ACTION Apartment Association

The Homeless Industrial Complex

05/29/2019 7:11 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Every major city in California is spending tens of millions or more on programs for the homeless.

Los Angeles could be at risk of a deadly typhus epidemic this summer according to Dr. Drew Pinsky, an outspoken celebrity doctor and specialist in addiction medicine. Pinsky, a Los Angeles native, recently quoted on Fox News, said: “We have tens and tens of thousands of people living in tents. Horrible conditions. Rats have taken over the city. We’re the only city in the country, Los Angeles, without a rodent control program. We have multiple rodent-borne, flea-borne illnesses, plague, typhus. We’re going to have louse-borne illness. Measles could break into that population. We have tuberculosis exploding.”

Montana garden project appealed to City Council

05/28/2019 8:25 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Plans for an educational garden project at 4th and Montana could get pruned this week when City Council hears an appeal of the project.

The Rainbow Garden has been trying to take root at 401 Montana Ave. since 2015 and the project recently went before the Planning Commission who approved the use with several conditions. A group of residents have filed an appeal that doesn’t oppose the project opening but does ask for additional restrictions on opening hours and allowed events.

Council considers $800M climate action plan

05/28/2019 8:01 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Plans to address climate change in Santa Monica will cost the city an estimated $800 million over the next 10 years.

City Council will consider adoption of their Climate Action & Adaptation plan on Tuesday designed to move the city toward carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner.

Staff estimate the plan’s total cost will be about $800 million over the next decade including over $383 million in funding that has already been committed over the past two Biennial Capital Improvement Program Budget cycles to support projects for climate action and adaptation strategies.

Is another Southern California housing crash needed to create ‘affordable’ housing?

05/28/2019 7:45 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

In the last five years, incomes in Los Angeles and Orange counties rose 16%, nowhere near the 37% gain in typical house payments, according to a mix of CoreLogic’s price index and mortgage movements. In the Inland Empire, 13% bumps in pay were well short of a 41% surge in a buyer’s mortgage payment. Clearly, a house hunter who didn’t act near the bottom is now feeling added financial burdens.

But toss in a historic housing crash that roughly halved home prices and those mortgage rate cuts and the longer-term affordability math changes.

Council to adopt new water rates later this year

05/24/2019 10:39 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City of Santa Monica is preparing to establish new water rates for the next five years and officials will be soliciting public input into new rates as early as this month.

2019 is the last of the current five-year rate structure approved by Council in 2015 and Council adopted a 9 percent increase this year.

Santa Monica’s proposed FY 2019-21 Biennial Budget

05/24/2019 10:36 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

While every budget cycle represents an important opportunity to preserve our City fiscal sustainability, the next three biennial budgets represent an important inflection point for Santa Monica’s future.

SB50 Dead or Dormant?(SMa.r.t.)

05/24/2019 10:29 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Two weeks ago SMa.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) wrote about the dangers of SB50, a complicated State bill whose purpose was to create Wall Street profits for mega-developers but whose real consequence was to destroy local control of our City all sugar coated, of course, under the guise of creating more affordable housing.

Fortunately, the bill is now bottled up in committee, so for another year, unless there is a miraculous resurrection, the City is safe. Our State Senator, Ben Allen, seems thankfully against this bill but our Assemblyman’s position is unclear and our Chamber of Commerce is still misguidedly agitating to revive it.

Santa Monica Crime Continues Dropping

05/24/2019 10:27 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Serious crime in Santa Monica dropped by 3.2 percent during the first quarter of this year, and it has continued dropping in April and May, according to data provided by the Santa Monica Police Department.

The drop reflects an overall trend that saw crime in the neighboring City of Los Angeles drop by 8 percent during the first quarter of 2019, with eight of the ten Westside neighborhoods registering a decrease, according to an analysis of crime data by CrosstownLA..

Even if California spends millions more on homelessness, here’s why few will notice

05/24/2019 10:16 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

In a few weeks, Los Angeles is expected to report an increase in homelessness — the latest in a string of similarly dire reports from cities and counties across California.

The pressure is on to find ways to get more people indoors quickly and to prevent others from becoming homeless in the first place. To that end, Gov. Gavin Newsom this week announced the leaders of a new statewide homelessness task force.

LA rent control increases will climb to 4 percent in 2019

05/23/2019 9:24 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Angelenos living in rent-controlled apartments may see monthly rent payments climb slightly higher than expected in the coming months.

In the city of Los Angeles, price hikes for most apartments built before 1978 are regulated by the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, and for the last decade have been capped at 3 percent annually. But in the 12-month period starting in July, landlords will be permitted to raise rents up to 4 percent.