$1.1-Million Loan Is OKd for Housing Development
The City Council on Friday approved a $1.1-million loan for a controversial Northeast Los Angeles housing development in what could be a series of battles pitting single-family neighborhoods against government-funded affordable housing.
More than 75 placard-carrying residents of the Hillside Village neighborhood appeared before the council to complain that development of the site, which is zoned for at least 85 rental units, could harm the fabric of their Lincoln Park area neighborhood.
“This is a destructional force in our community,” said homeowner John Lucero. “You are destroying us.”
Council members Richard Alatorre and Gloria Molina, backed by Mayor Tom Bradley’s housing coordinator Michael Bodaken, countered that communities across the city must begin biting the bullet and accept new housing projects for the city to ease its escalating affordable housing crisis.
“We don’t intend to terrorize the neighborhood,” said Alatorre, “but to provide housing for those in need.”
Bodaken praised the Eastside council members, saying: “If affordable housing will be developed in this city in the next three years . . . each community will have to address (this).”
Further fights are expected as the Community Redevelopment Agency, long criticized for providing little more than lip service toward affordable housing, becomes increasingly involved in the effort. In recent months, the CRA has given starter loans for seven such projects, including ones near downtown and in Sun Valley, Southwest Los Angeles and South-Central Los Angeles.
The council voted 11 to 1 to grant the $1.1-million CRA loan for a development on the 4300 block of East Hatfield Place, planned by Charo Community and Human Resources Inc., a 25-year-old nonprofit agency that also operates workshops for the handicapped. Charo had already received a CRA loan of $1.03 million, but needed the additional funds to finish buying the property and have designs drawn that will help determine the number of housing units.
During the debate, Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores questioned the decision to purchase the property before agreeing on the project’s scope. But when a vote was taken, only Councilman Ernani Bernardi opposed the measure.
