Los Angeles is spending up to $837k to house a single homeless person
the fact that <i>any</i> housing is getting built is frankly a refreshing turn of events.<p>for people unfamiliar with los angeles, is very much a city of landed gentry.  republican legislation designed to curtail rising taxes for elderly residents 40 years ago wound up creating a cloistered elite of land-owners that pay nearly nothing in tax and resist any attempt to create additional housing.  They coast on a bubble of six-figure increases in equity <i>per year</i> with little to prevent a ramshackle bungalow in inglewood from fetching a cash-only two million dollar price.<p>when legislators typically try to address the very same landed gentry&#x27;s cries for relief from the homeless, they wind up collecting windfall bond measure revenue.  as they gain momentum and start striking ground, most communities put up fierce NIMBY opposition and mire whatever initiatives that are approved in court.  the city in turn eventually gives up, settles, and uses the remaining funds to quietly continue sanitation and cleanup efforts of camps, occasionally running the homeless away for a day or two.<p>for the city to bemoan rising costs and slow pace is a bit ironic as well.  when LA decided to give up on property taxes it had to find a way to make up the difference.  hence a league of esoteric inspections and byzantine permitting started popping up for new homes.  it means contractors sit idle and watch the price of lumber skyrocket while your self-licking ice cream cone melts in the sun.