Dear CalMatters reader,

Laurel LaMont has been fighting for years for better housing options in Temecula, where she lives and works. Now she’s fighting to keep a roof over her head.

LaMont, a single mom and Trader Joe’s employee, formed an organization, Upward Community, to help create a community land trust. That’s a housing model in which a nonprofit buys land and leases or sells homes to low- and moderate-income residents at stable monthly rates.

“It’s a way to achieve permanent, attainable home ownership for the local economic workforce,” she said.

At the moment, she’s scrambling to head off eviction from the affordable apartment where she lives with her 19-year-old son.

It’s exactly the scenario she has protested for years. There isn’t enough housing for middle-income and working-class residents. And affordable housing, which provides subsidized apartments to low-income people, creates disincentives to save money or seek a better job.

“You’ve got to make more money to pay the rent, but don’t make too much or you’ll be put out,” LaMont said.

That’s what happened to her. When her annual wages increased a few thousand dollars this year, she earned out of the pay range for her affordable one-bedroom apartment and got an eviction order in July. She fought it for months and is making arrangements to move this week.

She found a new place that will provide more space, but at double the rent. She’s still focused on a long-term solution to expand housing for people like her, who work full time but can’t afford to buy a home or even pay market rate rent.

The Inland Empire is known as a place where people fleeing costly coastal areas can get a good deal on homes. But prices have soared here too, mirroring the statewide housing crisis. The average home sold in Riverside County last month went for $625,000, and one-bedroom apartments rent for around $2,000. 

LaMont wants to open the door to homeownership through community land trusts. Councilmember Zak Schwank said that option is on the table, but he worries that could create more bureaucracy for the city. Mayor Pro Tem Brenden Kalfus said he sees potential in LaMont’s proposal to house people that she calls the “missing middle.” 

“They’re paying taxes, they're contributing to society, but the government is saying we don’t have anything for you,” said Kalfus. “I tend to lean toward less government subsidies, but if we’re going to help anybody, it should be the working class.”

Democrat Will Rollins is giving Rep. Ken Calvert a run for his money in his fight to unseat the veteran Inland Empire Republican.

Calvert won by four points in the 2022 election, when Rollins was considered a longshot challenger to the veteran Republican lawmaker. In this year’s rematch Rollins is bringing big dollars to his fight. He raised $11.5 million, while the Democratic Party and other supporters have spent $6 million on TV advertising for the swing race, Politico reported.

Meanwhile Calvert brought in $7.5 million. But Republicans spent $9.4 million on the race, leaving total spending on the two candidates pretty evenly matched.

Recent polls also show the candidates tied in a closely watched race that could decide which party controls the House. Calvert, a nearly 32-year veteran of Congress, frames Rollins as a soft-on-crime liberal. Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, has painted Calvert as a career politician allied with former President Donald Trump. 

Ontario Airport is planning to add a new terminal to expand its schedule of international flights and will name it after the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Bernardino Sun reported. The expansion could add flights to Europe to the airport’s schedule of international flights to Mexico, Taiwan and Central America.

Passenger traffic at Ontario Airport has increased recently, even as overall U.S. air travel lags below pre-pandemic numbers. Ontario’s traffic rose from 5.5 million passengers before the pandemic to 6.4 million in 2023, and it’s expected to hit 7 million this year. The airport also announced this week that it received a $7 million federal grant to upgrade terminals and security, to accommodate more travelers.

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