Zero-Emission Logistics

June 11, 2024 / By Anthony W. Orlando, Daniel Flaming, Fernando Gaytan, Juan De Lara, Sophie Pennetier / Economic Roundtable

Diesel exhaust is bad for people’s health. It degrades neighborhoods near warehouses and accelerates global warming. Conventional diesel trucks are free riders on the air we share. Diesel fuel provides only 6.5 percent of their propulsive power. The rest comes from the air, which provides 14.5 times more combustion fuel than the petroleum in their tanks.

Basic Housing Grants to Reduce Homelessness in Los Angeles

April 25, 2024 / By Benjamin F. Henwood, Daniel Flaming, Gary L. Blasi, Sam Tsemberis

Public policy in Los Angeles as long been blind to the central fact that unhoused people are extremely poor. Direct cash subsidies could help move tens of thousands of homeless Angelenos into housing at a far lower cost per person than our current system.

The Work Behind Work: Combatting Homelessness with Jobs

February 14, 2024 / By Ana Alvarez, Daniel Flaming, Manuel Gomez, Seth Pickens

The most common reason unhoused individuals give for why they do not have a place of their own to live is unemployment and lack of income. Homelessness is primarily a problem of income. Upstream interventions that lead to employment will significantly reduce the number of men, women and children who experience homelessness.

Image of painting by artist Camille Jacob Pissarro (1830-1903), "Les Trimardeurs (The Vagabonds)," ink on paper, created 1896. Original work in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand, a gift of Sir John Ilott in 1969. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.

Los Angeles County Homeless Count Data Library: Source Records from Los Angeles Continuum of Care Homeless Counts, 2007 to 2024

February 10, 2024 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

Overview of Data: One-hundred-twelve files from homeless street counts, demographic surveys of unsheltered individuals, and intake data for shelter residents, along with supporting documentation are available in this data library. These open source, de-identified person records provided by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) are a resource for homeless research.

Image of the parked diesel freight truck created by Daniel Flaming, based upon Daniel Flaming photograph, 2023. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Exhausting Our Air: Environmental and Human Costs of Diesel Trucks

September 28, 2023 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / Sierra Club

California’s mandates to replace diesel trucks with zero-emission electric trucks will bring cleaner air and better jobs – if they stay on track. Slow action by electric utilities and fierce opposition by trucking companies are real threats. Displacement of brick-and-mortar retail stores by online retailing and sprawling warehouses has come at the cost of climate change, bad air, low wages.

Image by Dan Flaming, "Screenshot 2023-06-06 113209 Google Maps-730x391enhanced v2". Created for the ERt report "Demolishing Homes for Air Cargo." Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Demolishing Homes for Air Cargo: San Bernardino Airport Gateway Plan

June 19, 2023 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / Sierra Club

The Inland Valley Development Agency plans to convert a 678-acre residential and mixed-use area north of San Bernardino International Airport into 9.2 million-square feet of warehouse and industrial space to create “a thriving jobs center.” This gesture at economic development has already been shown to create poverty-level jobs, economic hardship, and precariously housed workers.

Image of the a McDonald's Restaurant sign in Southern California by Daniel Flaming, April 29, 2023. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Hungry Cooks: Poverty Wages and Homelessness in the Fast Food Industry

May 1, 2023 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

The fast food industry is a poverty employer, with a larger share of its workers in poverty than any other industry. All low-wage workers face some level of risk that they will become homeless. This risk is compounded in the fast food industry by the combination of low wages, part-time work and employee churn. These interlocking hazards undercut workers’ ability to pay their rent.

Recognizing and Helping High-Need Homeless Individuals: Five Homeless Predictive Screening Tools

March 2, 2023 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

Preventive vs. Remedial Screening Tools The Economic Roundtable has developed five predictive screening tools to identify and prioritize high-need homeless individuals who will have high future public costs because of ongoing crises in their lives that are resolved in expensive institutional settings, including jails and hospitals.

Image of the downtown Los Angeles skyline and falling figure, created by Daniel Flaming, 2023. Created for the ERt report "Breaking the Fall: Successful Homeless Interventions in the Covid Pandemic." Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Breaking the Fall: Successful Homeless Interventions in the Covid Pandemic

December 14, 2022 / By Daniel Flaming, Seth Pickens and Patrick Burns / Economic Roundtable

Breaking the Fall – Covid Interventions Prevented Homelessness Struggling workers are either everyone’s responsibility now or everyone’s problem later. When poorly paid workers become jobless at the thin edge of the job market and then unable to pay rent, homeless destitution follows. In fact, we are equipped with the tools we need to protect workers from the sharper edges of joblessness and to combat homelessness.

mage of the downtown Los Angeles skyline and foreground housing , created by Daniel Flaming, 2023. Created for ERt's "Tools from the Realization Project: Resource Library for Identifying and Helping Workers at Risk of Persistent Homelessness." Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Tools from the Realization Project: Resource Library for Identifying and Helping Workers at Risk of Persistent Homelessness

December 9, 2022 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

The Realization Project is a system-change demonstration project of the Economic Roundtable. It has produced public domain library of screening, instructional, personal restoration, and employment tools. The project uses predictive analytic screening tools, which can be downloaded here, to identify unemployed workers with a high risk of becoming persistently homeless.