Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has signed Executive Directive No. 26, ordering city agencies to begin building a universal affordable-housing search tool and a common application process meant to simplify how residents find and apply for units. The order lands just days before the November 3 mayoral election, in which Bass faces Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman.
What the Directive Actually Changes
The directive instructs city agencies to lay the groundwork for a single portal with navigation and filtering tools, mapping features, and automated match alerts tied to a user's income eligibility and unit size, according to the Sanford Herald. The Los Angeles Housing Department will also explore legal mechanisms requiring properties built with city land-use incentives, city-issued bonds, or municipal gap funding to list available units on a city registry, per the same report.
Under that proposed registry mandate, covered property owners would be required to accept a standardized application generated from a user's profile rather than a separate form for every listing. The directive also instructs libraries, senior centers, and parks departments to coordinate in-person application assistance and public teach-ins, aimed at helping residents navigate the new system and avoid fraudulent listings that have targeted people searching for affordable homes.
Los Angeles already operates an Affordable and Accessible Housing Registry that lets tenants, housing advocates, and property managers search, apply for, and track affordable and accessible housing citywide, according to a city user guide. That guide notes applicants can already reuse information from a previous pre-application when applying to a different property, a feature that overlaps with the streamlined application Bass's directive envisions.
Bass Frames It as Momentum, Opponent Points to Costs
Bass said affordable housing is being built at a quicker rate under her administration and that her directive will improve access to available units, the Sanford Herald reported. In a written statement, she said every affordable unit presents a life-changing opportunity for Angelenos, calling it a chance to build stability, wealth, and opportunity for their families. In a social media post dated October 28, Bass said Los Angeles is building affordable housing four times faster than before she took office, adding that her administration disrupted a broken system, cut through excuses, and forged key partnerships.
Raman, a city councilmember running against Bass in the general election, countered that city policies have meant higher housing costs for residents. She said she led the first major expansion of tenant protections in Los Angeles in 40 years and pledged that, as mayor, she would enforce tenant protection laws while investing in social housing, public housing, co-ops, and land trusts. Raman also said she would expand homeownership by legalizing starter homes, modernizing the land-use code, ending exclusionary zoning, and increasing density near jobs and transit. The Center Square reported that Raman's campaign did not respond to an interview request, and that it also received no response from the mayor's office.
Analysts Question Whether a Better Website Solves a Supply Problem
Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pacific Research Institute in Pasadena, said the directive does not address the core obstacles hindering housing development in Los Angeles or the forces inflating housing costs. He said affordable housing developments in the region often reach an average cost of $600,000 per unit, and that building a single-family home or developing a new community in Los Angeles typically takes more than twice as long as the national average.
Winegarden argued those delays discourage housing development and contribute to the region's housing shortages, and warned that administrative tools alone do not fix the systemic barriers suppressing construction across Southern California. Without addressing those fundamentals, he said, supply will remain inadequate and costs unaffordable for many residents. Policy analysts more broadly remain skeptical that marketing and application reforms will deliver tangible relief to home-seekers, according to the Sanford Herald's reporting.
That skepticism echoes separate findings about production under an earlier mayoral order, Executive Directive 1. A Crosstown analysis found that of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of 2025, only 4,993 had received building permits for new construction, LAist reported. Just 26% of affordable units entitled during ED1's first year, 2023, had been granted building permits by the same count, and citywide, Los Angeles issued permits for 7,892 apartment units in 2025, a 34% decrease from 2019. The mayor's press office has said 6,000 units are currently under construction under ED1, LAist noted.
Other cities have already built similar centralized systems. New York City operates Housing Connect, a portal New Yorkers use to find and apply for affordable rental and homeownership opportunities across all five boroughs, according to the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Under Executive Directive No. 26, the Los Angeles Housing Department and City Attorney's Office are required to report back within 30 to 60 days on implementation plans, budget resources, and the legal framework for enforcing any registry mandate.
