Los Angeles City Council Approves New Linkage Fee to Support Affordable Housing

The Los Angeles City Council has approved the imposition of a linkage fee on developers of new residential and commercial projects to generate revenue for the city’s affordable housing trust fund. The linkage fee, which ranges between $8 and $15 per square foot for residential development, is expected to raise up to $100 million annually, which will be used to finance the construction or preservation of up to 1,800 affordable units per year. Recently, the California Housing Partnership Corporation found that the city would need to build more than 500,000 units of affordable housing to meet renters’ needs. Supporters of this new measure argue that it will help address the increase in the number of homeless individuals in the city, while those in opposition to the measure argue that the fees will discourage new construction.