As the City organization is restructured in response to COVID-19 and a resulting budget deficit, investments in housing protections are preserved and actually increasing. City Council took an unprecedented step at their May 26 meeting by advancing programs that will provide housing assistance to those who need it most.

Read More: https://www.santamonica.gov/blog/keeping-people-in-their-homes-through-covid-19

California judicial leaders are considering an early end to statewide emergency orders suspending foreclosures and evictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

The move is prompting objections from lawmakers and advocates that they may be acting too soon and disproportionately harming minorities in the midst of civil unrest over the deaths of black people at the hands of police.

The state’s Judicial Council in early April delayed all eviction cases from moving forward as one of 13 steps responding to the pandemic. Among others was setting bail statewide at $0 for misdemeanors and lower-level felonies to reduce the population in jails, for fear they would become hotbeds of infections.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/california-courts-eye-ending-rental-eviction-protections/192879

Santa Monicans will be asked to vote this November on a new tax on luxury real estate that would raise about $3 million each year for public services.

The city of Santa Monica is looking for a way to generate some extra money as its traditional revenue sources — sales and hotel taxes and parking fees — suffer during the pandemic and accompanying recession. City Council voted Tuesday to move forward with a ballot measure that would tax real estate sales over $5 million at $6 per $1,000 of sales price, or $30,000 for a $5 million property. Currently, all real estate transfers are taxed at $3 per $1,000. 

The other measure that a representative sample of 562 Santa Monica voters were polled on between May 26 and May 31 was an increase in the business license tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1988 and is lower than the tax charged by the city of Los Angeles. 

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-moves-forward-with-ballot-measure-to-tax-luxury-real-estate-sales/192851

At its meeting last night, June 9, 2020, the Santa Monica City Council provided direction on the City’s proposed FY 2020-21 budget and biennial FY 2020-22 capital improvement program budget. The budget reflects an organizational restructuring in response to the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), including measures to close a projected $224 million budget deficit.

Read More: https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2020/06/10/santa-monica-council-reviews-fy-2020-21-operating-budget-and-fy-2020-22-capital-improvement-program-budget

Public hearings on the following topics will be conducted during the Santa Monica Rent Control Board meeting on Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. via teleconference:

1) Consideration of imposing a $32 ceiling (or maximum increase) on the 2020 annual general adjustment of 1.4%;

2) Consideration and adoption of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board’s Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Operating Budget; and

3) Consideration of amending Regulation 11200 to clarify that a “business day” is any day that the Board is staffed and conducting business, regardless of whether City Hall is open to the public; and to provide for the deferment of registration fee payments with respect to units occupied by tenants who were unable to pay rent due to a loss of income occasioned by COVID 19.

Read More on page 2: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/061020.pdf

AND: https://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/Rent_Control/About_the_Rent_Control_Board/Agendas_and_Minutes/2020/RcB061120.pdf

Local candidates will have to pay $1,700 if they want the City Clerk to distribute their candidate statements to voters, according to a proposed resolution the City Council will take up today.

In the past, the City has paid the cost of printing, handling, translating and mailing candidate statements that appear in the Supplemental Sample Ballot that Santa Monica voters receive.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2020/June-2020/06_09_2020_Council_to_Consider_Charging_for_Candidate_Statements.html

Santa Monica City Council is set to cut the city’s budget by up to 25% as coronavirus decimates the hospitality and retail sectors that generate most of its tax revenue. 

City Council will discuss the budget Tuesday afternoon after meeting two weeks ago to restore $6.4 million in funding to programs that city staff had proposed eliminating. Under the proposed budget, all city departments except the Santa Monica Police Department and Santa Monica Fire Department would see significant funding cuts, which city staff say are needed to avoid a $224 million budget deficit over the next two years.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-city-council-to-discuss-cutting-annual-budget-by-192-million/192763

It took a pandemic to make it happen, but Los Angeles and Santa Monica rental prices appear to be on the way down for the first time since the Great Recession, according to a new report from real estate data tracker CoStar.

Between the first week of February and today, rental prices in LA fell from $2.51 per square foot to $2.49 per square foot, on average. That amounts to a roughly $15 price reduction for a 750-square-foot one-bedroom apartment.

Read More: https://patch.com/california/santamonica/affordable-apartments-rent-santa-monica

The City Council, Housing Authority, and Parking Authority of the City of Santa Monica will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget on June 23, 2020.

Read more on page 3: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/060620.pdf

Chaos, anguish, despair, and lawlessness gripped our city on Sunday. By Monday, anger, disbelief, and heartbreak were the words of choice. One Hundred Fifty-Five businesses had “significant” damage. Over Three Hundred Fifty reported some loss. Nine fires set. Citations issued to Four Hundred Thirty-Eight people. None spent a night in jail. A petition to remove the Chief of Police has garnered over 37,000 signatures in five days.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2020/06/santa-monica-overwhelmed/