LA's Rent Crisis Has an Intergenerational Fix
Average rent across Los Angeles runs $2,756 a month, and that number climbs fast once you get near campus. Westwood, home to UCLA, averages $3,274 for a one-bedroom. For a student at UCLA, USC, Caltech, LMU, Pepperdine, or any of the CSU and Claremont campuses scattered across the county, the math doesn't work before the semester even starts.
There is another option. That doesn’t require building new space. California homeowners are sitting on millions of unoccupied bedrooms, several times more than there are people who need housing. Los Angeles is no exception.
JoeyCo matches college students and recent grads with local homeowners who have a spare room and could use some help around the house. You live there, pay below-market rent, and work flexible hours each week doing whatever the household actually needs. Grocery runs, dog walking, errands, light tasks. One arrangement, two problems solved.
For example, living in Mandeville Canyon helping with evening meals, driving, and companionship. Fifteen minutes from UCLA without the Westwood price tag.
The flexibility is real. Your hours and tasks get agreed on before you move in. Finals week, an internship that keeps changing your schedule, a semester that looks nothing like the last one, it all gets factored in. This is a living situation built around your life.
We are working on growing the housing inventory with hosts across Westwood, Mandeville Canyon, University Park, and Westchester, with new opportunities coming soon. These neighborhoods put UCLA students minutes from campus, USC students close to University Park without downtown prices, and LMU students an easy stretch from Westchester. The 405, the 10, and LA Metro make it workable. And it is not only students. Plenty of people finish a degree and start a first job in Silicon Beach, Culver City, or Burbank and run into the identical math with none of the support a campus offers.
If you are curious about this intergenerational living opportunity, apply here, withjoey.com/joey-app, or reach out at nanik@withjoey.com.
LA does not need another article about the housing crisis. It needs an intergenerational solution
We're building the same thing in Marin, Riverside, San Diego, and the East Bay.
