RENTCONTROL EVICTIONS

Mapping Santa Monica’s 29-Year Explosion in Mass Rent-Control Evictions

The Ellis Act is a California law that allows landlords to get out of the rental business by evicting all their rent-controlled tenants and converting the building for some other use (a hotel, condos, a dirt lot), but in practice it’s been used as a ruthless tool of gentrification, sweeping through cities to push out lower-income renters in favor of people with richer interests. The law proves especially handy in places with strong protections for renters, like San Francisco and Santa Monica (its use is on the rise all over Los Angeles too).

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project has previously shown how Ellis swept through San Francisco, helping to create the hypergentrification that has made it shockingly expensive over the last several years; now they’ve released a similar animated map for Santa Monica, where Ellis evictions have shot up by 75 percent just between 2013 and 2015 (the map was made with help from the Pico Neighborhood Association and the city’s Rent Control Board).

The map tracts Ellis evictions over time since the act passed in 1986—since then, tenants in 2,078 units have been kicked out of their homes, but Ellis use tends to spike in boom times, when real estate is bubbling. You can see that on the map in the early nineties, around the turn of the century, and in the mid-aughts. As the bubble has returned in Southern California, the evictions have begun to rocket once again. According to the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, “the most egregious example is Village Trailer Park, that resulted in more than 100 rent controlled units and the displacement of dozens of long-time elderly residents of Santa Monica.” (It’s being replaced by a fancy mixed-use complex.)

The Project also suggests that the development boom that has sprung up around the forthcoming Expo Line in Santa Monica has not focused enough on protections for low-income families who have been living in the area and who “are the most reliable users of public transportation.” They add that “with the increase in property values & market pressures in Santa Monica along with TOD, we expect that there will be increase in evictions and resident displacement which will no doubt continue the elimination of rent controlled apartments.”

http://www.antievictionmappingproject.net/santamonica.html

 

City Council Regular Meeting 11/10/2015 STAFF ADMINISTRATIVE ITEM 8

November 10, 2015

Dear Santa Monica City Council:

The Pico Neighborhood Association (PNA) Board of Directors supports the hiring of an attorney or public policy consultant with extensive experience and expertise in doing investigations to probe what happened in the Elizabeth Riel firing case, as well as how the City has been handling matters under the Oaks Initiative.  We also request that the investigation include looking into Mayor McKeown’s abuse of his authority and power to force the Board of Directors of the Pico Youth &Family Center (PYFC) to remove Oscar de la Torre from his position as Executive Director in exchange for public funding. We call your attention to the City Council meeting of January 8, 2013 as evidence of this quid pro quo request. Furthermore, we call your attention to a letter that was made public in late June, 2015 where PNA members are on the public record acknowledging that after a SMRR meeting Mayor McKeown stated that PYFC will only receive funding if Oscar de la Torre is removed from his position as Executive Director of the PYFC.

The recent decision-making of elected Councilmembers in influencing the City Manager’s office on personnel matters is problematic because politics should not interfere with the proper and legal management of government. Our governance system protects the decision making authority of the City Manager for good reason. Similarly, it is not right or legal for elected officials to use their power to force a grantee of the City to make a personnel decision in exchange for public dollars. If the PYFC Board would have taken the action requested by Mayor McKeown, it would have brought great legal liability to the PYFC and possibly the City. More public dollars would have been wasted.
The PNA Board wants to ensure that our City government includes our request as part of the overall investigation and scope of services. Ultimately, we seek a better government where objective review of fact and not personal or political bias governs our decision making. The same institutional culture that led to the hiring/firing debacle of Elizabeth Riel allowed for the Mayor to make unlawful requests related to a personnel matter of a long standing City grantee. We feel that a proper review of this incident will lead to best practices in how our elected officials interact with grantees and in decisions related to the City’s personnel matters.

We understand that the City Charter prohibits City Council members from using their position to force a City staff hiring or firing decision on the City Manager’s office.  We believe the spirit of the law applies to grantees. As the City establishes and enhances best practices in how to make hiring and firing decisions of employees in an ethical and transparent manner we believe the analysis should also include grantees. Grantees play an important role in enhancing the well being of our residents and the funding decisions by the City Council can be highly politicized. Having clearer rules of engagement between elected officials and grantees on these decisions will benefit our City. In addition, the residents of Santa Monica must be provided with the full findings of an independent investigation of how the City of Santa Monica has fared in its implementation of the Oaks Initiative.

In conclusion, The City of Santa Monica has a very bad track record of enforcing its own internal laws and regulations. For this review and investigation to have real meaning, the scope of the work should include a review of why we consistently fail to implement our rules and regulations. We need to understand where the breakdown occurs in our government. Ensuring that the scope of the contract also includes this review will send a message that this administration is serious about restoring the public trust.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

PNA Board of Directors

Hello Everyone – We are in the process of updating the PNA Web Page!

Please contact Cris with any content ideas. We hope to communicate to all of our members soon our recent posts. -The Team