VENICE : 25-Unit Low-Income Housing Project Moves Forward Despite Opposition

Despite opposition from some residents, housing advocates are welcoming a series of favorable rulings by Los Angeles zoning administrators regarding construction of a 25-unit apartment building for low-income families in Oakwood.

The proposed development at 325 4th Ave., which will include one- to four-bedroom units with a maximum monthly rent of $569, would include a community garden, a barbecue area with picnic tables, a recreation room and a basketball and recycling area.

“It will be a real asset to the community, well-designed with lots of open space and recreation areas for kids and adults,” said Steve Clare, executive director of the Venice Community Housing Corp., a nonprofit builder of affordable housing on the Westside that hopes to construct the project.

Some neighborhood homeowners and landlords who are opposed to the project, called the Fourth Avenue Apartments, are concerned about what they say would be the detrimental effect of another low-income housing development in Venice. They point to crime and other problems that have plagued 14 federally subsidized apartment buildings in the area, known as Holiday Venice.

“The group of people building this are well-intentioned do-gooders who are naive about the perils of renting to low-income people,” said Peter Nott, a property owner in Oakwood for 17 years and a board member of the Oakwood Property Owners Assn. “These buildings attract a criminal and hard-core gang element who hang out in the property and sell drugs. . . . A bit of green grass and a recreation room is not going to solve the problem.”

The developers say their proposal differs markedly from the area’s public housing projects because its design is geared toward the working poor. Tenants’ work histories and income levels will be scrutinized, the management company will be on site and the housing corporation’s board will be made up of people who live in the community, the developers said.

“Multifamily housing often has problems with absentee landlords who don’t care about the community,” said David Kramer, the housing corporation’s director. “But that’s not the case because our community-based board will ensure this project is an asset to the neighborhood.”

The housing corporation also plans to set up a job-training program for the area’s youth to work on the development. Clare also said he will require the building’s contractors to employ a significant number of skilled construction workers who live in Venice.

Advocates of the $3.4-million project, which will be funded through a mixture of city housing department grants, tax credits and bank loans, say critics should look at the housing corporation’s other affordable housing developments in Venice--one each on Navy Street and Brooks Avenue and a 32-bed women’s shelter on Westminster Avenue.

The corporation’s other projects “are running according to the way they said they were going to run, and I’m very confident they’re going to do a good job,” said Ivonne Guzman, a 30-year resident of Oakwood.

The proposal is expected to go before the City Council for approval early next year.