By Angela McGregor

The Los Angeles Homeless and Poverty Committee met at 9 am, 7 December to approve entering into exclusive negotiating contracts with developers for permanent supportive housing projects on eight city-owned properties, including the Thatcher Yard and Venice Median lots.

Residents of the neighborhoods affected by this development were not officially notified by the city, and members of the Oxford Triangle Association were notified of it via an email from Mark Shockley, around 5 pm 6 December, after the Association’s attorney noticed it on the city’s website. At least a dozen opponents of these projects arrived by the announced meeting time of 9 am, only to be met with a room full of proponents of the projects who had apparently been formally notified and had arrived early enough to fill out the majority of the speaker cards prior to 9 am. Public comment was cut off at 9:15. Among the notable comments:

Dan Whalen, one of the members of the Oxford Triangle Neighborhood Study group, pointed out that the neighborhood is small, entirely zoned for single family residential housing, and already plagued with traffic problems, and pleaded with the committee to consider an alternate, more appropriate location for such high-density development.

Linda Lucks, former VNC President, said that she favored such developments because they would restore the economic diversity that had been lost in Venice due to gentrification.

Mark Ryavec, candidate for CD11 Councilmember and President of the Venice Stakeholders Association, asked that any plans for such development in Venice be held in abeyance until after the March elections, and that the concept of such developments be put before the Venice Neighborhood Council so that the community would have a chance to weigh in on them in light of what seems to him to be enormous community opposition.

Two formerly homeless, current residents of Safran projects in Del Rey spoke in favor of the project as well.

During the Committee’s discussion, mention was made that proposals had been featured in social media (possibly a reference to the Safran Group’s response to Venice Update’s questions), in particular that the projects might include a majority of market-rate housing. Councilman Bonin insisted that he had not seen any proposals and that none had been approved, nor would they be without both VNC and Coastal Commission approval. “I have instructed these developers not to come to me with proposals until they’ve worked out their plans with the community,” he stated. Furthermore, while by law such developments only have to include 15% permanent supportive housing , he said including such a large amount of market-rate housing, which “is effectively luxury housing, on the Westside” was “unacceptable” to him, and would be tantamount to a “bait and switch”. He said he would not approve any project which did not predominantly consist of housing for the formerly homeless, in line with the stated goals of the City’s plan to combat homelessness via funding available due to Proposition HHH, which passed in November.

The exclusive negotiating agreements, which would expire after one year, were approved. Councilman Bonin pointed out that it would no doubt take longer than a year to build these projects in Venice (“nothing gets built in Venice in less than a year”), and the point was made that the City can pull out of the agreements if the projects don’t “pan out.”

The meeting adjourned at 10 am.