CRISES IN HOUSING
Bad News and Good
News
by Carol
Fondiller
The bad news is that the zone
hearing for Irving Tabor Court was postponed. A for-profit developer, Patriot
Homes, requested a zone change from Manufacturing to Commercial so that the
developer could build a four-story 26-unit apartment complex on a vacant corner
of Abbot Kinney and Venice Boulevards.
The zone change would have enabled the Venice
Community Housing Corporation to pursue the construction of low-income housing
on the alley behind Abbot Kinney Boulevard. The August 16 hearing was abruptly
cancelled when Patriot Homes withdrew its appeal in order to redesign the
project.
In spite of that, a hundred
people showed up to oppose the
project.
Interestingly, VCHC—a
nonprofit organization dedicated to housing low-income folks—had a meeting
to discuss concerns about the zone change with interested parties. Patriot Homes
held no such meeting for their
project.
Threats of lawsuits involving
the issue of funds for parking being used for other than parking caused
Councilwoman Miscikowski to request the hearing be put on hold so that more
information could be gathered. Steve Clare, Executive Director of VCHC, stated
that it was VCHC’s intention to build the housing over the parking so that
no parking would be lost, and even the parking that has encroached on city land
might be saved.
The reason that no one
showed up in support of the project? When Clare was notified of the postponement
of the hearing he notified people and the hundreds in support of the project did
not come.
Ruth Galanter had originally
proposed the low-income housing concept. But she no longer represents us. One
hopes that Councilwoman Miscikowski will meet with people who put housing for
people at least on a par with housing for cars when she is information
gathering.
The good news is that the
City Council of Los Angeles voted unanimously to instruct the City Attorney to
take whatever legal means necessary to prevent project based Section VIII (HUD
housing) opt outs. This means the owners of the buildings cannot set market
rents unless they properly notify the tenants and the city. At least three
buildings in Los Angeles are
affected.
Larry Gross of the Coalition
for Economic Survival (CES) stated that this delays evictions for at least one
year and hopefully might build momentum for the City to pass regulations that
either force the owner to stay in the Section VIII housing program or pressure
them to sell to nonprofits.
This also
opens the door for the City to pass its own preservation regulations.
Posted: Sun - September 1, 2002 at 07:19 PM