According to a new poll, voters in the city of Los Angeles overwhelmingly cited the high cost of housing and homelessness as serious problems, but 66% of respondents said they lack confidence in the ability of local and state government to make the city more affordable.
Those findings were revealed in a poll commissioned by the Los Angeles Business Council ahead of June’s primary for mayor and governor, in which housing and homelessness likely will play a big role, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Times noted that this year, as in previous LABC polls, homelessness and housing affordability were the issues most on the minds of voters, with 95% saying homelessness was a very serious or serious problem, while 87% ranked housing affordability the same way.
Overall, 63% have given at least some thought to moving out of Los Angeles because of housing costs, with 37% saying they have seriously considered it.
The Times noted that concern over housing and homelessness doesn’t differ much from previous years.
On the Wrong Track
However, voters showed a rising concern about taxes, jobs, and public safety even though fewer people considered those issues as serious as the number of people on the streets and the cost of rent and mortgages.
Overall, 60% said the state was on the wrong track, while 67% said that of the city, according to the poll.
When it comes to housing, few respondents said they thought officials could right the ship. Overall, 66% said they had “not too much” or no confidence the state government could improve housing affordability in the city.
They did, however, express even less confidence that the city and county governments could solve the problem. Forty percent said they wanted the state to take a greater role in boosting construction locally, while 20% did not.
Forty-eight percent said the city should “substantially increase the number of new housing units to address the lack of accessible and affordable housing,” while 34% said the city should not do so, the Times reported.
Only a plurality wanted the city to “substantially” boost the number of homes, but a majority favored items to boost at least some construction, such as speeding the approval process for apartment buildings if they include some below-market units and allowing for denser housing along major transportation corridors.
Caps on Rent Increases
Almost 70% also supported caps on rent increases, while 44% of voters said they wanted the city to focus on building short-term homeless shelters to get people off the streets, compared with 25% who said they wanted to focus on permanent housing with services.
FM3 Research, which conducted the poll on behalf of the business council; surveyed 751 registered voters in mid-April.
Los Angeles County has experienced a profound exodus of resident in recent years.
According to the latest U.S. Census data, between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, some 53,421 residents left the county. That’s the largest decline in the U.S., according to a report by Fox News.
Los Angeles County has fallen from about 10 million residents in 2020 to roughly 9.7 million now, Fox said.
“There is a real sense of burnout. They are paying insane taxes and getting absolutely nothing in return,” RIVANI founder Robert Rivani, who has seen a big migration of companies moving their headquarters to his Miami building from California — told Fox News Digital. “People feel like they’re living in a place that’s draining them financially and in exchange they’re dealing with rising crime, shrinking services, and a sense that everyone around them is trying to leave, too.”
