Aug. 16 (UPI) — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to give homeowners between $50,000 and $75,000 to build second dwellings on their property in an effort to house more homeless people.
The pilot program passed 4-0 and will begin with an allocated amount of $550,000, reported the Los Angeles Daily News.
But the program will roll out slow as a way to test its feasibility. In a letter recommending the program’s approval, Richard Bruckner, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, said the initiative will begin using the slightly more than half a million dollar budget to review and approve designs for the additional units, provide incentives for their construction and promote the program.
The Los Angeles County program comes after the state passed a law easing restrictions on building second units, informally referred to as backhouses or granny flats, in order to combat the rising homelessness rate in California.
According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, California typically has approximately 118,000 people experiencing homelessness on an average night — the highest rate in the country and 30,000 more than in New York, which came second.
In Los Angeles, the number of homeless people on an average night is about 47,000.
“Homelessness in Los Angeles will not be solved overnight — it is a long-term crisis that calls for long-term solutions,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in January.
