ACTION Apartment Association

Santa Monica City Council “Retreat” to Look at Offering Faster and More Agile City Services

04/19/2018 12:43 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

April 19, 2018 -- Faced with a community that demands more and faster City services, the Santa Monica City Council on Saturday will discuss how to make City Hall quicker, more agile and affordable as it tries to meet the demands of a growing population.

In a special morning “retreat” at Virginia Avenue Park’s Thelma Terry Auditorium, the council will contemplate the demands on services in the rapidly-evolving 21st Century, including what it can learn from the private sector -- especially in fields which had to radically change to survive.

City of Santa Monica Enters Second Year of Fight Against Voting Rights Lawsuit

04/18/2018 3:15 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

April 19, 2018 -- Legal costs are rising, although it is not clear how much the City of Santa Monica has spent on the Voting Rights lawsuit filed by local Latino activists that is entering its second year.

Santa Monica officials say they have not tallied the specific cost of fighting the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) lawsuit filed in April 2016 by activists in the Pico Neighborhood, Santa Monica's poorest and most racially diverse area ("Santa Monica Facing Lawsuit Over At-Large Council Elections," April 13, 2016).

In 2017, total fees to the outside firm handling the suit -- Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher -- were nearly $5 million, although the price tag included other legal matters, said Finance Director Gigi Decavalles-Hughes.

California Lawmakers Kill Housing Bill [SB827] After Fierce Debate

04/18/2018 8:11 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

SACRAMENTO — Just before a committee of California state senators voted on a landmark bill to ramp up housing production by overriding local resistance, legislator after legislator talked about a dire affordable-housing crisis that demanded bold action and a marked increase in new building.

Then they killed the bill.

Rent Control Board abruptly ends talk of potential ballot measure

04/17/2018 8:22 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Rent Control Board appeared to put the kibosh on the possibility of broad rent control reform this November once and for all at their April 12 meeting when Boardmember Todd Flora moved to suddenly cancel any public discussion of a proposed ballot initiative from staff. Looking out at a packed chamber, Flora suggested they table the discussion rather than listen to a group of angry landlords who showed up to voice opposition to vacancy control.

AND: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/April-2018/04_17_2018_Santa_Monica_Rent_Board_Again_Tables_Measure_to_Expand_Rent_Control%20.html

Homeless analysis to cost $77,675

04/17/2018 8:21 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

An initially free analysis of the City’s efforts to reduce homelessness will now cost $77,675 over the next two years due to a previously unknown federal restriction.

The RAND Corporation offered to conduct a free assessment of the city’s Homeless Multidisciplinary Street Team (HMST) and Council authorized the partnership in August of 2017. However, RAND later learned that restrictions on the federal money used to fund the appropriate department prevent RAND from doing the work for free. The fee will now be $77,675.

Rent Control Is Sweeping California

04/16/2018 8:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Tenants from all over Southern California stood together on Thursday, April 12th, to highlight the shared struggle of ever-increasing rents.

One hundred people stood on the south side of Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration showing their support for a newly declared coalition in the name of tenant protections.

Controversial California housing bill is amended for both pro-housing and tenant advocates

04/16/2018 8:46 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

State Senator Scott Weiner has unveiled a slate of new amendments aimed at shoring up support behind his controversial housing bill—SB-827—that could potentially spell the beginning of a detente between pro-housing and social justice-focused advocacy groups in the state.

In a Medium post published Monday night, Weiner laid the groundwork for this potential reconciliation by addressing some of the thorniest aspects of the bill critics have lamented thus far, while also proposing the addition of key new elements. Additions to SB-827 include mandatory affordable housing requirements, strengthening demolition controls outlined specifically by the bill, and doing away with the most significant height increases allowed by SB-827.

Landlords Score Legal Victory in San Francisco

04/14/2018 9:09 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A state appeals court has struck down a San Francisco ordinance that requires landlords who evict their tenants and go out of the rental business under the state's Ellis Act to wait 10 years before rebuilding or renovating any of the formerly rented units.

The local law, enacted in December 2013, penalizes property owners for exercising their rights under the Ellis Act and thus conflicts with California law, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said Wednesday.

Santa Monica Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Fair Housing Act

04/13/2018 4:28 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

April 13, 2018 -- The Santa Monica City Attorney's Office will hold a workshop and student poster contest to commemorate Fair Housing Month

The "Fair Housing Issues in Rental Housing" workshop is part of a series of activities that include a student poster contest to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, officials said.

The workshop -- which takes place Tuesday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Santa Monica Main Library -- is co-sponsored by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR), the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) and Action Apartment Association.

City lawyer warns ballot initiative could reset new rents to the 1970’s

04/11/2018 2:05 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

With a statewide referendum on rent control gathering signatures for the November ballot, a city lawyer is arguing Santa Monica needs its own initiative to stop an unintended consequence if it passes: 1970’s rent for 2018 move-ins.

The Rent Control Board’s (RCB) general counsel is now warning if voters repeal Costa Hawkins in November, the City Charter defines the rent ceiling as the base rent in 1978, meaning a landlord could have to charge any new tenant (without an existing lease) rent as low as $560 for a studio apartment in the Pico Neighborhood.

“As units turn over, this would result in rent rollbacks and could, conceivably, cause significant economic dislocation,” wrote J. Stephen Lewis in a memorandum to the RCB. “In the absence of any state law providing for a vacancy rent increase, the Charter appears to include no definition of ‘base rent ceiling’ other than that which pegs it to the 1978 rent.”

The Board will discuss Lewis’s memorandum and recommendations at the April 12 meeting at 7 p.m. inside City Council chambers at City Hall, 1685 Main Street.