Housing on Merit’s Housing Innovation Coordinator, Charly Ligety, attended the Southern California Association of NonProfit Housing’s (SCANPH) inaugural affordable housing debate in Los Angeles on May 9. The event, “Room for Debate: Affordable Housing Hot Topics,” featured experts in affordable housing to debate the controversial affordable housing topics of inclusionary housing, rent control, and local vs. state control. SCANPH’s Executive Director, Alan Greenlee, moderated the spirited debate of these complex topics that led to numerous opposing viewpoints but also highlighted several areas of agreement among the debate participants that included Rick Jacobus, Principal of Street Level Advisors; Mott Smith, Co-founder of Civic Enterprise; Becky Dennison, Executive Director of Venice Community Housing; Stuart Waldman, President of Valley Industry Commerce Association; Rick Cole, Santa Monica City Manager; and Anya Lawler, Policy Advocate at the Western Center on Law & Poverty.