Archive

By Lookout Staff

March 11 -- Some of those who have been living on Santa Monica’s streets the longest could get a chance to live in a rehabbed apartment building just east of the pier, under a proposal the City Council will consider Tuesday night.

Under the proposal, the City-owned apartment building at 1614-1616 Ocean Avenue would provide “permanent supportive affordable housing” for 17 very low-income, long-term Santa Monica homeless persons, according to staff.

“There is an urgent need for permanent affordable supportive housing for very low income (30% of area median income) Santa Monica homeless persons,” staff wrote in its report to the council.

“Providing seventeen units of permanent affordable housing, in conjunction with supportive services, would begin to address the need for permanent affordable housing for the chronically homeless members of our community,” staff wrote.

If approved by the council, staff would solicit proposals from “interested teams of housing/social service providers, to lease, rehabilitate or reconstruct, manage and provide supportive services at the property for the target population.”

Rehabbing or reconstructing the building “to enhance its compatibility with surrounding public and commercial spaces, and to better serve and protect the privacy of the target population” would require a loan of City housing trust funds, staff wrote.

The proposal is part of a City plan to focus its efforts on housing Santa Monica’s most chronically homeless persons, who on any given day number between 100 and 300, according to a recently completed registry of homeless individuals.

Taken in selected areas, the survey identified 110 of the most vulnerable persons living on Santa Monica’s streets. (see story)

Those who are vulnerable have been homeless for an average of 11 years, and 30 percent of those who are vulnerable have been homeless in Santa Monica for more than 15 years.

Constructed in 1953, the 17-unit apartment building with two commercial units was bought by the City 35 years ago to expand highway access to Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

When the PCH improvements were never carried out, the property remained in City hands and has managed as a rent controlled property by the Housing Division.

Currently, five of the 19 total units are occupied by OPCC’s Daybreak Center, a social services program that provides emergency assistance, counseling and services for mentally ill homeless women.

Seven of the other units are occupied by residential tenants and seven are being rehabbed.

If the council rejects the proposal, the property could continue to operate as it has been, a long-term lease could be given to a special needs housing provider or a new building could replace the existing structure.

The City also “could lease or sell the site on the open market for private use and build a new facility elsewhere or acquire and rehabilitate a replacement project elsewhere,” staff wrote.