Lincoln Place On The Edge
As the Beachhead is going to press, the
California Appellate Court, 2nd District, is deliberating on the fate of nearly
50 households of senior and disabled tenants. If the court fails to find in
their favor, they could receive eviction notices as early as Sept.
1.
The three-member panel is responding to an
appeal of a ruling, Aug. 16, by Superior Court Judge David Yaffe against the
tenants. Santa Monica Attorney, John B. Murdock, represented the tenants in oral
arguments at that hearing. He told Judge Yaffe that the relocation benefits,
required by CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and incorporated within
the city-approved Tract Map that is needed for redevelopment, precluded eviction
of the tenants.
The lawsuit is on
behalf of LPTA (Lincoln Place Tenants Association) and a disabled tenant, Ingrid
Mueller. It charges the city of Los Angeles with illegally refusing to enforce
redevelopment conditions, including comprehensive tenant protections it had
worked out with the corporate owner, AIMCO (Apartment Investment and Management
Co.).
The evictions are based on the
state’s Ellis Act, which allows landlords who are going out of the rental
business to evict their tenants. However, AIMCO is the biggest landlord in the
country and is hardly going out of business. Neither the L.A. City Attorney nor
the state Attorney General have questioned this
contradiction.
In 2005, the landlord
illegally demolished five buildings on Lake Street. Other buildings were
bulldozed on Frederick Street, near Ralphs Market. The number of apartments at
Lincoln Place was reduced from 900 to 696. Meanwhile, units were not re-rented
when tenants moved out, and others were given relocation money to move.
On December 6, 2005, 58 households
were locked out of their apartments by the sheriff, and the existing 50
remaining elderly and disabled households may face the same, beginning with the
filing of unlawful detainers as early as September 1. Lincoln Place has gone
from the largest source of affordable housing in Venice for decades to a ghost
town today.
No matter how the court
decides, this is not the end of the Lincoln Place saga. There remain 696 one and
two bedroom apartments that are sorely needed by low and moderate-income
Venetians.
Many tenants and community
leaders are convinced the only lasting solution will be to wrest the apartments
from their corporate owner before they are destroyed. This may take an eminent
domain action by the city or a redevelopment agency. Apparently, the Mayor too
busy with the schools to listen to those in need of a place to
live.
Posted: Fri - September 1, 2006 at 07:18 PM