Los Angeles Council Member Boasts of Slashing Size of Affordable Housing Development

A member of the Los Angeles City Council made waves with a recent podcast appearance in which she appeared to proudly boast of slashing the size of an affordable housing development.

Council Member Imelda Padilla, a Democrat whose district includes Van Nuys and Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley, made the comments Wednesday in a debate moderated by “Pod Save America” co-host Jon Lovett, visibly stunning the progressive podcaster.

Lovett had pressed Padilla on her commitment to solving the city’s dire housing crisis, asking her, “Are you focused on what will ultimately make California affordable for the people in your district?”

Padilla responded by describing her intervention in a development that had been expedited under Executive Directive 1 (ED1), a city measure to fast-track affordable housing projects.

“I really have no jurisdiction anymore because it’s an ED1, right? But we still, as a team, got together with the developer … and instead of building something that was potentially six stories, we got it down to three stories,” Padilla boasted, saying she also told the developer, “We do want you to also incorporate a few more parking lots and EV chargers.”

Lovett, the podcast host, struggled to contain his disbelief upon hearing Padilla’s remarks, looking incredulous with raised eyebrows and mouth agape.

Video clips of the interaction drew strong reactions on social media, with one baffled X user writing: “What even is her argument? How is reducing the amount of available living space possibly an argument in favor of enhancing affordability?”

Padilla had mentioned that the project was near the intersection of Victory and Balboa boulevards in the Valley, a crossing that is home to a strip mall, high school football stadium, and commuter parking lot.

The intersection is also a public transit hub and stop on the Orange Line rapid transit system, which connects much of the Valley using a dedicated busway that operates similarly to light rail.

Affordable housing advocates often push for more housing development near public transit, because it alleviates the need for parking spaces, allowing greater density, and offers options to residents who can’t afford cars.

“Especially in Los Angeles, which is one of the least affordable cities in the U.S., cutting an affordable housing development in half is not something to brag about,” says Realtor.com® senior economist Joel Berner. “In reality, to advance housing supply, we need local governments to get out of the way of builders and let them produce what the market is clamoring for: more housing.”

Berner adds: “People can’t live in EV-charging parking spots—that’s not the priority. Housing units are.”

A spokesman for Padilla declined to comment on her viral remarks when reached by Realtor.com.

Padilla’s controversial comments came during a debate Lovett was moderating between her and California state Sen. Scott Weiner over SB 79, a measure aimed at overriding local zoning rules to allow more housing near public transit stops.

Weiner, who sponsored the bill, says it will encourage new affordable housing development and reduce rent by removing the barriers that local officials often put up to prevent it.

However, the measure is opposed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials, including Padilla, who complained in the debate that the new policy would “reduce my job description.”

“My job description is to engage with my community about what sort of things they want to see in their neighborhood,” she said.

Padilla warned that, if given free rein, developers would run rampant with projects designed to maximize their profits rather than meet the needs of community members.

“We can’t assume developers are ready to just show up and give us the best development that the community needs,” she said. “We need things related to families. We need things related to the workforce that lives in the region.”

But Weiner argued that local officials in California have for decades abused their power to block new development, boosting property values for existing homeowners through scarcity.

“Until about 10 years ago, California had a system of almost total local control on housing, and it drove the car into the ditch,” he said. “We generated this massive housing shortage.”

Various recent estimates suggest that California needs to build some 1.8 million to 3.5 million new units to end its housing shortage, marking the largest state-level supply gap in the nation.

The Realtor.com economic research team graded California “F” for homebuilding and affordability on its recent national housing report card.

The report showed California was the worst in the nation for its permits-to-population ratio. Last year, California accounted for 6.8% of all residential permits, despite having 11.7% of the total population.

The economist, Berner, says that local officials in California may have restrictive attitudes toward growth in response to their constituents—putting elected officials who try to solve the housing crisis at risk of losing their office.

“Homeowners are often more concerned with protecting their property values and the character of their neighborhoods than they are with ensuring ample affordable inventory for citizens to live in, and they often influence policymakers to advance this agenda,” he says.