Almost 500 apartments — 100 of them affordable — are planned downtown, in the Pico neighborhood and near Bergamot Station.

Four hundred and seventy five units in five buildings moved through the Architectural Review Board and the Planning Commission this week, including two WS Communities micro-apartment projects and a 100% affordable project from Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/almost-500-apartments-go-through-design-review/183706

The group behind a failed 2018 rent control measure is trying again for a ballot initiative next year, even after California lawmakers limited rent increases as one attempt to blunt the state’s housing affordability crisis. The housing advocacy division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called Housing Is A Human Right, said Thursday it submitted nearly 1 million signatures to put an initiative on the November 2020 ballot that would expand rent control statewide. The measure needs more than 600,000 valid signatures to qualify.

Read More on page 4: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/120719.pdf

Santa Monica renters could gain the right to legal representation against attempted evictions under a new proposal from two City Council members.

Councilmembers Sue Himmelrich and Kevin McKeown have asked the City Council to vote Tuesday to develop an ordinance that would guarantee tenants the right to legal counsel if they face eviction. McKeown said a right to counsel law will help protect renters from losing their homes as property owners try to capitalize on Santa Monica’s overheated real estate market by evicting tenants in order to raise rents.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-could-guarantee-legal-representation-to-renters-threatened-with-eviction/183650

Rent control advocates on Thursday submitted signatures to get the issue back on the ballot — tweaking the soundly defeated Proposition 10 from 2018 and hoping to return it to California voters next year.

Read More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/rent-control-could-be-headed-back-to-california-voters/ar-BBXP7cQ

A love letter to the Council. Not.

Last week we wrote about what we at SMa.r.t., individually, were thankful for in our beachfront town. This week we thought the Council might take a moment to review some comments from their constituents taken from the local Santa Monica social media pages. They are in the public domain but without the writers express permission, so are shown as anonymous. They touch on life style, over-development, crime, the airport, the proposed large private hotel development on city land downtown called The Plaza instead of a real public plaza, crime, the Council itself, and other issues of concern to many Santa Monica residents.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2019/12/sma-r-t-column-the-grumble-in-the-jungle/

The first two market-rate SRO projects resubmitted under a settlement agreement between the developer and City got their first public hearing Monday.

The Santa Monica Architectural Review Board (ARB) took up the two Downtown projects resubmitted by WS Communities after they were enlarged to accommodate more affordable and larger units.

The two projects at 1415 and and 1437 5th Street are among six proposed SRO developments totaling 361 "micro-units" the City Council blocked with an emergency interim ordinance in March of last year.

Read More: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/December-2019/12_05_2019_First_Two_Revised_SRO_Developments_Get_Hearing.html

A new economic plan introduced by three Santa Monica City Council members calls for the city to build workforce housing, create a career development plan for youth and help local businesses succeed.

Councilmembers Greg Morena, Ana Jara and Terry O’Day aim to develop a comprehensive economic program to support small businesses and provide residents with job opportunities and training. The plan would also promote development that households making around the Los Angeles area median income of $73,000 can afford, commonly known as workforce housing.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/councilmembers-introduce-economic-and-community-development-plan/183624

One of the perks of winning a non-paying City Council seat in Santa Monica is traveling at taxpayers' expense -- with Vancouver, Montreal and Bonn, Germany among the destinations.

Over the past two fiscal years, Council members took a total of 49 official trips, an average of about two per month, that cost nearly $60,000, according to travel expense records provided by the City.

Of the current Council members, Kevin McKeown was the most prolific traveler, taking nine trips totaling $13,613.76 in expenses over the past two fiscal years, the records show.

Read More: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/December-2019/12_02_2019_Santa_Monica_Council_Members_Took_49_Trips_in_Past_Two_Years.html

Preventing renters in Santa Monica’s most diverse neighborhood from being displaced will require stronger eviction protections and more affordable housing, according to a recent report.

A report the city of Santa Monica released last week on preventing gentrification in the Pico neighborhood recommends enhancing tenant protections and building more affordable housing rather than downzoning the neighborhood, as the Pico Neighborhood Association has called for. Pico, a historically Latino and working-class neighborhood, has gentrified in recent years and struggled to retain long-term residents as rents rise.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/city-report-rejects-calls-for-downzoning-in-pico-neighborhood/183506

Two landlords accused of repeatedly parking in a tenant's space, tossing belongings from their storage space and filing a false eviction have agreed to a judgment and court injunction, the City Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

The injunction comes after the City's Consumer Protection Division filed claims against Hsing-Ching Hsieh et al in state court under Santa Monica's Tenant Harassment Ordinance.

Read More: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/November-2019/11_27_2019_City_Wins_Injunction_in_Tenant_Harassment_Case.html

AND: https://www.smdp.com/landlords-fined-for-harassing-tenants/183425