In my last post I wrote that the City of LA was thinking about allowing the installation of alcohol vending machines at an apartment building in Hollywood.  In doing some research on the building itself, I found that the owner of 1530 Cassil has partnered with a company that offers both residential and travel lodging, effectively turning at least some of the units into extended stay hotel rooms.  While technically stays of 30 days or more would be legal, this seemed strange given that the building was approved as a housing project.  The City’s determination letter made no mention of hotel rooms.

But the determination letter does state that the project is required to provide 20 units reserved for Extremely Low Income (ELI) households.  The developer got a 70% density bonus to build way beyond what the zoning allowed in return for those 20 affordable units.  I started wondering how many of those units were actually occupied by ELI households, so I submitted a Public Records Act Request to the LA Housing Department. 

The response was disturbing.  As of the end of January, the City had only received verification that three of the 20 affordable units were occupied by ELI households.  What about the other 17 units?  Are they empty? Are they being rented as extended stay vacation lodgings?

The developer of this project received a 70% density bonus under the Transit Oriented Community (TOC) Guidelines, which were the result of the voter-approved Measure JJJ.  The idea was that project applicants would be able to build more than what was allowed under existing zoning in exchange for providing a percentage of affordable units.  They would also benefit from a streamlined approval process.  The City of LA claims that the TOC program is key to providing much needed affordable housing. But how much affordable housing are we really getting if the City isn’t enforcing the affordability covenants?  I’m not the first person to raise this issue.  Back in 2021, Capital & Main did some research and found that the City of LA wasn’t able to provide an accurate inventory of existing affordable units.  They looked at LAHD’s on-line registry of affordable housing, and found that many affordable units were not listed.  Capital & Main also reported that the City doesn’t maintain a centralized inventory of affordable units in mixed-income buildings.  So how are people in low-income households supposed to find these apartments?

LA City Planning gave a 70% density bonus to the developer of 1530 Cassil, which was worth millions of dollars.  In return, the developer agreed to provide 20 affordable units. But if the City’s records are correct, only three of them are occupied.  This is a serious problem.  City Hall likes to claim they’re creating lots of affordable units, but can we really believe their claims?  The waiting list for affordable housing is a mile long, so why aren’t all of these units occupied by low-income households?  And beyond that, why is City Planning handing out valuable density bonusses without following through with necessary oversight?

The politicians and the planners make endless promises, but time after time they’ve failed to deliver.