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Housing Element

The City’s Housing Element (HE) is one of seven state-mandated elements set forth by the General Plan. The City of Long Beach’s General Plan is a policy document required by State law, which establishes the goals, policies, programs, and objectives that will guide growth and development in the City through 2040. The aim of the General Plan is to guide the City to a more sustainable future, improve mobility choices, expand transit access, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and accommodate growth projections in accordance with state law. The HE establishes a roadmap for accommodating projected housing demand for existing and future residents by setting citywide goals, objectives, and policies for housing and demonstrates how the City will meet housing needs for all income levels, per State Housing Element law. 

The last HE was updated in 2022 and coincides with the planning period of 2021-2029. It must demonstrate that the City has sufficient zoning capacity to accommodate the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), or our housing unit allocation, by creating a site inventory showing where the projected needed housing units will be built. Long Beach is currently in its 6th cycle, which projects a need of 26,502 total housing units; 15,346, or nearly 60%, of those must be affordable units. Long Beach is currently in its 6th cycle, which projects a need of 26,502 total housing units; 15,346, or nearly 60%, of those must be affordable units. A major focus of the updated HE was to remove barriers to housing production to counter well-documented housing shortages, as well as address homelessness and ensure the availability and fair distribution of affordable housing throughout the City to reverse existing patterns of segregation and concentrated poverty. 

View the Housing Element and Technical Appendices below:

See the City’s progress on building projected housing demand below:

The Housing Crisis

California is in an unprecedented housing crisis. This is due in part to rising housing costs, a lack of new housing supply, and cuts in state and federal funding for housing especially for the preservation and construction of affordable housing. According to the California Housing Partnership California Affordable Housing Needs Report, though California has more than doubled production of new affordable homes in the past 5 years, the state is only funding 12% of what it needs to build. Renters, particularly Black renter households, are disproportionately affected by the crisis with the highest rates of both housing burdened and homelessness of any group. Furthermore, median rent in California has increased 37% since 2000 while median renter household income has only increased 7%. Renters in Los Angeles County need to earn $48.04 per hour to afford the average monthly asking rent of $2,498. Extremely low-income households are hit the hardest, with 77% paying more than half of their income on housing costs compared to 3% of moderate-income households. With lack of funding for affordable housing coupled with increased living costs, minimum wage not keeping up with inflation, and permanent supportive resources geared more towards homeowners, more and more residents are left with few options.

The Current Picture in Long Beach
In Long Beach, where 60% of all residents are renters, this affordable housing crisis is happening throughout the city. Our local legacy of racist policies such as redlining, restrictive covenants, exclusionary zoning, and housing discrimination continues to affect communities of color and lead to stark inequalities across places and spaces. In 2016, Long Beach completed a federally-mandated Assessment of Fair Housing demonstrating our lack of affordable housing and housing in general and the need for policies such as inclusionary housing, rent stabilization, and expanded tenant protections. Fifty-five percent of renter households are housing cost-burdened, with Black renters being the most affected at 64%, and rents increased locally by 20% from 2010 to 2020 exacerbating our local housing crisis and leading to overcrowding, substandard housing, and unsustainable housing burdens. 

How the Housing Element Helps Solve our Local Housing Crisis

To rectify the systematic and structural barriers related the housing and ensure Long Beach stays diverse, vibrant, and affordable for all, Chapter 6 of the HE lays out goals, policies, and programs to meet the housing needs of all income levels and equitably distribute housing production throughout the city.

Housing Element Goals:
  • Goal 1: Provide Increased Opportunities for the Construction of High-Quality Housing
  • Goal 2: Mitigate Government Constraints to Housing Investment and Affordability
  • Goal 3: Provide Housing Assistance and Preserve Publicly Assisted Units
  • Goal 4: Address the Unique Housing Needs of Special Needs Residents
  • Goal 5: Retain and Improve the Quality of Existing Housing and Neighborhoods
  • Goal 6: Ensure Fair and Equal Housing Opportunity
  • Goal 7: Ensure Effective and Efficient Delivery of Housing Programs and Services
The HE identifies strategies to implement the above goals and policies and includes the development of new zoning districts, zone changes and other ordinances to incentivize and encourage the production of housing, including affordable housing, as well as those that strengthen renter protections. Regulations that expand the range of allowable housing types and grow and protect the City’s housing stock may additionally include density bonus regulations and other incentives for affordable housing and provisions to legalize unpermitted units and allow micro-units, live-work units and co-living housing typologies, among others.

Housing Element Programs & Initiatives

Long Beach is in the process of rezoning the city to implement the Land Use Element to ensure there is sufficient capacity to meet existing and future housing needs and to support the creation of more complete communities where a variety of housing types (ADUs, duplexes, bungalows, etc. are focused near jobs and high-quality public transportation. Rezoning is a committed action (Programs 1.1, 6.10 and 2.4) of the City’s HE.

Read more about our rezoning efforts.
The Religious Facility Housing Overlay (RFO) will incentivize institutions such as religious institutions and medical centers to develop affordable housing on underutilized portions of an institution’s land. The RFO is a committed action (Program 1.5) of the City’s HE, which means that is required in order to maintain compliance with the California Department of Housing and Community Development and State Housing Element law. Furthermore, the State of California recently adopted Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) known as the Affordable Housing on Faith and Higher Education Lands Act of 2023 which allows for by right affordable housing on any land owned by an independent institution of higher education or religious institution. The City is looking to build upon SB 4 by expanding eligible sites and development potential to facilitate affordable housing in high resources areas to help meet Long Beach’s fair housing goals and obligations. By adopting local regulations that go above and beyond SB 4, the City can work on meeting their affordable housing production goals, utilize undeveloped sites to create much-needed housing, and disperse affordable housing throughout the City with a focus on creating opportunities in high resource neighborhoods. This zoning overlay will take into account the unique needs of our residents, provide quality affordable housing, and encourage a more equitable and resilient Long Beach.

Next Steps & Recent Updates
Building upon SB 4, the Advance Planning team is working on a Religious Facility Overlay to allow for by-right housing that has a minimum percentage of affordable units and streamline the permitting process on religious and institutional sites. The team is looking forward to hosting a workshop for interested congregations and affordable housing developers to learn more about the overlay with examples of potential projects and explore partnership opportunities. To receive updates or express interest in this project, please fill out this interest form.

Additional Resources

On August 5, 2023, the City hosted a one-day Housing Justice Institute. To view the presentations, please see the links below:

Downtown Long Beach is a dynamic live, work, play environment, and over the last ten years since the adoption of the Downtown Plan, it has yielded more than 5,000 approved housing units, a new civic center, pedestrian, retail and other improvements; and has been the planning tool behind the majority of the city’s development in the past decade. Planning staff is currently in the preliminary stages of reviewing the existing plan, analyzing issues and opportunities, considering the historical context and existing conditions, evaluating the Downtown Plan’s impact over the past 10 years, and devising strategies for most effectively updating the plan for the next decade or decades of growth, complying with state law and improving the implementation of the plan for the future.

Read more about the Downtown Plan Update.

The Downtown shoreline area serves as the threshold between Downtown Long Beach and the city’s waterfront and covers the coastal area south of Ocean Boulevard from Golden Shore Drive to Alamitos Avenue. This area is home to iconic residences, offices, hotels and restaurants set amid the city’s convention center, harbors, marinas, shoreline parks and beaches. As the Plan has not been updated since the 1970s, the vision planning process underway aims to create a community vision and guidelines for creation of a world-class waterfront that will serve as a global destination. The Vision Plan will provide a foundation for a future plan update process to take place beginning in 2025.

Read more about the Downtown Shoreline Vision Plan.

The Enhanced Density Bonus Ordinance would amend several sections of the Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) to facilitate the development of mixed income multi-family housing by establishing regulations that offer a density bonus and development concessions in exchange for the provision of on-site, deed-restricted, very low-, low-, or moderate-income housing units. Enhanced Density Bonus is a committed action (Program 2.1) of the City’s HE.

Read more about Enhanced Density Bonus.
The City of Long Beach Inclusionary Housing Policy requires that a certain percentage of newly constructed housing units in certain areas of Long Beach be set aside as affordable to lower-income households. The policy is designed to facilitate the production of mixed-income housing, meaning developments that include both market rate and affordable housing. The City is now looking to expand Inclusionary Housing requirements citywide to help address documented fair housing issues in Long Beach and update the affordability requirements for rental units to include a mix of very-low, low-, and moderate-income affordability levels. Inclusionary Housing expansion is a committed action (Program 6.7) of the City’s HE.

Read more about Inclusionary Housing.
Pursuant to California Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) codified in Government Code Section 66300, no-net loss is a local ordinance to insure that the City does not approve a Housing Development Project that would have the effect of reducing the zoned capacity for housing of the City as it existed on January 1, 2018; or which would result in the demolition of existing housing units unless those units are replaced on at least a one (1) to one (1) ratio; and in the case of exiting low income units, that such units are only demolished if they are replaced, and that certain conditions related to affordability and tenant protections are met.

For more information, read Municipal Code Chapter 21.11.

Recap of Housing Element Adoption Process

The Housing Element was updated in 2022 to build upon and revise the goals, policies, and programs of the 2013-2021 (5th Cycle) Housing Element. Below, please find further resources regarding the update including past meetings and presentations and background information.


Past Meetings and Presentations:

Community Resources

More Information

For the latest information on the Housing Element, subscribe to LinkLB Community Development – Long Beach General Plan Updates and follow @LongBeachBuilds on Facebook, X, and Instagram. To access earlier versions of the 6th Cycle Housing Element or from prior cycles, contact Planning at zoning@longbeach.gov. For more information on housing-related programs and policies, please visit our Housing & Neighborhood Services Bureau website. 

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