City Program Offering Subsidies for Elderly Poor Renters in Santa Monica to Survey 'Wellbeing'

A delayed pilot project that provides “last resort” City subsidies to help elderly Santa Monica seniors pay their rent is querying the applicants about their “wellbeing.” City Subsidies for Elderly Poor Renters in Santa Monica on Hold as 'Wellbeing' is Surveyed
  
The program, called Preserve Our Diversity (POD), was approved by the City Council in late July to address fears that the escalating cost of living could force seniors out of their homes ("Santa Monica Council Approves Experiment in 'Last Resort' Subsidies for Elderly Poor Renters," July 28, 2017).

The City has allocated $200,000 for the subsidies, which is enough to help 26 households in such dire straits they live on cat food or eat only every other day.

Another $100,000 is earmarked for administrative costs.

Read More:   https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/November-2017/11_01_2017_City_Program_Offering_Subsidies_for_Elderly_Poor_Renters_in_Santa_%20Monica_to_Survey_Wellbeing%20.html

The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco

Rebecca Diamond† , Tim McQuade‡ , & Franklin Qian§ October 11, 2017 

Abstract

In this paper, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in the assignment of rent control in San Francisco to study its impacts on tenants, landlords, and the rental market as a whole. Leveraging new micro data which tracks an individual’s migration over time, we find that rent control increased the probability a renter stayed at their address by close to 20 percent. At the same time, we find that landlords whose properties were exogenously covered by rent control reduced their supply of available rental housing by 15%, by either converting to condos/TICs, selling to owner occupied, or redeveloping buildings. This led to a city-wide rent increase of 7% and caused $5 billion of welfare losses to all renters. We develop a dynamic, structural model of neighborhood choice to evaluate the welfare impacts of our reduced form effects. We find that rent control offered large benefits to impacted tenants during the 1995-2012 period, averaging between $2300 and $6600 per person each year, with aggregate benefits totaling over $390 million annually. The substantial welfare losses due to decreased housing supply could be mitigated if insurance against large rent increases was provided as a form of government social insurance, instead of a regulated mandate on landlords.

Read Report:   http://conference.nber.org/confer//2017/PEf17/Diamond_McQuade_Qian.pdf

Santa Monica continued a trend last year that left California cities with similarly sized populations far behind: It ranked number one in property crime.

The seaside city had more property crime than a dozen cities roughly the same population total of 93,921 people, according to an analysis by The Lookout of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report released last month.

Santa Monica experienced 4,039 reported incidents of property crime in 2016, easily surpassing small, well-off cities like Santa Barbara (3,060 property crimes) and unaffluent counterparts like Compton (2,528 property crimes).

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/October-2017/10_30_2017_Santa_Monica_Number_One_in_Property_Crime_Among_California_Cities_of_Similar_Size.html

The Board of Supervisors has passed a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn and coauthored by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl which will examine the feasibility of a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Rad More on page 3: http://backissues.smdp.com/102817.pdf

Phil meets with Michael Levine, author, celebrity publicist and Santa Monica, California resident to address concerns about the recent upsurge in the homeless population in our city.

See video: https://smmirror.com/2017/10/brock-block-homeless-santa-monica/

Currently, it appears that we still have lessons to learn if the recent hearings on our Downtown Community Plan (DCP) are any indication. The hearings put on display both a lack of direction and flawed governance. Many residents who came to speak at the public hearing were unable to enter Council Chambers. The hotel workers’ union, most of whom did not identify themselves as residents and were organized by outside groups, arrived early in matching T-shirts with promises of free pizza to fill the auditorium. They placed their “chits” to speak before residents were able to do so and read from sheets provided by those who, in some cases, paid them to come. This process prevented many residents from expressing their comments and concerns due to the limited available time. City Council subsequently approved the DCP, along with its many faults, benefiting from only limited community input. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2017/10/sma-r-t-santa-monica-a-city-searching-for-itself-at-sea/

As Homelessness Mounts, renters are desperate and homeless despair. But will a law solve anything?

A bill before the State Legislature could reverse the Costa Hawkins Law. This 1995 law allows a landlord to get out from under rent control by declaring a kind of bankruptcy, and going out of business. It modified Santa Monica's 1978 Rent Control law.

Costa Hawkins also excludes from rent control single-family homes and apartments built after 1995. The new law would repeal Costa Hawkins through an initiative on the 2018 ballot.

Read More: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2017/10/26/news/rent-control-may-expand-through-vacancy-decontrol-ballot-initiative/3166.html

By Charles Andrews

Obviously corruption will always try to get its way, behind the scenes, but most everything that matters here comes up for a vote before the City Council, and that SMRR-dominated (for decades) Council hasn’t yet seen, since I’ve been paying attention, an outsized development or outlandish expenditure of funds that they didn’t like. And approve. Usually unanimously or maybe 6 to 1. The list is endless.

Read More: http://smdp.com/we-must-not-give-up/163029

Read: Why You Need to Talk with Your Tenants about Renter's Insurance

at: RENTERS INSURANCE PROTECTS YOU.pdf

Request to gather signatures for the ballot initiative: Affordable Housing Act

Section 2. Findings and Declarations. 

1) A major factor in California's housing crisis is a 20-year-old law known as the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Costa-Hawkins gives permission to landlords of residential apartments and houses to raise rents as much as they want in buildings built after 1995; despite local laws that would otherwise prohibit such increases, landlords in Los Angeles can raise rents as much as they want on buildings built after 1978 and in San Francisco, on buildings built after 1979.

m) Costa-Hawkins also allows a landlord to raise the rent in any building built before 1995 to the market value when it becomes vacant, and lets the landlord decide what market value is. 

n) Costa-Hawkins prevents cities from implementing laws that keep rents affordable for their residents. 

Section 3. Purposes and Intent. 

c) To repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. 

Read More: https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/17-0041%20(Affordable%20Housing)_0.pdf

AND

https://la.curbed.com/2017/10/23/16526384/costa-hawkins-rent-control-ballot-measure-initiative

AND 

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-rent-control-in-california-could-expand-1508785237-htmlstory.html