L.A's Housing Crisis Takes a Toll on Entertainment Biz
*By Samantha Errico*
San Francisco and New York get the ink for being outlandishly expensive, but Los Angeles' housing crisis has become so severe that it threatens the very industry on which the city relies.
According to Katie Kilkenny, an associate editor at The Hollywood Reporter, median rental prices in Los Angeles, Calif., have increased by 32 percent since 2000. Some aspiring starlets and starving artists have even resorted to sleeping in their cars.
Kilkenny told Cheddar Thursday that she wasn't surprised people are "starting to craft their own means of living affordably."
As an industry, Hollywood relies on the rags-to-riches mythos. But in this climate, not all hopefuls can afford to stick it out ー unless they resort to extreme measures.
As of January of 2018, over [9,000 vehicles](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/meet-entertainment-workers-living-cars-housing-crisis-1169781) were being used as homes. And car-dwellers are using every corner of their vehicles ー some even included a small kitchen or a lounging area.
"You can spend as much as a house on these vehicles," Kilkenny said. "In order to save money, people are building it out themselves.
"One of the guys that I spoke with, made sure to tell me that he wants to do it for at least the next five years, in order to save up to actually buy a house," she added.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/working-l-a-actors-turning-their-vehicles-into-homes).
Irrigation might have saved Jackson's hay, but she and her husband rejected the idea about 10 years ago over the cost: as much as $75,000 for a new well and all the equipment. But now — with an extended drought and another U.S. heat wave this week that will broil her land about an hour northwest of Dallas for days in 100-degree-plus temperatures — Jackson said she is “kind of rethinking.”
Children’s advocacy groups including Fairplay and Common Sense Media are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google, saying the tech giant serves personalized ads to kids on YouTube despite federal law prohibiting the practice.
U.S. regulators on Wednesday announced a settlement with the company that runs Dollar Tree and Family Dollar aimed at improving worker safety at thousands of the bargain stores across the country.
