Los Angeles county is suffering from a serious affordable housing crisis, with almost a million people (1 in 10 people) living in precarious living situations, on the verge of homelessness. In fall and winter 2019, we – a capstone team of two students from Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, Cornell University’s MPA program – interviewed key stakeholders involved in the affordable housing production ecosystem to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and potential opportunities and solutions to the crisis.

Ultimately with the information collected, we plotted the relationships and bottlenecks into a semi-interactive flowchart to allow various stakeholders to better understand their roles related to others and to facilitate a comprehensive view of the affordable housing production supply chain. Our findings from a literature review and interviews allowed us to develop recommendations. However, further research into the affordable housing problem, and increased efforts for better communication among stakeholder in the affordable housing supply chain is mandatory to addressing this crisis.