This is a list of 25 highlights from WeHo by the Numbers’ first 100 reports about West Hollywood. The numbers were taken from the original analyses, so more recent data may be available in some cases.
HOUSING
• The city has 25,000 housing units for roughly 36,000 residents.
• Since 2006, 1,876 units have been built — almost three times the state-mandated goal through 2021 — and another 374 units are approved and awaiting construction.
• About 80% of residents are renters, more than in Manhattan, and almost two-thirds of households that rent are one-person households.
• Market-rate rents have increased an average of 6% per year over the last few years.
• Rent stabilization covers close to 17,000 units and without it, the tenants’ rents might be 5% to 80% higher (or more), depending on how long they’ve lived there.
• Five percent of stabilized units have been removed from the rental market using the Ellis Act, replaced by more units in total but fewer that are as affordable as the original units.
• The city has 1,850 “affordable housing” units, 7% of the housing supply. “Affordable housing” is the technical term for units with subsidized, below-market-rate rents for qualifying households — what the British call “social housing” — not to be confused with housing that is “affordable” in a broader sense.
• About 400 affordable housing units have been built since 2006, roughly 10% of them for moderate-income households, the rest for very low and low income households.
• Non-residents got about 40% of the new city-mandated affordable housing units included in market-rate developments.
• The city had an estimated 700 active short-term rentals last year — a 30% annual increase — and 70% of them were whole units
TRANSPORTATION
• About 40,000 people commute in or out of the city, because only one in five jobs is filled by a resident and only one in four residents works in the city (or half that if we don’t count people working at home).
• Most residents and workers who commute get to work by car: 88% and 83%, respectively.
• A declining number of households (12%) and a smaller share of young residents (5%) are car-free, though another 10% of households are low-car, meaning they have one car for multiple people.
• The share of traffic just passing through the city has been estimated at 25% to 50%.
• Traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard grew almost 40% over 20 years and average delays could increase by 40% in the next 20 years.
• Santa Monica Boulevard traffic stays at 75% or more of its daily peak for 14 hours a day, from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.
• The physical condition of the city’s streets is in the 95th percentile, about the same as Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
• The city provides over 110,000 rides a year through its transit programs.
• The free Dial-a-Ride van service for senior/disabled residents costs the city $44 per ride, taxi subsidies for senior/disabled residents cost the city $22 per ride, and the free CityLine bus service for everyone costs the city $13 per ride (excluding vehicle purchases).
PUBLIC SAFETY
• In 2014, the number of violent and property crimes hit its lowest point since the city’s incorporation, down almost two-thirds.
• After hitting that low point, the number of crimes grew 5% in 2015 and 10% in 2016, led by motor vehicle theft, rape, strong-arm robbery and theft.
• There is less crime in the city than in the adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods of Hollywood, Fairfax, and Beverly Grove, but more than in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
• The city has three DUI arrests and one DUI collision per week.
• The sheriff’s station gets a domestic-violence-related call every three days.
• The number of reported hate crimes is stable, with one-third motivated by racial or ethnic bias and two-thirds by sexual orientation bias.
For highlights of other topics, see the full report, What have we learned so far?
Rose – yes.
Great report. Thank you.
Am I wrong in thinking: We who live in weho are kinda ‘set’ in our home or apartment. Do long terms weho residents care about MORE housing in a city with one of the highest human density per sq mile in the U.S.
It sounds selfish. But we living in weho, have a place. Why are current residents so concerned about the need to build MORE housing? To make parking even harder? Traffic worse?]
I think Developers want more, but why would current residents want even more homes crammed in our already overly dense city?
Great data to share. Thanks for providing.
We are citizens and we must to help OUR state and federal governments to spend OUR tax money for subsidized transportation more wisely. The free Dial-a-Ride van service and taxi subsidies programs should be closed.
As far as I can tell there has been a net loss of over 850 affordable housing units in the city and just a correction in the Transportation area, almost all of the money for subsidized transportation in the city for Senior and disabled come from state and federal grants, and does not ‘actually’ cost the city these amounts, and in fact, these grants allow the city to hire city employees that run and service these programs and every time a Resident of the city uses these transportation options, they are bringing in NET federal dollars to the city!
The State did not override all rent control – it just deregulated what landlords can charge when a tenant moves out and a new tenant moves in. Rent Stabilization starts again when the new tenant moves in at the higher rent.
I think its pretty pathetic only 400 affordable low-income apartments have been builtin in the past 11 years. And should be noted the waiting list has been closed since 2013.
Since the State of CA override all rent “control” (stabilization) rents in our city have escalated often chasing residents away. Long term residents in our city exist mainly because of the pre-99 rents rather then the escalated rents that exist in other units. Is our CITY working to re-instate some form of “stabilization”, perhaps in conjunction with Santa Monica or other cities? They should. Out of control rent hikes have changed and will change the personality of our city.