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Current and recent projects:
Property Development and Demand for Affordable Housing
New development creates additional demand for affordable housing because some of the workers who will be employed will not earn enough money to afford market-rate housing. Every industry has some workers who cannot afford housing, although their share of the workforce varies widely among industries. This study analyzes a possible affordable housing benefit fee for new development in the City of Los Angeles. If an affordable housing benefit fee is enacted, it will provide a revenue stream to finance construction of additional affordable housing units.
Status: In Progress
Crisis Indicator
A pilot project is in progress to refine and validate a triage tool, or crisis indicator, that identifies homeless individuals in hospitals and jails who have continuing crises in their lives that create very high public costs. This project to screen, identify and immediately house high-need homeless adults is underway in downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
The project is supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and is being carried out jointly with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), which has organized teams at each site to provide immediate, comprehensive services for 10th decile homeless patients.
This pilot project follows on the Economic Roundtable's earlier research "Where We Sleep: The Costs of Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles." More details and information about this project are on our FUSE Frequent User Housing Initiative study page.
Status: In Progress
Sustainable Communities Initiative
This project will link and analyze multi-year records for 10 million residents of Los Angeles County. This includes records from Public Social Services, Mental Health, Health Services, Public Health, Children and Family Services, Probation, Sheriff Jail Division, and Homeless Services Authority, together with school records and employment and wage records.
Unemployment and poverty cause lasting harm to the social fabric and human capital of communities. This harm includes increased public dependency, diminished health and well-being, unfulfilled educational potential, unused productive potential, social isolation, substance abuse and addiction, family destabilization and disintegration, inadequately nurtured children, child welfare emergencies, mental health emergencies, criminal incarceration, and homelessness. Safeguarding people from this kind of catastrophic damage is at the heart of the trust that binds society together.
This project investigates public costs for adults and their families when they experience long-term poverty, unemployment, social dependency, and disconnection from social safety net benefits. It will illuminate outcomes for comparable individuals who are employed vs. unemployed, as well as when they are receiving benefits vs. disconnected from benefits. Outcomes include income, family well-being, use of public services, educational outcomes, public costs, and long-term secondary effects of poverty and unemployment.
The integration of employment and income data with social service, health, justice system and educational data will provide detailed, reliable information for weighing public costs and benefits of each social safety net component. In addition, this project will produce predictive and screening information for many kinds of health and social problems and for many groups that are at risk
One hundred twelve individuals responded with recommendations about research topics, and these recommendations are being used to develop the research plan.
Status: Carrying out Initial Data Compilation; Seeking Underwriting
Neighborhood Job Creation and Sustainable Employment for Low Wage Workers
The Economic Roundtable has assembled data to create fine-grain labor market and employer databases to support neighborhood economic development. The purpose of this project is to link grass roots concerns with research capabilities, technical knowledge, and economic development resources. Within communities it will move sequentially from investigating the skills of local job seekers, to identifying the industries that need those skills, to building consensus among local residents about the kind of jobs should be created and how they should be created, to mobilizing resources to implement local strategies, to recruiting and training local workers to fill newly created jobs. It is designed to build sustainable employment at a neighborhood level, responding to employment possibilities and aspirations of unemployed and low-wage workers in each community. A central premise is that economic development and family well being are closely connected, and by understanding specific workers we give coherence, legitimacy, pragmatism, and long-term viability to job creation initiatives.
Status: Seeking Underwriting and Developing Project Partnerships
City of Facades Book Manuscript
The Economic Roundtable is writing a book with the working title, "City of Facades." The book will provide an in-depth analysis of recent economic changes in Los Angeles and the impact these changes have had upon workers and communities. The book will explore how the powerful forces of economic restructuring, income polarization, and migration that are reshaping Los Angeles are germane to understanding the transformation of urban regions throughout the United States.
Status: Seeking Underwriting
Water Use Efficiency and Jobs
This study will provide reliable and practical information about the job impacts of infrastructure investments to conserve and reuse wastewater, storm water and runoff. The study is:
- Identifying establishments that comprise the water reuse sector in Los Angeles, including supplier industries
- Identifying the commodities purchased and deployed by water reuse industries
- Determining the current level of commodity purchases from local suppliers
- Investigating the viability of replacing imports with locally produced commodities
- Analyzing factors affecting growth in the water reuse sector
- Estimating the number of jobs that may be created in Los Angeles under different investment scenarios
- Analyzing the wage and skill characteristics of jobs in water reuse and conservation establishments
More details and information about the project work group on our Water Use Efficiency and Jobs study page.
Status: Project Completed, Briefing Policy Makers
Economic Study of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) and the Local Housing Market
This is the first comprehensive assessment of the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) since 1993, studying the ordinance in the context of the regional housing market and economy. The purpose of the RSO is to protect tenants from excessive rent increases, while allowing owners a reasonable return on their investments. This balance is difficult to achieve in a rental market with both long-term decline in renter incomes and inflation in housing prices. The Economic Roundtable is leading a team of experts to conduct this study for the City of Los Angeles Housing Department. More details and information about this project are on our RSO study page.
Status: Project Completed, Briefing Policy Makers
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