California’s Housing Crossroads

Oct. 16-18, 2022
Lake Arrowhead, California

For the first time in three years, the 2022 UCLA Arrowhead Symposium reconvenes at its eponymous home at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Lodge and Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Program
FAQs

California has a housing crisis

High land costs, a shortage of homes, and income inequality leads to a cost-burdened population: Nationally, 49% of households that earn under $50,000 per year pay more than 30% of their income on housing, but in California it’s over 65%, and in the Los Angeles metro area it’s nearly 70%. Californians cope with this housing burden by crowding into cramped housing units, exiling to exurban or out-of-state markets with lower costs but increased climate impacts, and surfing between less secure housing opportunities with friends or relatives. Those with the least support end up without housing altogether, either in vehicles, in shelters, or on the street.

California’s Housing Crisis is a Transportation Issue

California’s housing crisis is particularly acute in coastal job centers and near public transportation infrastructure. Recently UCLA ITS assembled an expert panel of transportation leaders from throughout California to discuss the state’s transportation problems and policy options. Even with shifting investments to build a robust and reliable multimodal network, using pricing to manage automobiles, and making the system a safer place for all users, panelists saw increasing inequality, economic strain, and automobile dependence if these were pursued without making progress on the state’s housing crisis.

Charting a different path: How to fix the housing crisis

Housing policy is complex, but the solutions to the housing crisis needn’t be. Substantial progress can be made by addressing the need for: 

Strong Protections

Strong protections to protect housing vulnerable populations, including displacement protections and rent stabilization

Government Partnerships

Shared responsibility between the state and local governments to solve a collective action problem

More Housing

Additional housing supply, produced through a combination of government subsidies and zoning and development reform

Assistance

Direct assistance for unhoused and at-risk households, including housing vouchers, counseling, and other public services

Political Organizing

Bottom-up political organizing to support diverse housing choices in every community

Each of these solutions is easier said than done. At the 2022 Arrowhead Symposium, we’ll focus on how to make these solutions happen in California. Each requires an understanding of the problems, a political constituency and advocacy, and institutions and professionals that can deliver new programs and expand old ones.

What can transportation professionals do?

The 2022 Arrowhead Symposium is intended for professionals, elected officials, and advocates working on housing, transportation, and regional economic issues. To build an understanding of and capacity to implement these solutions across attendee backgrounds, the Symposium will include a Housing 101 session and a demystification of the alphabet soup of California housing: RHNA, HEs, AFFH, CEQA, ADUs and highlight actions that transportation professionals can take to support housing solutions.

Speakers

Executive Director

Kome Ajise
CEO

Adam Briones
Assistant Professor

Gregg Colburn
Policy Reporter

Jerusalem Demsas
Law Professor

Chris Elmendorf
CEO & Founder

Cecilia Estolano
Councilmember

Alex Fisch
Director of Cities

Annie Fryman
Professor

Joan Ling
Executive Director

Laura Loe
Assistant Professor

José Loya
President & CEO

Rochelle Mills
Associate Professor

Paavo Monkkonen
Assistant Professor

Deyanira Nevárez Martínez
Councilmember

Thai Viet Phan
Los Angeles Council Member

Nithya Raman
Co-founder & CEO

Mott Smith
Executive Director

Kome Ajise

Kome Ajise is the executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments. He has three decades of experience in regional planning and transportation, most recently as the Director of Planning at SCAG. Prior to working at SCAG, Kome was the Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where he was responsible for internal operations, overseeing more than 18,000 employees and a budget in excess of $1.1 billion. Previously, he was Caltrans’ Deputy Director of Planning and Modal Programs and oversaw the Aeronautics, Mass Transportation, Rail, Transportation Planning, Local Assistance, and Research Innovation and System Information Divisions. Kome has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Regional Planning from the University of Benin, Nigeria and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from California State University, Fresno.

CEO

Adam Briones

Adam Briones is the CEO of California Community Builders, where he leads efforts to end California’s racial wealth gap and housing crisis for communities of color. Previously, Adam was the Senior Director of Economic Equity of the Greenlining Institute, VP of Real Estate Development at the Genesis Companies, and a Senior Analyst for HR&A Advisors. Adam holds a M.U.R.P from UCLA.

Assistant Professor

Gregg Colburn

Gregg Colburn is an assistant professor of real estate at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. He has published research on housing and homelessness in journals like Urban Studies, Housing Studies, Urban Affairs Review, and Housing Policy Debate and is co-author of the book, Homelessness is a Housing Problem (University of California Press, 2022). Gregg holds a PhD and an MSW from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Policy Reporter

Jerusalem Demsas

Jerusalem Demsas is a Staff Writer at The Atlantic where she writes about institutional failure, particularly as it relates to housing and infrastructure in Democratic states and cities, touching on issues of citizen voice, gentrification, and interstate mobility. She has written extensively on housing policy and NIMBY-ism both at The Atlantic and at her previous outlet, Vox, where she co-hosted the politics and policy podcast The Weeds.

Law Professor

Chris Elmendorf

Chris Elmendorf is a law professor at UC Davis.

CEO & Founder

Cecilia Estolano

Cecilia V. Estolano is a leading expert on contemporary urban planning issues, with experience in economic and workforce development, land use, environmental policy, and urban revitalization. She has worked directly with public, private, institutional, and non-profit clients to plan, finance, design, implement, and operate policy-driven programs and projects that promote sustainable solutions tailored for each community. Cecilia is a former Chair of the Regents of the University of California and has served as President of the California Community College Board of Governors.

Councilmember

Alex Fisch

Alex was elected to the Culver City City Council in April 2018. He represents the City on the Westside Cities Council of Governments (WSCCOG) as a Board Member, and serves as the WSCCOG Representative to the Regional Council of the Southern California Association of Governments.

Director of Cities

Annie Fryman

Annie Fryman is the Director of Cities at Abodu, a Bay Area company that builds backyard accessory dwelling units in California and Washington. In this role, Annie manages long-term strategy and operations for Abodu’s city relationships, advises the executive team on public policy, provides expert guidance to public agencies on state law implementation, and manages Abodu’s response to complex building permit issues. Prior to joining Abodu, Annie was trained in architecture, and then spent five years in the California State Capitol and San Francisco City Hall leading Scott Wiener’s policy work on housing, planning, and transportation.

Professor

Joan Ling

Real estate advisor and policy analyst in urban planning. Experience in real estate financial analysis, affordable housing and urban mixed use development as well as state and local land use and housing policy, legislation and regulation. Board Director, SCANPH and MoveLA. Former Treasurer, CRA/LA and Executive Director, CCSM. Current work: November 2022 UHLA transfer tax initiative and SB 679 LACAHSA creating a state enabled regional housing agency.

Executive Director

Laura Loe

Laura Loe is a twitter housing influencer, a community gardener, and a musician. Her writing has appeared in Data for Progress, The Urbanist, and South Seattle Emerald. Laura founded the nonprofit Share The Cities Action Fund in February 2021, after five years of rabble rousing as an all-volunteer collective. As a queer urbanist, born in Bogota, Colombia, intersectional urbanism is a felt experience. Share The Cities is against homeless sweeps and supports defunding the police.

Assistant Professor

José Loya

José Loya is an Assistant Professor in Urban Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and faculty affiliate with the Chicano Studies Research Center. His research addresses Latino issues in urban areas by connecting ethno-racial inequality and contextual forces at the neighborhood, metropolitan, and national levels. His research discusses several topics related to stratification in homeownership, including ethno-racial, gender, and Latino disparities in mortgage access. José received his PhD. at the University of Pennsylvania in Sociology and holds a master’s degree in Statistics from the Wharton School of Business at Penn. Prior to graduate school, José worked for several years in community development and affordable housing in South Florida.

President & CEO

Rochelle Mills

Since joining IHO, Rochelle Mills has helped grow the organization from a single-asset entity to an award-winning developer with projects in development throughout California. Prior to IHO, she and her husband founded mills studio and architours where their high-end designs, tours, and symposia were featured on HGTV, FineLiving, and other national and international media outlets. Past President of SCANPH, she currently serves on the boards of Cal-ALHFA, Black Developers Forum, and Arts for LA.

Associate Professor

Paavo Monkkonen

Paavo Monkkonen is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, director of the Latin American Cities Initiative and Faculty Cluster Leader for the Global Public Affairs Initiative. Paavo researches and writes on the ways policies and markets shape urbanization and social segregation in cities around the world. His scholarship ranges from studies of large-scale national housing finance programs to analysis of local land use regulations and property rights institutions. Past and ongoing comparative research on socioeconomic segregation and land markets spans several countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and the United States. Paavo continues to work as a consultant on national housing and urban policy in Mexico, where he has various long-term research projects.

Assistant Professor

Deyanira Nevárez Martínez

Deyanira Nevárez Martínez is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the role of the state in informal and precarious housing and how it has resulted in the criminalization of poverty.

Councilmember

Thai Viet Phan

Thai Viet Phan was elected in November 2020 as the first Vietnamese American and first Asian woman to serve as a Santa Ana Councilmember. She earned her BA in Communication Studies from UCLA and a dual Juris Doctor/Master of Public Policy degree from USC. She is a first-generation refugee, a city attorney, a housing advocate, an In-N-Out Burger alumna, and a cat lady.

Los Angeles Council Member

Nithya Raman

Since taking office, Councilmember Raman has prioritized delivering compassionate and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving with greater urgency to meet our city’s climate goals.

Co-founder & CEO

Mott Smith

Mott Smith is co‐founder of Amped Kitchens and principal of Civic Enterprise Development. He chairs the Council of Infill Builders and is Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Small Business Commission. He’s an adjunct professor of Real Estate Development at USC and sits on the boards of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and Restore Neighborhoods LA. He has a Master of Real Estate Development from USC and a Linguistics BA from UCLA.

Sponsors

2022 Sponsorship Opportunities

Diamond

LA Metro

Platinum

Caltrans

Silver

Cambridge Systematics
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
National Center for Sustainable Transportation - UC Davis
WSP

Bronze

Fehr and Peers

About the Symposium

Since 1991, the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium has tackled the connections between transportation, land use, and the environment.  Arrowhead’s diverse and influential group of policymakers, private sector stakeholders, public sector analysts, consultants, advocates, and researchers dive into these pressing policy issues every day. Here we’ve collected some of their insights from the Symposium, as well as information on their ongoing work and updates on upcoming events. Learn more about the symposium’s history.

Video: Insights from Selected 2018 Arrowhead Speakers

View 2021 Online Series

View 2020 series

Looking for AICP CM credits?

The UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, which presents this UCLA Arrowhead Virtual Series, acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.

Furthermore, we recognize that the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center sits on the territory and ancestral land of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians (Yuhaaviatam).