ACTION Apartment Association

Low-Income Santa Monica Tenants Win $1 Million Settlement

12/19/2019 10:08 AM | Angelica Jue (Administrator)

Nine low-income tenants displaced after the run-down SRO apartments they lived in near the Santa Monica Pier caught fire four years ago have won a $1 million settlement, their attorneys announced Monday.

The 2016 lawsuit claims the property owner kept the 16 upstairs units at 1605 Ocean Front Walk, known as the Overlook Hotel, in an uninhabitable and unsafe condition before a fire forced the tenants to vacate, according to the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Scali Rasmussen.

Universal legal representation for renters would cost up to $1 million

12/19/2019 10:03 AM | Angelica Jue (Administrator)

A program to guarantee Santa Monica renters legal representation would cost up to $1 million per year, officials said.

The City Council voted last week to develop an ordinance that would provide free legal counsel to tenants faced with eviction. Councilmember Sue Himmelrich said Tuesday that she and Mayor Kevin McKeown introduced the proposal after learning that Pico Lanai Apartments, a 174-unit complex in Santa Monica’s rapidly gentrifying Pico neighborhood, had been sold for $59 million to investment firm Pacific Reach Properties.

Santa Monica Takes Initial Step to Dramatically Boost Housing Production

12/16/2019 11:18 AM | Angelica Jue (Administrator)

Accepting the daunting task of building 9,000 new housing units over the next decade -- more than two-thirds of them affordable -- the City Council this week began exploring removing caps on development.

The State-mandated target -- which Councilmembers said they would not contend -- cannot be met by continuing to rely on developers to include affordable units in market-rate projects, the Council agreed.

Instead, massive new funding must be found to develop the projects on public land -- including in the Bergamot area in the city's old industrial zone -- and along major boulevards, such as Wilshire.

Kevin McKeown Installed as Santa Monica’s Next Mayor

12/11/2019 9:04 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

At its meeting last night, December 10, 2019, the Santa Monica City Council and City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren swore in new Mayor Kevin McKeown, replacing Gleam Davis who served in the role for the last year. Mayor McKeown will serve a one-year term. This is his second stint as mayor, first serving a one-year term in 2015.

Airbnb Must Remove Illegal Santa Monica Listings

12/10/2019 12:40 PM | Angelica Jue (Administrator)

The City of Santa Monica and vacation rental platform Airbnb have come to an agreement intended to ensure all of the company’s listings comply with the City’s short-term rental laws, which are some of the strictest in the country.

“After years of uncertainty for our host community in Santa Monica, the new settlement agreement provides our hosts the clarity they need to continue sharing their homes,” said Matt Middlebrook, Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy in California.

Under the agreement, announced Tuesday, Airbnb will remove illegal short-term rental listings upon City notice, monitor and remove multiple listings that exceed the City’s home-sharing limit and collect and pay a $2 per night to help support affordable housing in Santa Monica.

And: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/December-2019/12_10_2019_Santa_Monica_Airbnb_Settle_Home_Sharing_Battle.html

City Council to discuss mandate to build 9,000 units by 2029

12/09/2019 10:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council will discuss Tuesday how to accommodate the 9,000 housing units the state could require Santa Monica to build by 2029.

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) voted last month to recommend that the state require Southern California cities with abundant jobs and transit to build more housing than ever before. Under SCAG’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) calculation, Santa Monica would have to zone for 9,000 units between 2021 and 2029.

Almost 500 apartments go through design review

12/09/2019 10:25 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Almost 500 apartments — 100 of them affordable — are planned downtown, in the Pico neighborhood and near Bergamot Station.

Four hundred and seventy five units in five buildings moved through the Architectural Review Board and the Planning Commission this week, including two WS Communities micro-apartment projects and a 100% affordable project from Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

California rent control advocates try again on 2020 ballot

12/07/2019 9:38 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The group behind a failed 2018 rent control measure is trying again for a ballot initiative next year, even after California lawmakers limited rent increases as one attempt to blunt the state’s housing affordability crisis. The housing advocacy division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called Housing Is A Human Right, said Thursday it submitted nearly 1 million signatures to put an initiative on the November 2020 ballot that would expand rent control statewide. The measure needs more than 600,000 valid signatures to qualify.

Santa Monica could guarantee legal representation to renters threatened with eviction

12/06/2019 8:28 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica renters could gain the right to legal representation against attempted evictions under a new proposal from two City Council members.

Councilmembers Sue Himmelrich and Kevin McKeown have asked the City Council to vote Tuesday to develop an ordinance that would guarantee tenants the right to legal counsel if they face eviction. McKeown said a right to counsel law will help protect renters from losing their homes as property owners try to capitalize on Santa Monica’s overheated real estate market by evicting tenants in order to raise rents.

Rent control could be headed back to California voters

12/06/2019 8:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Rent control advocates on Thursday submitted signatures to get the issue back on the ballot — tweaking the soundly defeated Proposition 10 from 2018 and hoping to return it to California voters next year.