Senior Housing Lottery OKd in Lawndale

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has given a developer the green light to begin selecting tenants for a senior citizens housing project in Lawndale despite city officials’ complaints that the application process is unfair to Lawndale residents and Latinos.

The federal agency, which provided grant money for the project, had ordered the Detroit-based developer, Cooperative Services Inc., to stop processing applications for the subsidized apartment complex until it could review the conduct of a March 13 lottery to select potential tenants.

After reviewing a report from the developer, the agency concluded in a letter dated July 19 that Cooperative Services had complied with federal guidelines in advertising vacancies for the 56-unit complex and that the developer could begin selecting tenants from among those who received priority in the lottery.

“We reviewed it very carefully with regard to HUD regulations, and we’re satisfied that Cooperative Services handled the process properly,” said William Christiansen, a spokesman for HUD’s Los Angeles office.

Lawndale City Atty. David Aleshire, who had asked HUD to order the developer to reschedule the lottery, said city officials are furious that the results of the contested lottery will be allowed to stand. He said the city is preparing to sue both the developer and the federal agency.

The developer could not be reached for comment.

City officials say that Cooperative Services did not adequately advertise the vacancies and that the results of the lottery did not reflect the ethnic composition of the surrounding community.

Of the 306 senior citizens who applied for apartment units, 52 were Lawndale residents. Of the first 100 names chosen, 17 were from Lawndale. Latinos are 28.4% of the area’s population but submitted only 15% of the tenant applications, Aleshire said. Asians make up 6.7% of the population, but 36% of the applications picked were from Asians, he said.