ACTION Apartment Association

City moves to limit “McMansionization” of single-family neighborhoods

06/21/2019 8:46 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Officials are revising development standards in Santa Monica’s single-family neighborhoods to discourage developers from replacing small homes with mansions.

In the city’s four single-family neighborhoods — Sunset Park, North of Montana, North of Wilshire and a small part of Pico — new development is typically double or triple the size of existing homes, according to the city of Santa Monica’s analysis of recent building permits. Residents have noticed the change in the character of the neighborhoods they’ve called home for decades, and they’re not happy about it.

City to Fund $669K in Improvements to Samoshel Tent

06/21/2019 8:42 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Thanks to community advocacy, City Council approved $669K in funding for improvements to Samoshel - an interim housing facility located on City property, leased and operated by OPCC dba The People Concern.

The facility is a tent that has not been improved by the City or by The People Concern for a quarter of a century. During that time, vulnerable homeless individuals - many of them seniors, disabled or with serious health conditions - have been warehoused, sometimes for years, in substandard conditions complete with mold, at times in temperatures of around 60°F in the winter and over 80°F in the summer, with no ventilation and with poor air quality, including the sewer gas odor.

LA County motel rooms could be turned into homeless housing

06/21/2019 8:42 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Los Angeles County needs to get almost 60,000 people experiencing homelessness off the streets, but building new shelters is expensive and typically met with community opposition.

There is another way to accommodate people as they transition to a permanent home, however: motels. County caseworkers typically offer homeless individuals vouchers for rooms on a case-by-case basis, however, and that piecemeal policy gets expensive.

"Distressed" Arts Commission Learns Why Santa Monica Lost Its Iconic Mural

06/21/2019 8:34 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A "distressed" Arts Commission on Monday grilled the City's top cultural official on how Santa Monica could lose one of its most famous public artworks without the public knowing.

The Arts Commission placed the item on the agenda after its members learned late last month that Millard Sheets' iconic "Pleasures Along the Beach" mosaic had been donated to a museum in Orange County.

AND: https://smmirror.com/2019/06/millard-sheets-mosiac-removal-begins/

Germany’s capital plans 5-year ban on rent hikes to fight gentrification

06/20/2019 8:20 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

German officials facing protests and endless complaints about threats to affordable housing in the nation’s capital have decided the solution may be a five-year ban on rent increases and fines as high as $550,000 for violators.

Article 34: California Voters to Decide Against their Right to Decide

06/20/2019 8:02 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A bill proposed by Santa Monica's State Senator Ben Allen would repeal Article 34 of the California State Constitution. On June 4, Allen's bill was approved unanimously by the California State Senate's Housing Committee. It will now move to the State Senate floor. If approved there, the proposal to change the State Constitution will be put to the voters on the 2020 ballot.

Article 34 was passed in 1950 as Proposition 10. The legislation requires a local ballot referendum to approve any affordable housing project that is primarily funded with public money.

OPINION -- Santa Monica is #1!

06/20/2019 7:57 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

As a resident of Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, I would like to share the following facts on achievements of the Santa Monica Government.

All data are public information and all comparisons are for Southern California and west of downtown LA, unless otherwise noted. If any of my facts are incorrect or not current, I invite City Hall to inform me and I will revise the list.

1. Santa Monica is #1! Santa Monica has the highest homeless population.

Seattle Under Siege

06/18/2019 1:08 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Seattle is under siege. Over the past five years, the Emerald City has seen an explosion of homelessness, crime, and addiction. In its 2017 point-in-time count of the homeless, King County social-services agency All Home found 11,643 people sleeping in tents, cars, and emergency shelters. Property crime has risen to a rate two and a half times higher than Los Angeles’s and four times higher than New York City’s. Cleanup crews pick up tens of thousands of dirty needles from city streets and parks every year.

Seattle must break up its homeless-industrial complex, too. Last year, interim mayor Burgess took a first step in rebidding city contracts and cutting funding for ineffective organizations like SHARE. Mayor Durkan should build on this success, reforming the system of perverse incentives and instituting accountability for all organizations getting taxpayer funds. Outcomes, not quantity of services, should take precedence; funding should taper off as the crisis subsides, not continue in perpetuity.

Parks, Parking and Pensions

06/18/2019 8:46 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

There’s a new building going up in town. I know, there’s a LOT of them, but the one in particular I’m starting with is the child care facility that is being built for our city employees on the former parking lot of the Civic Center. This is a nice public benefit that we are providing to those who work so hard to keep our city running. As a family law attorney and strong advocate for both maternity and paternity leave, I think having facilities that support families is important.

I’m curious, though, as to why that development has moved seemingly so quickly through the approval and building phases. Wasn’t there supposed to be a soccer field or something built? Maybe I’m just misremembering…

Pasadena’s expanded tenant protections not enough, advocates say

06/18/2019 8:12 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

They’re hoping to get rent control and just-cause eviction on the November 2020 ballot.

Advocates pushed the council to expand the city’s tenant protection ordinance, first approved in 2004 and last updated in 2017, after apartment renters at a South Roosevelt Avenue property were told to pack their bags within 60 days after the building changed hands. Those tenants were not covered by the protections, which required landlords to only provide relocation benefits to tenants in a very narrow set of circumstances.