ACTION Apartment Association

L.A. approves $120 million to encourage building faster, cheaper homeless housing

01/30/2019 11:57 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Wanted: Fresh ideas to speed up the construction and lower the cost of housing for homeless people — without cutting quality.

The Los Angeles City Council made that pitch formal on Tuesday, voting 14-0 to set aside $120 million, a substantial slice of the Proposition HHH homeless housing bond, for a pilot program that will ask developers for strategies to change the way publicly subsidized housing is built.

FOOL ME ONCE…

01/30/2019 8:40 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Charles Andrews

OF COURSE I DIDN’T GO

To the “City Council Retreat” last weekend.

It’s not that I’m shirking civic responsibility. And I don’t judge anyone who did go. But I’ve been before and I couldn’t imagine this was going to be any different. From accounts I heard and read, it wasn’t. An orchestrated PR sham.

Strong showing for Santa Monicans at Democratic Party election

01/30/2019 8:36 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

14 locals formed a slate to run for delegate positions in the state party and 11 were elected Jan. 27 to represent Assembly District 50, which stretches from Malibu to Hollywood. The Progressive Slate included 10 Santa Monicans, including City Councilmember Sue Himmelrich, Rent Control Board members Caroline Torosis and Anastasia Foster and Santa Monica Democratic Club President Jon Katz.

City plans new Business District to fund Lincoln improvements

01/30/2019 8:29 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Lincoln Boulevard will get its long-awaited streetscape makeover by early 2021.

Construction on the Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor Plan (the LiNC) will start by the end of 2019 and last until early 2021, costing $5 to $6 million. The City of Santa Monica has been working on the LiNC since 2015 and has already installed a bus lane and planted 50 new trees along Lincoln. By 2021, Lincoln will have new medians, curb ramps and bike connectors, as well as new workers to maintain the corridor.

Housing and safety make list of City’s budget priorities

01/29/2019 8:19 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Hall will allocate more funding toward making Santa Monica a safer and more affordable place to live, reducing homelessness and addressing

climate change. City Council decided on a set of goals and values to prioritize in the City of Santa Monica’s 2019-2021 budget at its annual retreat Jan. 26.

Read More on page 1: http://backissues.smdp.com/012919.pdf

Revenue Decreasing, Costs Increasing

01/29/2019 7:52 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Looking at the 10-year financial forecast for Santa Monica.

At this Tuesday’s Santa Monica City Council meeting, staff presented their Ten-Year Financial Forecast for the City of Santa Monica.

“We look at a decade that will bring changes to our traditional expectations about revenue and expenditure growth,” Gigi Decavalles-Hughes, Santa Monica’s Director of Finance, said. “There’s going to be, pretty quickly, a shortfall between revenues and expenditures.”

Among the causes for the projected revenue decrease are things such as online shopping surpassing sales from brick-and-mortar establishments, fewer people using city parking structures, and a projected decrease in tourism revenue over the next decade.

Council Forges 'Framework Priorities' at Saturday Retreat

01/29/2019 7:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

"Affordability" and "keeping neighborhoods safe" topped the City Council's list of "framework priorities" crafted at a retreat attended by some 50 community members Saturday.

The list -- voted on by the participants -- will help inform the City's upcoming budget for Fiscal Year 2019-20, which the Council is scheduled to adopt in June, officials said.

Landlord scores rare win over Rent Control Board

01/28/2019 8:06 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Don Woods wins

Rent Control officials have lost an initial battle over the fate of a former rent control property that has been brewing for more than 15 years. A judge ruled against the Rent Control Board’s efforts to bring a Mid-City apartment building in Santa Monica under rent control

after allowing the owner to rent the 13 apartments at market rates since 1993. Judge Lawrence H. Cho issued a ruling Jan. 15 that called the board’s decision to revoke the removal permit that exempted the building at 1040 20th Street from Santa Monica’s rent control law “capricious.”

County Supervisors asked for $300,000 to support local homeless work

01/28/2019 7:55 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will debate extending funding for homeless outreach in Santa Monica this week after Supervisor Shelia Kuehl recommended budgeting $300,000 towards the City’s Homeless Multidisciplinary Street Team (HMST) Program.

Council Sets Framework Priorities to Guide Upcoming Budget Process

01/28/2019 7:48 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

At the fourth annual City Council retreat, all seven councilmembers participated in workshop activities and listened to staff presentations to identify and vote on the top six priorities for the Fiscal Years 2019-2021 biennial budget.

6 City Framework Priorities:

Affordability
Keeping Neighborhoods Safe
Reduce Homelessness
Climate Change
Engaged and Thriving Community
Mobility and Access