What are Higher Opportunity Areas?

The Housing Element Rezoning: Citywide Housing Incentive Program set forth in the 2021-2029 Housing Element includes a central strategy to create the majority of all newly created housing capacity in Higher Opportunity Areas, which are identified as high and highest resource areas in the TCAC/HCD Opportunity Map tool. The specific criteria included in this mapping are further discussed below, and were utilized by the City in creation of the Rezoning Program in large part due to their relationship to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) requirements and state guidance.

The term “access to opportunity” refers to Angelenos’ ability to access places with characteristics linked to critical life outcomes, such as educational attainment, earnings from employment, and economic mobility. These areas are referred to as Higher Opportunity Areas and have a dense concentration of place-based opportunities such as high quality transit, jobs, high performing schools, and lower exposure to environmental hazards and pollutants. Higher Opportunity Areas lack the development capacity to accommodate much needed housing, particularly Affordable Housing. “Affordable Housing” is any housing unit that has a formal covenant or other legal protection that guarantees that the housing unit can only be occupied by someone within a set schedule of income.

Aside from directing new housing capacity to Higher Opportunity Areas, the program will focus housing in areas that improve the lives of Angelenos, by promoting housing near jobs and transit and along major corridors and avoiding environmentally sensitive areas (such as areas vulnerable to Sea Level Rise and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones). For more information about the Rezoning Program, check out the rest of the website and the Interactive Concept Explorer and Survey that details the different Rezoning Strategies and provides an interactive platform for feedback and dialog about the program.