The distinction between physical housing stock and functional supply is critical to understanding what has happened. When a single person occupies a two-bedroom unit—a common occurrence as solo dwellers outbid families for larger spaces—that unit consumes the same physical footprint that could house a family of four. A city can meet its production targets on paper while its actual capacity to house residents declines. Santa Monica has been mandated to add 8,874 units under state housing requirements, and city staff has proposed capacity for 52 percent more than that figure. Yet the community is shrinking. Our schools now import 17 percent of their students from outside the district because local units no longer translate into local children.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2026/02/sm-a-r-t-column-the-mathematics-of-erasure/