Lourdes Castro Ramirez
I think often times people think that public housing is government paying everything, but families pay 30% of their income to stay
May 13, 2026 · 1 hr
She runs Section 8 Housing in Los Angeles. Can she save LA? Lourdes Castro Ramirez (HACLA)
With Lourdes Castro Ramirez — President & CEO, HACLA
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Lourdes Castro Ramirez, President and CEO of HACLA (Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles), joins Taylor Avakian on the No Vacancy Podcast for an in-depth conversation on the affordable…
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Episode show notes
Lourdes Castro Ramirez, President and CEO of HACLA (Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles), joins Taylor Avakian on the No Vacancy Podcast for an in-depth conversation on the affordable housing crisis, Section 8 vouchers, public housing, and strategies to address homelessness in Los Angeles. In this episode, Lourdes breaks down how HACLA serves over 200,000 Angelenos, the realities of rental subsidies, emergency housing vouchers, mixed-income developments, public housing redevelopment, and the challenges of high development costs. She shares her personal journey from immigrant roots to leading one of the largest housing authorities in the U.S., insights from San Antonio and the Obama administration, and practical opportunities for private landlords and developers to partner with HACLA. Topics include: Section 8 landlord participation, funding shortfalls, acquisitions program, Housing Our Veterans, mixed-status families, and long-term solutions for LA’s housing shortage. Chapters: - 00:00 Introduction & Sponsor - 00:06 What is HACLA? Serving 200,000 Residents in Los Angeles - 02:02 HACLA Programs: Public Housing, Section 8 Vouchers & More - 05:03 HACLA’s Quasi-Governmental Structure & Funding - 06:20 Lourdes Castro’s Journey: From UCLA to CEO - 14:00 What Governments Get Wrong About Housing - 16:27 LA Housing Shortage & Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) Update - 21:42 Section 8 Funding Challenges & Impact on Property Owners - 26:36 Development Costs: Why Affordable Units Cost $800K–$1M - 31:30 Acquisitions Program, Mixed-Income Housing & High-Resource Neighborhoods - 36:34 Current Development Focus: Jordan Downs, Woodland Hills & More - 39:41 Opportunities for Private Landlords & Developers (Housing Our Vets, Partnerships) - 42:15 Landlord Feedback, Service Improvements & RentCafe - 43:54 LA CASA & Measure A Explained - 46:03 If Lourdes Were in Charge: Policy Changes for Housing - 48:28 Lessons from Texas: Austin & San Antonio Housing Approaches - 49:55 Should Landlords Accept Section 8 Right Now? - 51:19 Future of Housing in LA: Next 5–10 Years - 55:04 Keeping Families Housed & Economic Opportunity Programs - 57:54 Build Hope Nonprofit & Wraparound Services - 01:00:45 Closing Thoughts HACLA | Affordable Housing Los Angeles | Section 8 Vouchers | Public Housing | Housing Crisis | Taylor Avakian No Vacancy Podcast #realestate #commercialrealestate #podcast
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Episode transcript
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0:00–10:00
Taylor Avakian
housed. Lourdes Castro Ramirez is the President and CEO of HACLA, the second largest public housing authority in the United States, serving over 200,000
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
residents. Each of these vouchers represents a family, an individual who was homeless, who was able to move into stable housing. Our budget is $2.4 billion. The majority of those are dollars that go into the hands of property owners that then can pay their mortgage that then can pay their employees that then can consume and I think sometimes we lose sight of that. When families began to live together and interact at different income levels, it's really great to have that level of integration, but we still struggle with perceptions of low-income
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
residents. The reason why many units that are affordable often cost between 800,000 to a million dollars is because they have to go pull together six to eight different sources of
Taylor Avakian
funding. If you were in charge, how would you do it? As we work towards building more housing, we have to This episode is sponsored by Loan Titan, a leading residential financing loan company specializing in both conforming and non-conforming mortgage solutions. Loan Titan offers Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, non-QM, and private money, hard money loan programs, helping borrowers who need flexibility beyond traditional lending guidelines or speed-driven financing solutions. Whether you're purchasing, refinancing, or investing, Loan Titan is known for smart structuring, clear communication, and reliable execution. Visit loantitan.com and mention Taylor Avakian to get started. Thanks for Loan Titan for supporting the channel. Welcome to the show. My name is Taylor Avakian and I am here with my esteemed guest Lourdes Castro Ramirez, the President and CEO
Taylor Avakian
of HACLA, which is the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Lourdes, thank you for being here. Thank Taylor. Thank you for having me. I'm I'm looking forward to the conversation today.
Taylor Avakian
Me too. For those who don't know, can you describe HACLA? What is HACLA?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yes, so HACLA is more than an acronym. Uh it's the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. And we are one of the oldest housing authorities across the country, going on almost 90 years. 1938? 1938, that's correct. So, in 2 years we'll be celebrating our 90th anniversary. Yeah. Uh we're also the second largest housing authority across the country. Uh there are roughly about 30 uh 300 housing authorities across the United States of all sizes, um small, medium-size, and large. We're considered a large housing authority because we serve over 200,000 Angelenos in the City of LA. Whoa. And we primarily are able to do that um providing affordable housing through uh several federal programs that were responsible for administering, uh including the public housing
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
program, which serves just about 6,200 households across the City of Los Angeles. Um so, we're able to provide deeply affordable housing to Angelenos, uh where families are not uh having to pay more than 30% of their income. And it's important for me to mention this because I think oftentimes people think that public housing is government paying everything, um but families pay 30% of their income to to stay housed. We also administer the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, which is done in partnership with property owners, and we would not be able to do this uh program and provide this level of housing without uh property owners across the city that participate in the program. In fact, the majority of our property owners are small mom-and-pops um um, have two, four units, and that
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
are renting to a family uh that is low income. Uh and again, uh the family's paying 30% of their income, the housing authority provides a subsidy, and the property owner brings the unit. And, um, we, over the last 10 years, have been able to grow our inventory of non-federal housing, um, and uh roughly have about 7,400 units, um, that uh provide housing assistance to Angelenos in sort of different forms, um, from mixed income, where you have market rate and affordable, to uh permanent supportive housing, where we have a service provider that is providing intensive, um, social services to ensure that the individual or the or the family's house. That typically is for, um, people who were exiting homelessness, who are
Taylor Avakian
now able to have a place.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
corners and stuff like that. Yes. Yeah. similar. Yes. We do a lot of work with a number of nonprofits, including, um, the People Concern, PATH, um, and some of the organizations that are well known to be able to bridge both that the housing and the services
Taylor Avakian
piece. Can you explain, because my understanding is that HACLA is part of the government, but also not part of the government? Can you like explain the difference of how you guys work? Is it partnership?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Explain that. Yeah, it is really interesting. When I, uh, started working at the Housing Authority and learning about the structure that's in place, um, we describe it as a quasi-governmental entity, which really means that uh we receive federal uh funds. Uh our budget is uh comprised of about 90% federal dollars coming in to the city that we're responsible for administering in accordance with, you know, federal regulations. We are a state chartered agency, and so we were created by the state and so we have some unique authorities and powers because of that. We are able for example to issue bonds. We are able to do comprehensive community development work. Our charter also extends to the city of LA and so the the focus the primary mission of
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
our agency is to serve the city of Los Angeles. So the city also established a charter. So we essentially answer to three different forms of government, local, state and
Taylor Avakian
federal. What prompted you? How does one become the president and CEO of a housing authority? I know you've done I think I looked at your LinkedIn at least so you started at hackler like a long long time ago. Then you transitioned and then you were in San Antonio for a decade or so. Then there were some stints in between and maybe the last 24 months you stepped into the president and CEO role. So can you walk me through kind of your journey to where it is today?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah. Well, you know, I am old. Um But I I never thought that I was going to make a career in housing, affordable housing, community development. I never thought about that because I was born in Mexico. My family immigrated to the US when I was four years old. I'm the oldest of nine children and the first first to graduate from high school. I went to college to UCLA, got a bachelor's in political science and Chicano studies. As I was in my last year of undergrad, I'm like, what am I going to do with my life? Well, like what does one do with a political and Chicano studies degree? You know, I think when you're the first in your family and you don't come from a family that has that level of presence and connection
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
in different industries, it's hard. So So, said, I'm going to apply to graduate school and I got accepted to the urban planning program at urban planning principles, social policy, affordable housing. And my first job after um my urban planning degree was actually working in Ventura County for a small non-profit um community economic development group called Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation. They were formed to uh provide affordable housing to agricultural workers in Ventura County. Uh Ventura County uh depends um a lot on agricultural workers, right? Um from picking oranges to strawberries, and you name it. I realized how important it is to
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
ensure that families that are working hard, but barely making it, have the ability and opportunity to be able to to place that's decent and affordable where they're not having to spend more than 50% of their income. Mhm. Um eventually, as you mentioned, I uh joined uh HACLA, uh the Housing Authority. And I will say that I didn't like it. My first year was tough, uh Taylor.
Taylor Avakian
It was it was Why? What makes you say that?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, it was tough because I was coming from 3 years non-profit um organization, very mission-oriented, small, targeted, focused. Mhm. And I move over to a much larger uh government agency that had a lot of bureaucracy. And um I was trying to figure it out. Um I was I started working in Watts at an a public housing community called Imperial Courts. Uh my job was to uh coordinate and implement a program called Jobs Plus. This was This was about 1999. Shortly after welfare reform, there was a lot of focus on uh moving people to work and to employment. Uh and Hackla was participating in a national
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
pilot that was focused on increasing uh employment
10:00–20:00
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
connection and uh earnings. And so I ran that program. Um so I had a hard time in the first year of finding the kind of that same um mission and focus. In that course of the year, I started connecting to the public housing residents that live there. I started building relationships. I began bringing in um service providers um to the side. Uh and then by the second year, I realized, you know, government has the ability to have an impact at scale. I just I think when I realized that, I thought, yeah, I I I want to continue working at at Hackla, building my skill set, but also growing my impact.
Taylor Avakian
Mhm.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Mhm. Yeah. So I I spent 10 years at Hackla. My last job was as the director of the Section 8 program. I was loving it. I thought it was, you know, the the right place. Uh and then San Antonio came calling and they were looking for a CEO to run their housing authority. And uh I never thought I would, you know, leave California uh to go to Texas. Um but I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to do that. Yeah. Um my daughter, who's now 23, at that time she was maybe 6 years old. Um she she asked, you know, my husband and I, "Why did we come to live to this country?" I'm like, "Mija, it's not another country, it's another state." Uh-huh. But to her, it felt so foreign. It felt so different.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. Yeah, especially back then, too. Texas was a completely different beast than it is today. So, you I'm sure you learned a ton being the CEO of San Antonio, and then you were brought back to come back to
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Hackla. Yeah, so I had a really interesting um journey because I spent uh 6 years working as the president CEO of uh San Antonio Housing Authority. And then I was appointed to serve under the Obama administration as uh the principal deputy assistant secretary, essentially responsible for all public housing across the country and all Native American housing uh programs, and working with Secretary Julián Castro, who's then the mayor of San Antonio and then became secretary. Uh and it was you really unbelievable. You know, I just uh when I think about the opportunities that I have had, you know, as an immigrant um girl then now serving the Obama administration. Uh so, I I served 2 years in that capacity, came back to San Antonio, and for 3 years I actually um took a
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
uh like 3-year sabbatical in in some ways um from housing, and I worked in healthcare. I worked in uh healthcare philanthropy working for a public health system in San Antonio, and really uh realized how important of a connection um housing and health Yeah. they're both more now in LA, for sure. Yes. And then eventually I was tapped by Governor Newsom uh who uh has done like an incredible job when it comes to housing and homelessness to serve um under um his administration as uh secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. So, I it was my way back to California. Mhm. And then LA came calling. Uh I've worked for Mayor Bass for a year, as the Chief of Housing. Uh, and the opportunity to to come back to HACLA, uh, came up and I felt like this is this is where I want to be.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
I want to be on the ground working on these issues and, um, and connected to the communities that we serve. Full circle. Full circle moment, yes.
Taylor Avakian
Yes. of governments, right? Cuz you've seen it all from the very niche in, you know, Ventura to national, right? What do governments get wrong when it comes to housing?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, you know, I think that we really, um, stopped investing in housing and thinking that government had a role in housing. I think many of us think that it's just up to the private sector. Mhm. And I think it's it's not just up to the private sector. I think it is the responsibility of both government and the private sector. And I would say that, you know, at the federal level, we began to invest less and less on rental subsidy programs, on, um, programs at scale to create more housing. Mhm. You know, housing authorities were born in the 1930s, um, as a result of a recognition that there were deplorable housing conditions all across the country. And, you know, creating, uh, the New Deal and pusing all this money out to create,
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
um, units, housing units. And so, I think also at the state level, um, you know, it's really exciting as, you know, Governor Newsom, uh, ends his 8-year term is that under his leadership, he's creating, uh, it goes into effect July, uh, 1st of this year, a brand new housing and homelessness agency. Mhm. So, the agency that I oversaw was Business, Consumer Services and housing, uh and 14 departments uh with everything from horse racing to cannabis to uh consumer protections, which is all the licensing of anyone that has to practice in the state, you know, was under the this department and housing and homelessness. So, it was very much um a a reflection of of how housing had
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
not been uh made a priority at the state and and now um there's you know, they a plan to establish almost akin to, you know, at the federal level, a housing um a dedicated housing uh department and agency. Uh and, you know, that is uh really a testament to how far the California legislature has come, how far um that the governor and his administration have come, and and how far we have come as, you know, as a state recognizing that we have to invest in housing and make up for all those years of not um
Taylor Avakian
building the way that we should have. Yeah, it's uh I mean, we have a huge {quote} "unquote" housing shortage, I would say. I think last last count, give or take, you know, 500, 400,000, something like that, right? Just in the city of LA. Yes. Um which is a big amount to overcome, right? And so, I think focus, when any business professional, any entrepreneur, anyone knows, you have to pick something. There's There's fires burning all the time, right? But if you don't have a level of focus to focus on the biggest fire, the biggest bottleneck that we need to solve right now, a lot of things get done half half full, Yes. and so, that level of focus is is hopefully something we're going to be able to bring, and obviously you leaving the helm of HCLA, um there's a lot of things that you
Taylor Avakian
guys can do and help, but focusing on being able to make the city better, which I think is a big conversation point for a lot of people and a lot of people that I talk to, which I I want to talk about the emergency housing vouchers a little bit because I think there was a big push to include those and have those come, which was fantastic. And then recently some of the that has been pulled away, right? Can you describe what the each EHV was and then what the current status is and what's going on there?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, yes. Well, and I really appreciate you um bringing us to to this point because you know, just 2 weeks ago I was at a a round table uh with Congresswoman Barragan. She invited, you know, several folks that are working in the housing space to talk about uh the HUD funding and and programs. And one of the individuals that was at this round table was a gentleman by the name of Jeffrey and he shared his story and it really, you know, stayed with me. He basically said, you know, I was living a good life. I was working hard. I eventually bought a condo. Uh and then I eventually was able to buy a boat and life was going well for me until I had a terrible car accident and I ended up in the hospital needing multiple surgeries over several years and going to rehab.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
I lost everything. He said, you know, I ended up in my car homeless and not well physically and mentally. Uh eventually he connected to a nonprofit in San Pedro called Inner Faith or Harbor Inner Faith Community, then led him to a connection to the housing authority for an emergency housing voucher. He was able to find a unit that was accessible, affordable, and he's been stably housed. And then, you know, he went on to to talk about what he worries about now that the emergency housing voucher program is going to sunset by the end of the year, I meaning that you know, the funding is going to running out by the end of the year. In the county of LA, there are 6,000 households that are receiving emergency housing voucher assistance. We at the housing authority administer about
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
2,800. At at the national level, Congress appropriated funding for 70,000 emergency housing vouchers. There are still about 50,000. And you know, each of these vouchers represents a family, an individual who was homeless, who was experiencing homelessness, who was able to move into stable housing. The original program was designed to go through 2030. But for some reason this had administration decided that it was going to
20:00–30:00
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
sunset this program. And most housing authorities that administer the the emergency housing voucher program are essentially will be out of money by the end of the year. We have been trying to figure out how to solve for this. At the local level, we've been looking at measure A dollars. At the state level, I was in Sacramento just about a month ago with a number of housing authorities lifting this up. I just got back from DC also meeting with our you know, congressional delegation and really advocating for the the importance of continuing to fund these programs. There is really no other funding that is going to enable us to be able to to keep people you know, housed. And maybe the last point that I would make is that you know, these vouchers were appropriated following you know, the global
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
pandemic recognizing that a number of people ended up homeless and bringing them back in in indoors and in the last two years in 2023 and 2024, there's been a decrease in street homelessness in LA and LA County. There's been an increase in the number people that are housed. I would argue that this is largely driven by one focus that the mayor and the county have been really focused laser focused on street homelessness. Particularly, the mayor has been very focused on um addressing encampments and bringing people indoors, but also leveraging federal resources like EHV to ensure that as people come indoors that they're coming into permanent
Taylor Avakian
affordable housing. Mhm. What's been interesting to me being on the side of most of the private investors, I would say there's definitely a push and people are understanding the value of Section 8 vouchers and these emergency vouchers and they're questioning too because, you know, they have mortgages and they have things that they got to pay and the rent that's coming in from the government is allowing them to house these these people who need it, but if that's going to be going away, then what happens? Do we have to go through the eviction process? Do they stop like there's a lot of question marks I think people have in terms of what's going to happen if this doesn't get refunded, right? I'm curious to know from your perspective because Section 8 is so uh so important I would say it's the economics of even the private sector right now.
Taylor Avakian
There's stuff from the national level where Section 8 funding is going to slow up and you know, there's been question marks. Hey, there was I think I got an email from from either you guys or the county or something like that. Hey, we're working on this. We're you know, the the funding may be a little bit short or we're working on trying to find a solution. Is Section 8 going to be around for a long time? Is it something that people need to prepare for? Do landlords need to start gearing up and figuring out what they're going to do? Like how how would What advice would you give to the people who are housing these Section 8 voucher holders?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah. Well, you know, first I I I want to say thank you to all of the property owners that participate in the Section 8 program. Um because this program was designed to be a market solution, right? This you know, program was really designed to bring in private um landlords, private um property owners um to uh to make their units available, to participate in this program, and um we have been very um intentional at our agency about making that relationship um smoother and better, providing better service. We recently moved to a new um uh platform, a new uh system to ensure that we're rendering, you know, even better service to our property owners. That's huge. Yeah, so that's been really important, right, to um acknowledge and and appreciate and value that relationship with property owners. Uh and now we find ourselves in
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
the situation where we have more units than vouchers available. And um and that's, you know, one a result of as I was describing the emergency housing vouchers, and I'm so glad that you brought up property owners because we would not have been able to house people without property owners signing up for the program and saying, "Yes, I want to be part of this." Mhm. The current voucher program, our voucher program is suspended, meaning that we're not issuing any new vouchers right now because there's not enough funding for us to be able to issue. We have the capacity to um the the the ability in terms of vouchers available to lease up another 5,000 uh vouchers, Okay. but we don't have the funding from the federal government to be able to get those vouchers on the street.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
And that's because at the federal level, the budget has not kept up with the realities at the local level. Rents have increased, the percent of that we pay in subsidy has also increased. At the federal level, that increase hasn't kept up. So, we're serving fewer families and with the same budget, exactly. Um so, in 2025, about 50% of housing authorities across the country were essentially um moved into shortfall funding status, including us. And we had to stop leasing vouchers. And we also had to implement a number of cost containment measures, as the HUD uh calls it. Um including lowering our voucher payment standards and a number of other, you know, the changes. I truly hope that we are able to push for more funding.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Um and and I think that, you know, the best people to make that argument are really the property owners and um because you all see the value of it. I think, you know, sometimes for us in government, it's hard, you know, to to have that level of of advocacy. Um you know, we we tend to focus on the family and the stability and what it means to the family and to the neighborhood, but it's also an economic engine. Our budget is, you know, $2.4 billion, and the majority of those and the majority of those are dollars that come in to LA, and they go into the hands of, you know, property owners that then can pay their mortgage, um that then can, you know, pay their employees, that then can consume. So, there's a multiplier effect, and I think sometimes we
Taylor Avakian
lose we lose sight of that. That, you know, absolutely, 100%. We have a sponsor for today's episode, and that is AI for Siri Collective. 25 listings at the moment. We're closing four or five deals a month. It's been incredible. So, if you want to learn, if you're in commercial real estate, how to use AI in your business, whether you're a property manager, a broker, an investor, really anyone. We have a huge group over 400 people in this community. And the website, if you want to go check it out, is AI for SiriCollective.com. So, appreciate you guys. Now, back to the episode. It's going to be interesting to see where we take this and and what because I would tell you from and I'm glad you guys are implementing new systems. I think one of the things that I hear is sometimes people can get frustrated
Taylor Avakian
with the time aspect of the government, the way things move because obviously with in the private sector time is money, right? And time is money for the government, too, but there's a lot more regulations and things that you guys have to go through, which slows up the process. So, for example, if someone wants to provide a housing unit to someone at Section 8, sometimes it's it's weeks or months or these there's different, you know, loop checks and balances that have to happen before you can even let the person move in. And that's money that's not, you know, being taken in from a gross revenue perspective when that the unit's being vacant. So, streamline the process. I'm very curious how governments are going to be implementing artificial intelligence throughout this process cuz I think there's a lot of feedback and push to try to just make the timeline shrink as much
Taylor Avakian
as possible because that itself is going to help you guys be more efficient in what you're doing, which is then in turn going to make the landlords a little bit easier to rent these units out. So, I agree with you. There's a cascading effect of us becoming more efficient. Um when we're talking about the funds cuz there is a lot of funds, I would say one of the biggest, not complaints, but one of the biggest question marks that a lot of owners and private individuals have with government authorities is this headline of a million dollars per unit, right? Homeless housing, a million dollars per unit. Um Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about the where I guess your hands are tied and or the thought process behind us spending dollars for development versus the argument of us converting, which I know you guys have done with HomeKey,
Taylor Avakian
but like taking these existing apartment buildings, maybe, and I talked to Jeff about this when he was on here, but these 1920s buildings that are trading on the open market for 120,000 per unit, right? Which would be a fantastic home for someone if you you renovated them, versus a million dollars a unit that you know, is is coming up. Like it's a lot of taxpayer money. So, how do you guys think about that and maybe what are some of the the challenges with you being able to to be that to go that direction?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah. Yeah, no, I I mean, I think you raised a really important point. So, you know, as a housing authority, um beyond administering programs and and being a a a property manager, right? Um we're also a developer. Um we are also in real estate. And uh our you know, development costs um both speed and cost very important, right? Especially because we are in the housing crisis and we need to create more units. Our development activity is primarily focused on
30:00–40:00
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
redeveloping our public housing units. Um these are, you know, very old barrack-style public housing that are outdated, no air conditioning, and that also sit on vast parcels of land, you know, 48 acres, 50 acres, 60 acres. And so, when it comes to cost, it is more expensive to develop an affordable unit in LA because we're building in the infrastructure costs. So, it's not just like creating the unit. Many of our public housing um communities sit in areas that have not been have not received that level of investment. Um so, we're you know, creating sidewalks and streets and parks. Um and so that when you look at the entire development cost it's not just the unit it's all of the other infrastructure costs but we also are
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
doing not just you know from the ground up new units we're also looking at ways to bring in inventory of affordable units through a program that we launched about two years ago our acquisitions program which is about finding opportunities in LA where we are able to purchase market rate buildings and convert them into mixed income so we bring in federal subsidy that gives an opportunity to families and you know we're also very intentional about location because we think let's talk about that because we think it's important to to look for places that that have other amenities that families
Taylor Avakian
need yeah and speaking of the locations I think from seeing where the transactions have happened from Hackler right and ED1 which is going up everywhere there has been the develop the private developers who then started building ED1 right were underwriting some of these units for section 8 vouchers right which which we just talked about you know it's a challenge right now it's very much a challenge right so when it's hard you can't lease these up with the underwriting that you were you were projecting then you're like oh shoot how am I going to make this work where there's also these you know sites where you guys are are buying and converting them to affordable in places like the valley and places like the west side and not just all South LA which most people feel is like okay that's traditionally the lower income kind of parts of Los
Taylor Avakian
Angeles where and I guess why are you guys going and investing in different pockets maybe considered higher income than the standard versus where most people would say is like South Los Angeles, which may those people need the most help. Like why why go and distribute it in different parts and in these different locations?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, good question. I mean, I think that we need affordable housing in every community. Um and I think that um what you know, when when we talk about affordable housing or or housing that's affordable um to to families, you know, we're typically talking about um people that are working uh making 20, 30 dollars an hour uh and you know, they may be working in service sector, right? At a restaurant, a nurse at that that the hospital, right? And um and we think it's important to be able to have that level of um access to affordability in places that are rich in um jobs Mhm. um that are also well connected to transit and that also have um access to good schools, right?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Um so uh we purchased 335 units in Woodland Hills. Um it is a great neighborhood. It's walkable. It's close to transit and there are a lot of jobs. The moment, you know, we opened the the list to for units, we had a a long waiting list, right? Um we're also um we also purchased another building in downtown LA close to the convention center um and you know, again, it's in an area where there are are job opportunities and transit options. So, we really think that it's important um for us as an agency to um to do everything that we can to facilitate access to housing that's affordable in high-resource neighborhoods. You know, we're continuing, of course, to invest in low-income neighborhoods as as mentioning our public housing
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
redevelopments. You know, the majority of them are um in South LA, Uh um San Pedro, uh and uh you know, the the east, you know, side of LA, uh Mar Vista in the west side. We have to do both, right? You know, we we think that it's important to create opportunities for families to move into well-resourced neighborhoods. And we think it's also important to continue to invest in low
Taylor Avakian
lower-income neighborhoods. Are you mandated to do that, or is it a function of where the funding comes from? Because obviously high-resource areas, if you're getting you're selling bonds, you're getting funding from different places, there's probably, you know, different level of funding percentages that come from that. Is it Is it effectively like uh business strategy for you guys to be able to acquire more units because the funding is different, or is it a mandate from, you know, unions or government agencies or something where you guys have to go and buy these stuffs these buildings?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, well, I would say I think it's both. I think one is it is a priority for our agency to do this. Um but you know, we also live in the state of California, which has, you know, very robust um affirmatively furthering fair housing laws, which are very much about being promoting equitable development across. And also there have been great opportunities to be able to um to move into, you know, these neighborhoods, right? And the other thing that I think is really important is when um families began to live together and interact with different income levels, I mean, frankly, it's really great, you know, to have that level of integration. You know, as long as we're maintaining that property and well and providing the right property management services, and you know, people are um getting um what they're asking for when they
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
move into a unit, I don't think it should really matter, right? Um but that we, you know, we still struggle with perceptions of low-income residents and you know, what what that means and you know, what what it brings into a neighborhood.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah, for sure. Where are you guys currently actively looking? I guess where or where is the current um focus point at this point in time?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
I have an amazing uh chief of development, um Jenny Scanlon, and we um are uh we had a great conversation with Councilwoman um uh Yaroslavsky and she's really interested in having us look at um her district. Uh we've also um uh are in conversations with um uh Councilwoman uh Tracy Park to look at clean opportunities there. Um so, you know, essentially we're we're looking at opportunities where we're able to bring in value by bringing in um affordability um and it doesn't negate some of the neighborhoods that we're already in, but in South LA we have Jordan Downs. We have a tr- uh the very significant redevelopment initiative underway, which um we just marked 10 years of uh investing at Jordan Downs.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
And over the 10-year history of redeveloping this public housing community, we've already seen a 12% drop in poverty. Wow. And that's because it's not just housing. It's It was housing, retail, commercial, parks, um improving the overall
Taylor Avakian
infrastructure. Mm. Where is the next I guess focus point going to be? And what I mean by that is I know there's some things with Housing Our Vets campaign, which you guys are working on, right? Which is nice. I think the way that I hear it from my perspective, right? The conversations that I'm I'm having with these private investors is they're obviously trying to make a return. They're trying to make investments. And Los Angeles as a whole has been redlined for a lot of bigger companies because of the political nature of it being much more difficult to be a landlord because of the red tape and things like that versus other states and other other cities and stuff like that. So, for for investors to go and try to make a return on their investment, sometimes they look for
Taylor Avakian
different programs from the government or whatnot to say, "Okay, I'm going to go, for example, ED1, right? Emergency Directive 1, which have effectively streamlined these new construction buildings with limited parking and you're able to, quote unquote, on the numbers, get a decent return for the risk associated with it. So, a bunch of private developers went into that field. There's something that people are working on right now, which is like this private non-profit partnership, which is effectively converting these existing units into affordable, you get tax break covenants from that, right? So, this is a business plan that people are trying to figure out because the traditional market rate value-add, you know, come in, raise the rents, make make uh make the units nice and and increase the NOI, that is very difficult to get done in the city. So, where do you see opportunities for private individuals
Taylor Avakian
to partner with the government, and where are the opportunities for them to make a return, but also do good and align with your guys's mission?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah. Well, I First, you know, I think that it's uh the the House Our Vets uh initiative, as you mentioned, uh this is uh one of the only programs right now where we are still able uh to issue vouchers. Uh we have up to 2,000 vouchers. Um this is a program uh that was established in partnership
40:00–50:00
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
with the VA, and uh you know, essentially works very much like the traditional voucher program, um which is property owner participates um in the voucher program. Um the focus uh is, of course, on on house uh veteran that, you know, moves in, and we provide the subsidy. Uh we also have incentives uh for property owners that are uh needing um whether you're already participating in the program or not, um but to uh ready the unit, um to hold the unit, we're able to pay um the uh holding fee, um to make um some improvements to the unit to ensure that it's accessible to a veteran. Uh so this is this is a great opportunity, you know, for um property owners that have units, 81 units. We've had actually a number of 81 uh owners
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
um sign up to be um to to participate in the House Our Vets. In 2025, we house 600 veterans uh through this program. From January to now, we're almost at 200 veterans um that have been housed. Um so this, you know, if you're interested, we have um vouchers um and, you know, we'd love to partner with you. Um the second area I would say is the acquisitions program. Um if you're looking to to sell your building, um we, you know, are interested in having that uh conversation. Uh we have a team that is on a regular basis, of course, looking at opportunities and assessing uh if it aligns, you know, to our priorities. Um So there's, you know, an opportunity there. Uh and we've also established a um a partnership program as well, um you know, similar to what you were describing where, you
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
know, nonprofits are partnering with the private sector. We are also interested in um partnering. And so, if you have a development project that you're uh would like to pitch to us, um our development team is also available to be able to to sit down and and talk through um
Taylor Avakian
the potential for a uh a partnership. What are the biggest complaints that people come to you with? Like what are the the private landlords or maybe even the tenants unions or other people? Like what do you hear constantly that is frustrating to you?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, well, one it is that our service has been slow, especially on the Section 8 side. And so, I mentioned to you that we are very focused on we've established a landlord council that meets once a month, and this is a place where we can hear directly from property owners about what's not working with the program. And the team takes that back. It looks at ways to, you know, to make changes. We've implemented and are modernizing our platform that essentially allows for property owners like currently there's not a lot of information where, you know, property owner can go online and check to see what's going on, but we're working on that. And so, you know, that should be actually coming very soon. It's called Rent Cafe, so something similar to what the county is
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
doing. Um I think the other, you know, complaint and issue is from 81 property owners because they're really frustrated that there aren't rental subsidies available. And they, you know, they went through this process, they have their units, and they're they're not getting any voucher holders, and they're struggling. Right. They're trying to figure out like, what can I
Taylor Avakian
do?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Um so, I do think it is important for us as a region, especially now with Measure A and the creation of this new entity called La Casa, to explore how to bring in other rental subsidy forms to ensure that these units don't stay vacant, right?
Taylor Avakian
Um What's La Casa?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Explain it to me. Yeah, La Casa is the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency. It's um an agency that was created through state statute that essentially is focused on organizing all 88 cities within LA County to produce more housing and to preserve or enhance the existing housing. Um, it is um it it it is funded now through measure A funds. Measure A was you know a ballot in November of 2024 that is half cent sales tax that generates about a billion dollars in funding. So 60% of the funding goes to the county for
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
services with a focus on homelessness and about 36% or so goes to La Casa and those dollars then go out to communities for housing preservation and housing production. Um, it's still a very new um entity. This is in fact I think they just they're going on a year and a half of being of having or maybe even a year of having funding because measure A just you know passed in November 2024. I think that there's tremendous opportunity for our region to be able to incentivize more housing construction and there's also they have the flexibility of also providing rental subsidy.
Taylor Avakian
Mm, interesting.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah. Okay.
Taylor Avakian
So that may be the next There may be opportunities there for these people. If you were in charge of changing any laws, you could change any laws, you could do anything, whatever it is in the city of Los Angeles. We clearly I think from every person understands that there's an affordable housing crisis right now. There's a lot of people who don't love ULA, right? Which they feel has been negative in terms of the private people coming in developing and naturally having people move up. If you were in charge, you could change any law, you could do anything what you wanted to, you had ultimate power to say we're going to solve this issue." How would you do it?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, wow. That's a really big question. Well, first I would say a funding policy law where um I I I think it is important to to recognize that at a national level, we're only providing vouchers or rental assistance to one out of every four eligible household. In the state of California, it's much higher because the rents are so high. So, I think it's one out of 10 um and it varies by county. So, first I would say uh more funding for rental subsidy programs um because the reality is yes, we need to build more housing um because we have we're lacking uh units. But, as we work towards building more housing, we have to provide rental subsidy to make sure that you know, families are able to um not have to pay 50% you know, more than 50% of their income or you know, be on the verge
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
of becoming homeless. And then I I mean, I think that it's really important to you know, to continue streamlining or um removing you know, the moment you have parcel of land and you have the units, it should be almost you know, by right. Like you you you're ready and there should be a really a consolidation of all of these funding sources. The reason why many units that are affordable often cost between 800,000 to a a million dollars is because they have to go um out and um pull together six to eight different sources of funding. They have to apply at the local level, at the state level, maybe even at the federal level. You know, that takes time and um and you know, resources.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
And so, by the time you're done, you're at 800,000 to a million dollars. So, bring all the dol- you know, all housing funding under one pot and, you know, ensure that
Taylor Avakian
you're removing all local barriers to build. Cuz Texas does it pretty pretty well, I'd say. Texas, you can pretty much, if you own that land, you can kind of build what you need to. And if you've seen what's happened in Austin, right? Austin rents have come down almost to pre-COVID levels, 26%. They built a whole ton of houses and all the rents came down. Like, what a surprise, right? Yes. Did you learn anything from Texas that you think like are there are there other states and other places that are doing it better than us?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yeah, I well, I I agree with you. I think that, you know, Austin is a great example. Um it's, you know, it's really a hub for um not just innovation, just just building, right? You know, folks recognize that rents were going up and they started building more. And what's interesting is that they're they're not um cookie-cutter units, you know, all it's I I guess it's that, you know, keeping Austin weird, right? But uh it is really the spirit of we we need to build more, so let's remove, you know, all obstacles, you know, to do that. Um I think San Antonio is another city that, you know, is doing that well. Um the the former mayor um Mayor Nirenberg was really focused on a uh getting ahead of the housing crisis by, you know, being very proactive in developing um a housing plan that was not
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
just focused on housing um entities, but also the utility companies and uh the, you know, the higher learning um institutions, you know, playing a
Taylor Avakian
role um in in building. If uh if you were a private landlord and you were considering taking on Section 8 tenants right now, would you suggest that they take the leap and do that? Or do you think that weighing the costs of the unknown of where funding is and and where all this stuff is coming is the risk worth the reward, quote unquote, right?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Of being able to have the income from Hackla. Yes, I would say absolutely, please, you know, do purchase if you if
50:00–1:00:00
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
you have a family that has a voucher and that's looking to um to to lease, you know, to rent your unit, um yes, please, you know, join us and participate. I do think that we have strong support at the federal level for the voucher program. It's, you know, it's a program that's been around for decades now and there's, you know, I think we all see the value. There have been studies after studies also that show the benefit of having um a voucher and rental stability um to a family, especially to children. If they're able to to, you know, stay stably housed, go to school, do better. Um so, I think we just need to continue to lift up the why. Why is it important to continue to um to support, you know, the voucher program. So, to a landlord that is looking to to participate
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
or that has a family that has a voucher that wants to lease, I would encourage you to say yes, to open your door, you know, to
Taylor Avakian
them. Forward-looking, next 5 to 10 years, what do you think that looks like from an affordability perspective and what do you think housing looks like in LA and in California in general? Like, if you had to make a guess, are we going to be improving this? Is it is the gap going to get worse? Like, from your inside perspective as as a businesswoman, like, how do you perceive this?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
It is important for us to recognize that we're in a moment where the decisions that we make this year will have lasting um implications. There are roughly about 10,000 households that are at risk of losing their housing if we don't make the right decisions. We've talked about the emergency housing voucher, right? 2,800 um so, we need a funding solution there. HUD is proposing a new rule that is focused on mixed-status families. And if that rule goes into impact into effect, we would have families, roughly about 2,000 families, that are at risk of losing their housing because they have a member of their household that
Taylor Avakian
is ineligible, right?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
And, you know, just for a moment here, I want to just share with you that the current policy that's been around for over 30 years. It was, you know, created under President Ronald Reagan, allows for mixed-status families to participate in federally assisted housing. And the way that we administer the the housing assistance is we do not provide rent to the ineligible member or subsidy to the ineligible member. We provide subsidy to the eligible members. And so, it's essentially prorated rent. Mhm. And that's the policy, a proration policy. And as a whole, mixed-status families end up paying more in rent because the subsidy is is lower. And so, HUD, just 2 weeks ago, released a proposed change in this rule
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
to to make mixed-status families ineligible. And then the number of other things, including, you know, having housing authorities need to like verify the citizenship of every single person that participates in assisted housing. To create an even more burden, right? Instead of streamlining, we're going to the other extreme. So, there's that. And then there's, you know, I mentioned the shortfall of funding. Um because we have not been able to issue new vouchers, every month our program size is about 60,000, but every month through attrition, we lose about 200 vouchers. So, in the course, you know, of the last 20 uh 18 months or so, you know, we've lost almost 3,000 vouchers, right? So, it is if if we don't come up with a funding solution that allows families to to stay
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
stably housed, we are headed in in in the wrong direction in terms of the progress that, you know, the city and and really the state has made, you know, as it relates to homelessness and increasing supply. But I'm I'm going to be optimistic, Taylor, and I'm going to say that that that we're going to make the right decision and that we're going to continue focusing on building more units and doing, you know, comprehensive place-based work. I'm excited that this week the city council approved the redevelopment of Rancho San Pedro, our public housing community in San Pedro. That, you know, essentially allows us to begin the um the transformation of this public housing community into a mixed-income, mixed-use community. We're finishing up Rose Hills in the Eastside.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Those units will come online next year. So, you know, we are going to continue to do our best to do more in in terms of housing, but
Taylor Avakian
also do more in terms of, you know, people and place. Mhm. Yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely you guys have a lot that's going on. You you do more than just housing, too. I know you guys have, you know, being able to create with Section 3 3,000 local jobs, which is incredible, obviously, cuz with jobs then comes the income, which then they spend on local businesses, and then restaurants get to survive and all this kind of stuff. You have things from city council members and other government agencies that make your life harder, right? Cuz these laws change and whatnot. So, then you guys have to to deal with all that stuff, but I think um you're you're focusing on doing the right things, which is good. I hope that it'll continue to be a sense of um a collaboration between the private and the public, and that everyone's on
Taylor Avakian
the same page and understanding like this has to work together, otherwise it's not going to work at all, because I don't think from anyone's perspective um with the amount of difficulties that comes with government versus private, private just moves so much quicker, which for people who are in need is is is very important, right? Um so I'm hoping that that can start to be streamlined from that process. We talked about focus. Like right now, as we speak right now, what is your biggest focus? What are you spending, you know, what keeps you up at night? What are those those thoughts and and where is that for you right now?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
biggest focus is keeping families together. You know, I think that is my job, you know, to ensure that the families that we have been able to to move into stable housing, uh families that are you know, trying to do their best every single day to get ahead, um that they don't have to, you know, live in this um the situation of fear and unpredictability. And so, I think it's really important to provide good information. There's a lot of misinformation out there um and I think it's really important for us to um you know, this is not the the time to to be comfortable. We have to be courageous and you know, we have to be able to um to be creative and you know, I mentioned that 90% of our budget comes from the federal government um and we really appreciate, of course, you know, the the partnership with the
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
federal government, but we have to continue to diversify our funding, and we have to continue to look at ways, you know, to uh to be more nimble um and innovative. And absolutely, I think the private sector is our partner, and you know, we are also stand to learn a lot from them.
Taylor Avakian
So. 100% No, I'm I'm happy that you're very much open to that idea. Um, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you think is important to bring up? Is there something that maybe for a lot of the private people watching, right? Is there something that's important for them to know or to focus on or to communicate with you guys?
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Yes, one thing. Um, and you you brought this up as it relates to, you know, our mission being not just housing, which is really important and foundational, but it's also about economic opportunity. And so, we are very focused on ensuring that as families, particularly, you know, families with children, um, families that are, you know, able to, um, that are working to get ahead, to get connected to education and jobs and and workforce development. Um, bringing in those wrap-around services, you know, to to to do that. Um, I strongly believe that, you know, housing is a platform to opportunity. And so, as an agency, we work with a lot of different service providers, um, that bring in after-school programming. We have computer labs. We, um, have a work source center for job training and,
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
you know, connection to some, uh, careers that will lead to higher earnings. Um, so, there's a lot of talk also at the federal level about work requirements and, you know, people need to be working, but people are working. But, they live in a city that's very high cost. And, you know, they they they're trying to do their best um, to, you know, to to move ahead, and we're, you know, trying to do our best to meet people where they're at. Mhm. So, you know, uh, to the private sector and property owners that want to get involved in that side, um, we establish a a nonprofit called Build Hope. Um, and Build Hope is about, um, investing in young people. We have a scholarship program. Last year we provided about $300,000 to uh young people going off to college, um young people that are already in college needing, you know, additional
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
financial support. We also uh have the computer lab program and focus on digital literacy um and in June we're going to have a golf tournament to raise dollars.
Taylor Avakian
So, I'll send you the information. Amazing. Amazing. What a blessing. Yes. Thank you very much for coming on today. This is awesome. I really appreciate you sharing and I think from our perspective it sometimes can feel like there's this
1:00:00–1:10:00
Taylor Avakian
um you know, curtain in between the problems that people are dealing with here and and how people on the other side, there's this disconnect, this lack of communication. So, it's very important when when you come and share kind of what's actually going on because I know I know it's not easy for what you guys are doing. I know your hands somewhat are tied. There's only so many things you can do. You have pressure from a lot of different people to make the right decisions, but it's it's good to know that your your head and your heart and the way that you guys think is in the right place because I think everyone has to come together. Private, public, everyone to be able to be on the same page of LA is not in the place where we want it to be. It's just not.
Taylor Avakian
And so, if we're going to get back to the place where we we think it can be, we know it can be, we have to come together to do it. So, I appreciate you for coming on and thank you for sharing.
Lourdes Castro Ramirez
Thank you. Thank you, Zilar. Appreciated.