The ongoing housing crisis facing Southern California is a massive problem we all need to solve together. That's why we at Abundant Housing LA are asking you to sign our petition to demand that the city of Burbank step up, and help us tackle the challenge. Burbank has the chance to modify its approach to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to support more affordable housing in the city. Read the text of our petition below, and sign to help us fight for housing justice in Burbank: 

We are residents of Burbank writing to express our concern about our region's affordable housing shortage and its impact on the future of our city. We are frustrated by increasing homelessness, by the burden that displacement and gentrification place on our neighbors, and by community members and elected officials continuing to promote exclusion in our neighborhoods. 

Exclusionary zoning and land use practices have led to an undersupply of affordable medium- and high-density housing near jobs and transit, and have perpetuated segregated living patterns and the exclusion of historically disadvantaged communities. The housing and homelessness crisis, together with this year's COVID-19 pandemic, severe wildfires, , and civil unrest, illustrate the need for a totally new approach to solving our city and region's housing crisis. The upcoming housing element update can't just be a thought exercise;it must instead offer comprehensive and implementable solutions, so that the ills of today can eventually become of the ills of yesterday.

Several new state laws have strengthened the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), which sets a housing growth target for cities and requires cities to update their housing elements in compliance with these targets. We believe that solving the region's housing crisis, climate change, and segregation by race and class requires cities like Burbank to update housing elements in a way that encourages higher-density affordable housing production in high opportunity areas. 

Burbank has a legal and moral responsibility to sufficiently plan for and meet current and future residents' housing needs. However, we are concerned that Burbank is not on a path to achieving its RHNA target of 8,751 new homes by 2029, of which 3,961 must be affordable to lower-income households. This is deeply concerning to us, not least because significant state and federal funding for affordable housing is on the line.

It is possible for Burbank to accommodate 8,751 more homes by the end of the decade; this will require Burbank to update its zoning and land use rules, expand higher-density housing production in high opportunity areas, and to prioritize funding for affordable housing opportunities. As such, we have a housing element checklist we'd like for the city to adopt:

RHNA Distribution

• Is new housing distributed in an equitable manner across the city?

Site Capacity Assessment

• Does the housing element estimate and report both the likelihood of development and the net new units if developed of inventory sites, both vacant and nonvacant?

• Does the housing element report the proportion of sites from the previous housing element's inventory that were developed during the previous planning period?

  • If not, were HCD-recommended methodologies and data sources used in order to conduct a thorough “factors” analysis of sites' realistic development capacity? 

• Does the housing element declare a “fundamental, mandatory, and clear” policy of allowing inventory sites to be developed at the density ascribed to them in the housing element?

• If the housing element assigns more than 50% of the lower-income RHNA target to nonvacant sites, were statistical methods (e.g. surveying a random sample of owners of nonvacant sites) used to determine that the sites' existing uses are likely to be discontinued during the planning period?

• Was a buffer of at least 15-30% extra capacity included in the housing element site inventory, especially for capacity to accommodate the lower-income RHNA target?

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

• Does the housing element include a thorough analysis of local patterns in socioeconomic/racial segregation and integration, including patterns of overt racial or ethnic discrimination in the housing and land development market?

• Does the housing element prioritize high-opportunity census tracts and well-resourced areas (e.g. near transit, jobs, schools, parks, etc.) when selecting sites for lower-income housing opportunities? 

• Does the housing element identify funding sources, public resources, and density bonus programs to maximize the likelihood that projects with below-market-rate units are built?

• Did the jurisdiction solicit public feedback and commentary on the housing element in a way that accurately reflects the jurisdiction's socioeconomic makeup?

Forecasts of ADU Development

• Did the housing element use an HCD-recommended safe harbor methodology for forecasting future ADU production?

• Does the housing element provide for mid-cycle adjustments if a) inventory sites are developed at lower rates, or lesser densities, than the housing element anticipated and if b) ADU production falls short of projections?

  • Do mid-cycle adjustments automatically implement a by-right density bonus on inventory sites, starting mid-cycle, and is it large enough to make up for an ADU shortfall?

As Burbank moves forward with the housing element update, it is time as a city to redevelop our relationship with land, in particular our relationship with residential land, by taking equity from a racial and class lens into account. We believe that by following through on this checklist and ensuring an equitable distribution of new housing, this will increase the supply of housing at all income levels, especially near jobs and transit, bring down rents, and advance racial and economic equity and justice. As the housing element update process begins, we urge you to embrace the opportunity to make Burbank a more affordable, sustainable, and inclusive city and to help end our region's housing and homelessness crisis.