ACTION Apartment Association

Advocates launch term limit measure this Wednesday

02/20/2018 8:16 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Like a shot fired at the starting line, this week signaled the beginning of Santa Monica’s 2018 campaign season. On Monday, the first City Council challenger, local restaurant owner Greg Morena, announced his candidacy and launched a website. On Wednesday, community activist Mary Marlow will host a kick-off event to hand out petitions for her ballot initiative to put term limits on the City Council.

Marlow has been meeting with neighborhood groups since she quietly filed the application for the initiative in January. The measure would limit Councilmembers to three terms (12 years) over the course of their lifetime. Since the measure is not retroactive, current members would still be able to run for three more terms, including Councilmember Sue Himmelrich, who is running for reelection and backing the measure.

LA tenant group joins statewide push to repeal rent control restrictions

02/20/2018 8:03 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

There are now 600,000 rent-stabilized units in Los Angeles, yet the city has still been called the least affordable of any in the country. Now, a group of tenant organizations are joining a statewide effort to repeal a California law that restricts the number of rent-controlled properties.

They want to get rid of the Costa-Hawkins Act, a 1995 law that put limits on future local rent control laws and put a freeze on existing local laws.

The tenant groups are trying to do their part to collect the roughly 400,000 signatures needed to force the ballot initiative amid a deepening affordability crisis in the city and across California. Curbed first reported on their effort to gather names. Already, 200,000 signatures have been collected toward the cause, mostly by paid gatherers statewide, according to Los Angeles Tenant Union founding member Walt Senterfitt.

L.A. County's homeless problem is worsening

02/20/2018 7:53 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

L.A. County's homeless problem is worsening despite billions from tax measures

Los Angeles County's homeless population is increasing faster than the supply of new housing, even with the addition of thousands of beds in the last two years and millions of dollars beginning to flow in from two ballot measures targeting the crisis, according to a long-awaited report by the region's homelessness agency.

The report showed that officials two years ago far underestimated how much new housing would be needed when they asked city and county voters to approve the tax measures.

First challenger marks early start for City Council election

02/19/2018 9:07 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica native and local business owner Greg Morena is the first challenger to declare his intent to run for City Council.

He joins incumbents Kevin McKeown and Sue Himmelrich who have both declared their intent to run in this year’s election. The third incumbent, Pam O’Connor has yet to decide if she will run again.

Morena has lived in Santa Monica for 35 years, lives on the same street he grew up on and is married to his former next-door neighbor. The couple currently own/operate The Albright restaurant on the Pier.

Does Rent Control Do More Harm Than Good?

02/19/2018 9:06 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A new study suggests that policies meant to keep rents down actually jack them up overall, reduce the rental stock and fuel gentrification.

by Natalie Delgadillo | February 14, 2018

As rents continue to skyrocket across the country, state and local governments (and renters themselves) are scrambling for solutions. One of the most obvious -- and most controversial -- of those is rent control, which caps rent increases in an effort to keep cities more affordable for low- and middle-income people.

Advocates have long touted the policy as a way to keep rents from growing exponentially, and support for it appears to be growing: At least three states -- California, Illinois and Washington -- have introduced legislation that would allow cities to enact more rent controls. Opponents, on the other hand, claim that rent control leads to dilapidated units, deferred maintenance and an overall reduction of the rental housing stock.

So who’s right? According to a new Stanford University study, both of them -- partially.

VA West Los Angeles draft master plan at a Town hall

02/19/2018 8:59 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

VA West Los Angeles held a town hall in Wadsworth Theatre regarding the Draft Master Plan to build 1,200 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans.

Renters become the majority in Anaheim, Santa Ana, San Bernardino

02/19/2018 8:33 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Attention landlords: Your ability to grow your businesses means that three more big Southern California cities — Anaheim, Santa Ana and San Bernardino — have more renters than homeowners.

The growing renter population could translate to political muscle, nudging some cities to enact pro-tenant initiatives — from building more “affordable” apartments and first-time buyer homes to rent-control policies.

Does money grow on trees at City Hall?

02/19/2018 8:27 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

By Armen Melkonians – Author of LUVE anti-overdevelopment ballot initiative and 2016 City Council candidate
Creator of Residocracy – a Direct Action Resident Group

It must, since another $400k per year city job was filled this week. The new “Chief of Staff” hire in the Santa Monica City Attorney’s office will cost the Santa Monica taxpayer a whopping $402k per year. This includes a base salary of almost $254k per year plus expected “other pay” and “benefits” which will add an additional $148k per year to the total. The position is the #2 top spot in the office and the new “Chief of Staff” will assist the top dog, the City Attorney, in “office management and high-priority legal matters” in an office which employs a total of 24 attorneys and 18 support staff.

In contrast, the absolute top dog in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office, Mike Feuer, costs the Los Angeles tax payer only $240k per year (base salary of $227k per year plus other pay and benefits of only $13k per year.) The top dog in Los Angeles leads the third largest government legal office in California and the Los Angeles City Attorney oversees more than 500 attorneys.

Our elected officials say that if we want to hire the best, then we must pay the best. So, they end up paying $162k more per year for the #2 person in Santa Monica than the residents of Los Angeles pay for their #1 top dog who leads an office at least 20 times larger than ours and prosecutes more than 50,000 cases per year.

I don’t trust our elected official’s judgement any longer - they just don’t make any sense - and it’s at yours’ and my expense.

Somethings got to change this November, and I’m going to work hard to make that change. We deserve better.

Boyle Heights mariachis agree to 14 percent rent hike but win new leases ending months-long strike

02/19/2018 8:11 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The deal could be a model for other LA renters to follow

After a months-long struggle, renters living in a Boyle Heights apartment complex close to Mariachi Plaza have reached an agreement with the building’s owner and property management company allowing them to remain in their residences.

On Thursday, a coalition of community groups that had attached themselves to the tenants’ cause celebrated a unique deal with the building’s landlord, resolving a rent strike that began nearly one year ago in April.

Tenant groups are collecting signatures to repeal Costa Hawkins rent control law

02/19/2018 8:06 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Signature gatherers are headed to neighborhoods “heavily hit by... rapidly rising rents”

Signature-gathering will pick up steam this weekend in an effort put a measure on the state ballot asking California voters to repeal Costa Hawkins, a law that limits cities’ abilities to expand rent control.

The campaign kicked off last month with paid signature gatherers, but will expand this weekend with “hundreds, hopefully, eventually, thousands of volunteers,” says Walt Senterfitt, a spokesperson for the LA Tenants Union.