LOS ANGELES – Any way it is measured, progress on Southern California’s housing crisis is too slow. Nearly three years after Los Angeles voters approved $1.2 billion for affordable housing, not a single unit has come online.
But a group of entrepreneurs think they can solve some of the problems that is causing the hold-up.
“It’s about the bureaucracy and things that slow the process down,” said Kevin Hirai, who heads up a major property management firm in SoCal, and is the Chief Operating Officer of Flyaway Homes, a new affordable housing provider in Los Angeles.
“We really just said we have to do this on our own and we have to do something now,” Hirai said.
By streamlining developments and using affordable construction materials like shipping containers, Flyaway homes is building housing in a third of the time at a third of the cost compared to the local government.
“We can’t build housing fast enough,” said Flyaway’s CEO Michael Parks, who spent nearly 40 years in the financial industry.
Now, Parks hopes to redefine affordable construction.
SOURCE: spectrumnews1
