LA City Council Proposes Using 3D Printers Paid For By 'Millionaires Income Tax' To Build Homeless Residences

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles City Council proposed a plan Friday to purchase 3D printers that would produce materials used to build homes for the homeless.

Texas has successfully built 350 square feet homes in about 48 hours, City Council President Herb Wesson said in a motion.

The structures were equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, and living space.

According to Wesson, a 3D printer working at full capacity could build an 800-square-foot home in the same amount of time.

"A crisis of this degree requires outside-the-box thinking and innovative new ideas," Wesson said in a statement. "We're leaving no stone unturned when it comes to finding ways to save costs and increase the speed of housing production and are looking into the potential of 3D-printed housing to do just that."

The motion mentioned using a tax on personal income above $1 million to fund the homeless housing construction.

Wesson said a 0.5% millionaires' income tax would generate an estimated $243 million per year in Los Angeles County, enough to fund the printers.

Multiple departments would also collaborate on setting safety standards to ensuring the homes would be up to code.

Voters had previously approved a $1.2 billion bond measure aimed at building more than 10,000 permanent supportive housing units for the city's 36,000 homeless people.

Los Angeles County has about 59,000 homeless people, according to numbers provided in June by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

In 2016, the county Board of Supervisors approved a resolution supporting putting a millionaire's tax on the ballot — A poll taken by the county at the time showed 76% of voters supported it.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)