ACTION Apartment Association

Zumper Analysis Shows Santa Monica as Most Expensive City to Rent In

04/06/2017 7:50 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Zumper Los Angeles Metro Report analyzed over 30,000 active listings in March across 20 metro cities to show the most and least expensive cities and cities with the fastest growing rents.

No Foolin’ [Charles Andrews]

04/05/2017 7:36 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

MASTER PLAN OR CHAOS?

For example, I recently had a member of the SMRR Steering Committee tell me, “The majority [of SMRR membership] and on the Steering Committee don’t believe we should be allowing more and more housing as a way to solve the high rents.” So I asked, “But if the majority at SMRR do not believe in building more and more, then why is it happening, from City Council members handpicked by SMRR?”

ECEC - Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC)

What would be the reasons for building a large Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) not in a residential neighborhood but on the edge of Downtown, taking up space at the CIVIC Center we are trying to re-imagine, that will serve mostly children who do not live in Santa Monica (employees of City Hall and Rand Corporation), leased to Santa Monica College (SMC) for $1/yr (a giveaway of at least $25M of our money), kicking in additional millions of City cash to boot...

UPDATE - Breaking News: ACTION Files Lawsuit against SMRCB re: clarify the vacancy decontrol law as applied to water utility rates

04/04/2017 8:49 AM | ACTION (Administrator)

UPDATE - Breaking News: ACTION Files Lawsuit against SMRCB re: clarify the vacancy decontrol law as applied to water utility rates.

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Council Approves Extensive Seismic Retrofitting, Zero New Energy Law

04/03/2017 7:53 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Council Approves Zero Net Energy Ordinance

Council Approves Seismic Refit Program

20 Great things to do as a housing provider

03/30/2017 12:55 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Read Rosario's Perry's List here: 10 great things to do as a housing provider by Rosario Perry..pdf.pdf

Amid L.A.'s Housing Crisis, There's a Fight Over Expanding Rent Control

03/30/2017 9:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

L.A. housing advocates say the city desperately needs a new law, proposed by Santa Monica–area Assemblyman Richard Bloom, that would strengthen rent control statewide by expanding the pool of housing eligible for it. The law would allow cities to restrict rent increases for single-family homes as well as for apartment units built after 1995 (Los Angeles' cutoff is 1978), neither of which is allowed today.

AB 1506 also would allow cities to limit rent increases even after a unit has turned over and a new tenant has started a new lease. Under current law, landlords can reset those units to market rates. The legislation would do all this by overturning the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which put those limits on rent control in place in 1995.

Santa Monica wins court victory over vacation rentals

03/30/2017 7:15 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City’s newly formed Vacation Rental Enforcement Task Force has scored a major win against a Los Angeles-based vacation rental operator.

Early last year the Task Force began investigating Globe Homes for operating illegal vacation rentals in Santa Monica. City code only allows homeowners to share homes in which they reside and prohibits turning a house or apartment into a vacation rental.

Audit Subcommittee ... Faces New Challenge

03/29/2017 1:32 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

March 29, 2017 -- When it was created almost two years ago, a special panel to act as a watchdog of public spending at Santa Monica City Hall inspired some high hopes.

“A movement is now afoot,” said Tricia Crane of Northeast Neighbors, one of many neighborhood organizations that have been going head-to-head with the City over issues ranging from development to the cost of employee compensation and -- in particular now -- soaring costs for pensions.

Crane said “many residents (insist) that the City must account for the high salaries we pay City staff compared with other cities in our state.

NMS Properties says they are vindicated by City audit

03/28/2017 8:18 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A four-month long multi-department review of NMS Properties’ contracts with the City of Santa Monica failed to produce a smoking gun or even very much smoke.

RENT CONTROL WOULD PUT HOUSING OUT OF REACH FOR MORE CALIFORNIANS

03/27/2017 9:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Rent-control laws simply don’t work, though. And rather than keep rents down, they actually discourage the development of additional housing that would lower prices. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, government attempts to make housing more affordable – rent control, for one example – do “very little to address the underlying cause of California’s high housing costs: a housing shortage.”