ACTION Apartment Association

Time to Crack Down on Vacant Homes’ Owners

08/15/2022 9:35 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

How extensive is the vacancy problem? One estimate from the California Association of Realtors suggests as many as 1.2 million units, apartments and single-family homes, now sit vacant around California. Most are in cities, where in some cases, entire apartment buildings are empty.

Construction Begins on Michigan Avenue Affordable Housing Development

08/15/2022 8:57 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A new affordable housing project has begun construction in Santa Monica as reported by Urbanize Los Angeles.

The new development will replace the Santa Monica Nikkei Hall at 1413 Michigan Avenue near Woodlawn Cemetery in the Pico Neighborhood.

Real Estate Report

08/15/2022 8:54 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Property, Developments, and Listings on the Westside.
* City Council Votes to Unanimously Backs Proposal to Cut Rent Increases
* Sunset Park Custom Home Lists For First Time Ever By Original Builders $5.9M
* Local Properties for Sale and Rent

See More: https://smmirror.com/2022/08/sunset-park-custom-home-lists-for-first-time-ever-by-original-builders-5-9m-santa-monica-real-estate-report-august-15th-2022/

Federal Judge Paves Way for Deposition of Mayor's Husband in Housing Lawsuit

08/12/2022 8:29 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A U.S. District Court judge last month paved the way for the deposition of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights' (SMRR) co-chair Michael Soloff in a lawsuit challenging the City's ban on short-term rentals.

According to the lawsuit filed by NMS and its affiliated companies, Soloff, who is married to Mayor Sue Himmelrich, was "the primary drafter" of the ordinance requiring leases of at least one year.

The order issued on July 26 by U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha denied the City's motion in May to stay Soloff's deposition.

Santa Monica's Entrenched Homeless Strategy an 'Abject Failure'

08/12/2022 8:21 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Letter to the Editor

What to do about this?

First, recognize the folly of trying to “address” the needs of every homeless individual from anywhere and everywhere. Change the strategy: Target generous assistance to those who became homeless while living or working in Santa Monica, not to any lawbreaker who drifts across the City line from anywhere in the region, state, and country. Challenge with energetic skepticism all advocates of the failed policies that plague Santa Monica.

Related to this folly, stop enticing more homeless individuals to come here, as Mayor Himmelrich proposed in her radio interview.

Opposing Arguments Promise Bitter Transfer Tax Battle

08/11/2022 7:38 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Unlike Brock's measure, which sunsets in ten years with a possible five-year extension, Himmelrich's tax, the argument notes, "will never end."

The Mayor's measure will also "hurt local churches and charitable organizations by forcing them to pay hundreds of thousands in new taxes instead of using funds for programs providing assistance to those in need."

And the funds raised by Himmelrich's measure will bankroll "costly government-built housing" that benefits "those developers who get these lucrative government contracts."

Our City Needs a Whistleblower - Zina Markevicius

08/11/2022 7:33 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

I have experienced three occasions where SMPD responders discouraged me from making a police report. Most recently, this occurred when I was chased and groped by a homeless drug addict, and responding officers didn't make a report.

Southern California rents, $2,400 and climbing

08/10/2022 8:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Los Angeles County rents continued to rebound from pandemic-era rent drops, rising 14.1% last quarter to a record-high of $2,407 — up almost $300 a month from the year before.

Housing factions use two state laws as weapons

08/10/2022 8:32 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

As California ramps up pressure on local governments to increase housing production, two state laws are being employed by warring factions.

Down in the trenches of California’s seemingly perpetual clashes over housing, warring factions are employing two decades-old state laws as weapons.

One is the famous — or infamous — California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), signed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970, that requires authorities to determine whether proposed developments have environmental impacts that must be mitigated.

The other, much less known, is the California Housing Accountability Act (HAA), signed by Reagan’s successor, Jerry Brown, in 1982 to prevent local governments from rejecting housing projects without good reason.

Injunction Against Landlords in Section 8

08/09/2022 9:27 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Filed in February, the lawsuit alleged that landlords Jonathan Lee, Leon Lee and Jenny Lee committed housing discrimination against the tenant, who came off the waitlist for a Section 8 voucher in December.

The 69-year-old tenant was "a liver transplant recipient" who was "paying all but $198.00 of her monthly income on rent while using food stamps," according to the City Attorney's office.