Westchester-Playa hosts LAX and manages a number of challenges related to the airport. Passenger traffic impacts are the most obvious. But there are other very significant issues for Westchester-Playa and the City of Los Angeles as a whole:
As LAX grows, so does its employee base.
These people have incredible commutes to work.
This employee base could really benefit from more local housing.
Here’s a map published as part of the “CommuteLAX” program’s annual report. Check out the commutes of current employees (2023).
This map shows a reality quite the opposite of a “Livable City.”
This started a BaBWP discussion about the whole question of LAX employees and housing closer to work. Here’s what the CommuteLAX program reported in their 2023 annual report:
- 22,096 employees report to work at LAX on a regular basis (10+ days a month)
- 32,00 employee total work on-site, when you add in LAWA and Federal Goverment Agency employees.
- 91% of commuting-to-LAX employees drive alone to work.
The next question became:
How many LAX employees qualify for Affordable Housing?
Researching this question required us to deep-dive into US Census related information that reports (in broad terms) the # of LAX employees at different income levels.
Here’s what we discovered:
Source(s): U.S. Census Bureau. 2024. LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (2002-2021) [computer file]. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, Longitudinal-Employer Household Dynamics Program [distributor], accessed on 2024.06.24 at https://onthemap.ces.census.gov. LODES 8.1 [version]
Things worth considering as we interpret this data:
- The data we were able to obtain does not break out income levels above $40K/year.
- Depending on household size, someone in the $40K to $90K annual salary range could qualify for affordable housing.
- This data is already three years out of date.
- LAX is ramping employment to match tremendous airport growth.
Therefore, the conservative interpretation regarding who likely qualifies for affordable housing?
At least 11% of LAX-related employees (some 8700 people).
The arguably more accurate interpretation?
At least 37% of LAX employees (some 12,000 people) likely qualify for affordable housing.
Given these high numbers, our community—and LAX employees—would directly benefit from more housing options (affordable and market-rate) in Westchester-Playa.
