Neighborhood Change
Neighborhood Change refers to the impact of investments, in this case transit-based, on neighborhood socioeconomics, gentrification and displacement vulnerability. In this context, displacement refers to the forced movement of a community out of a neighborhood.
Transportation investments—including station upgrades and service improvements—can improve access to opportunity for transit-dependent vulnerable populations, such as low-income communities, BIPOC communities, youth, elderly people, people with disabilities and immigrant communities. However, transit investments can also make neighborhoods more attractive to prospective residents and businesses, which can increase property values, attract higher-income residents and place the project area at risk for displacement. Planners can support vulnerable populations when pursuing transportation investments by assessing and monitoring neighborhood change and risk for displacement, addressing housing pressures by preserving existing affordable housing where possible, investing in transportation and affordable housing production simultaneously, providing business disruption and temporary relocation support and coordinating a community benefits agreement.
Neighborhood Change can be evaluated through a variety of neighborhood characteristics that change over time, such as household income, race, proportion of residents with college degrees and median rent prices.
A key strategy for mitigating displacement risk is preserving affordable housing near transit corridors. Planners can leverage this opportunity to impact local housing availability by referring to resources like Enterprise Community Partners’ 2026 study Assessing the Potential of Transit Agency-Owned land for Housing Development in California, which presents the availability and characteristics of land owned by transit agencies in California.
Designing transit systems to prevent displacement requires long-term considerations and planning. By better understanding neighborhood change dynamics caused by infrastructure investments, planners can begin to implement targeted anti-displacement and anti-gentrification strategies within projects. These safeguards can preserve access to opportunity and critical services for vulnerable groups in the long-term.
Understand Your Datasets
Planners can use various tools and datasets to establish a project area’s existing displacement risk and tailor project considerations to address specific community vulnerabilities.
The Community Demographics Profiles (CDP) Dashboard identifies baseline demographic information for a predefined LA County or Metro-specific geography. Each profile features pre-generated infographics with key data that staff can consider when establishing displacement risk. This resource can be used as a supplement to Metro’s Equity Focus Communities (EFC) Dashboard. In addition, the Location Affordability Index (LAI) provides household housing and transportation cost estimates by neighborhood level and can help planners better understand the combined cost pressure of housing and transportation.
For a more in-depth assessment of gentrification pressures, planners can explore tools including the Urban Displacement Project’s mapping resources, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) Neighborhood Change maps and USC’s Neighborhood Data for Social Change platform, which aggregate variables to catalog gentrification history and identify communities at risk of displacement. Planners can also reference specific reports, such as Confronting Disaster: Curbing Corporate Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena, to explore data-driven case studies of gentrification pressures in vulnerable communities.
Planners can supplement these quantitative datasets with qualitative measures such as community interviews, renter surveys and community perception studies (see “Coordinate with Community Members” below). Data associated with this Indicator often reflects a moment-in-time and should be used to contextualize current conditions against historic trends.
Example Datasets:
1. 2026 AFFH Mapping Tool: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/2026-ctcachcd-affh-mapping-tool
Instructions: Search project address to display results by census tract. Results are organized into metrics of Neighborhood Opportunity (broken out by economic, education, environment), High Poverty and Segregated (poverty and segregation if applicable) and Neighborhood Change (racial/ethnic and economic change).
Data Considerations: The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee’s Neighborhood Change map identifies areas in California that support positive economic, educational and health outcomes for low-income families; filter areas based on poverty and racial segregation standards and documents neighborhood change characteristics that impact long-term outcomes. The Neighborhood Change Map identifies tracts that have experienced both substantial racial/ethnic demographic change (growth in the non-Hispanic white share of the population) and economic demographic change (growth in household median income), as well as displays markers of disproportionate housing needs (rising median rents and the home value/income percentile gap). This approach is intended to identify places that have already undergone substantial racial and economic change, providing users with a level of confidence that communities have already experienced and may continue to experience neighborhood change. Planners can use the results of this analysis to address community-serving affordable housing needs in the transit planning process.
2. Neighborhood Data for Social Change Platform: https://map.myneighborhooddata.org/
Instructions: Use the interactive map to explore data across 10 policy areas. Use Map Options (left-hand side) to view data by Census Tracts, Neighborhoods or Cities. Use Data Options to select a policy area (Housing and Real Estate) and dataset using the legend to navigate within the selected policy area.
Click the Data Tab (left-hand side) to view charts and explore trends over time. Compare selected areas to Los Angeles County averages. When multiple areas are selected, a black “Aggregated” line shows combined data. Below the chart, select up to 12 geographies to display. Data is available for download.
Data Considerations: USC’s Neighborhood Data for Social Change platform hosts data across several topics, including robust metrics focused on Housing and Real Estate. This housing data encompasses information on housing affordability, density and crowding, development and creation and government assistance. These datasets further display information related to subsidized housing, homelessness, housing stability and rent stabilization (RSO) units. Planners can use these data to better understand local housing characteristics and inform project planning in the context of a specific project area.
3. Mapping Neighborhood Change in Southern California: https://www.urbandisplacement.org/maps/los-angeles-gentrification-and-displacement/
Instructions: On web-viewer, navigate to the area of interest, where data is aggregated by census tract. Evaluate local characteristics including local market dynamics, demographics, risk factors and displacement typology (susceptibility to displacement/gentrification/exclusivity). Data is available as a non-spatial CSV file.
Data Considerations: The latest version of this database (updated in July 2018) includes Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties, with gentrification and sociodemographic indicators based on 2015 data from the American Community Survey. It shows whether each census tract across these three Southern California counties gentrified between 1990 and 2000; gentrified between 2000 and 2015; gentrified during both periods or exhibited characteristics of a “disadvantaged” tract that did not gentrify between 1990 and 2015. This is a historical dataset intended to establish a baseline for susceptibility to gentrification and is best used in conjunction with current datasets and community engagement.
The Urban Displacement Project also hosts more recent displacement and gentrification data that planners can consider. These datasets include the 2022 Housing Precarity Model, which highlights communities at risk of post-pandemic eviction, displacement and long-term poverty, as well as the California Estimated Displacement Risk Model, which identifies level of displacement risk for low-income renter households by census tract.
4. Location Affordability Index (LAI) v.3: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/location-affordability-index/
Instructions: Select the current version of the LAI and open the web-viewer. Navigate to the area of interest, where data is aggregated by census tract. Evaluate local characteristics including median mortgage, rent, vehicles and commuters per household, household income, job and retail density, gas price and transit cost.
Data Considerations: The LAI helps users better understand the combined cost of housing and transportation. First developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Transportation (DOT) in 2013, the LAI provides standardized, ubiquitous household transportation and housing cost estimates. Users can choose among eight household profiles—which vary by household size, income and number of commuters—and assess the impact of the built environment on affordability in a given location while holding household demographics constant. The most recent LAI (Version 3.0, 2019) uses 2012–2016 American Community Survey Data. The LAI can help planners establish a baseline and can be used in conjunction with more recent affordability data and community engagement activities.
5. “A Spatial Analysis of Housing Risk and Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena,” in Confronting Disaster: Curbing Corporate Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena: https://www.saje.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ConfrontingDisaster.10.10.2025.pdf
Instructions: This report contains a case study showcasing a tool that assesses displacement. The report focuses on displacement that occurs in the wake of physical disasters. Investors may exploit disaster survivors, pressuring them to sell their land in a practice known as disaster capitalism. The cascading economic and racial shifts that result from disaster capitalism can drastically change neighborhoods and are important considerations in the wake of disaster recovery and post-disaster real estate speculation. The report presents the methodology and results of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)’s OWN-IT! Analytics tool as it reveals shifting displacement pressures.
Data Considerations: SAJE’s OWN-IT! Analytics methodology contains risk analyses of three primary characteristics that are important in understanding displacement: Displacement Vulnerability, Redevelopment Potential and Gentrification Intensity. Each of these measures is generated as a composite index of the relative performance of each tract in decile values (or parcel in a scored approach) across a set of indicator metrics (e.g., the relative rent-burdening rate affects the relative tenant Displacement Vulnerability composite score).
Community Demographics Profiles Alignment
Employment by Industry
Caltrans Equity Index
Median Household Income
Unemployment Rate by Race/Ethnicity
Renter Households
Low-Income Households
BIPOC Population
Equity Focus Communities
Explore the Index of Indicators in Metro’s Community Demographics Profiles Dashboard here.
The information on this page is presented through a Neighborhood Change lens. For other perspectives on this subject, visit: Neighborhood Affordability, Employment Opportunities and Job Preservation, Transit Corridors, Commercial Corridor Vibrancy, Small Business and Organizational Displacement.
Coordinate with Community Members
Given Metro’s operations across a diverse, wide-ranging area, it is critical that planners coordinate with community members to understand differing resident priorities in respective neighborhoods. Rely on your project community to define “Neighborhood Change.” Identify project community priorities and concerns by partnering with CBOs focused on affordability and displacement and engaging other key stakeholders through public meetings, open houses and workshops. Consider how project development can support community needs and goals.
The landmark Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act (SB 79) passed in 2025 and allows for higher-density multi-family housing developments near rapid bus lines and rail stations, including in areas where such homes were previously illegal due to local zoning limitations. This legislation may have a significant impact on transportation investments and neighborhood displacement risk in California. While this is a state law, implementation (or exemption) will occur at the county, city, neighborhood and Metro stop level. Similarly, tenant protections, renters’ laws and housing development policies vary by jurisdiction. For example, in the City of Los Angeles, some housing units may be covered by the City of Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), while other units in unincorporated areas of LA County are protected by the Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance (RSTPO). A planner’s approach to working with community members on projects influenced by SB 79 will vary by community and jurisdiction needs. As SB 79 implementation unfolds, its impacts—including how it may shape local transportation development decisions—will become clearer.
Planners should work with CBOs and local jurisdictions to support housing availability and affordability while providing communities with opportunities for transportation and connectivity. Consider deploying a housing affordability survey or interviews to better understand lived experiences and community perspectives on how the proposed project may impact a given neighborhood. Evaluate opportunities for affordable housing preservation, transit-oriented development, rental assistance and tenant protection strategies. Meet regularly with internal and external stakeholders throughout the project. Following project completion, engage subject matter experts to track anti-displacement metrics and monitor neighborhood change dynamics over time, adjusting strategies as needed.
Questions about this page’s vocabulary terms? Go to the Know the Vocabulary page
Wondering about relevant policies? Go to the Review the Relevant Policies page
Looking for engagement techniques? Go to the Engage Stakeholders page
Related Equity Indicators
Distance Traveled to Access High-Quality Transit
Suggested Baseline Indicator: Distances traveled to access high quality transit can be impacted by factors like service frequency, service reliability and safety.
Employment Opportunities and Job Preservation
Employment opportunities and job preservation ensure that transportation investments support local economic opportunities and protect existing employment for community members.
Neighborhood Affordability
Neighborhood affordability shapes where people are able to live in relation to transit. Aligning transportation services with affordable housing goals supports more efficient, equitable communities.
Small Business and Organizational Displacement
Commercial and organizational displacement resulting from transit investment can impact the social and economic fabric of communities. Preventing displacement ensures transportation investments protect organizations and support local economic activity—often before impacts are formally recognized or measured.
Transit Corridors
Investing in multi-modal transit corridors can simultaneously promote economic development and public transportation use.