Council Delays Vote on Affordable Housing

Acting on the recommendation of city commissioners who said building a new 33-unit affordable housing development in Panorama City is “unneeded” because existing housing could be rehabilitated at lower costs, a Los Angeles City Council committee has delayed a vote on funding for the project until next week.

A May 29 memorandum to the Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee of the City Council from Lawrence C. Cardoza, president of the Affordable Housing Commission, lists seven reasons why funds should not be approved for the Tupper/Tobias Village project, a planned “home ownership” development of detached housing units. Among the reasons in the memorandum:

“Current selling prices of similar detached condominium units in the area are substantially less than those projected for Tupper/Tobias Village” and “Both the LAHD [Los Angeles Housing Department] and the developer are inexperienced in this type of development and show little understanding of the subdivision process, which further risks public funds.”

The project was approved by the City Council in 1994 as a development of four-bedroom single-family units to be sold at $133,155 each. The city housing department would have provided a total of $924,000 in funding, with the balance provided by a construction lender.

But the project grew more expensive as developers failed to obtain bank financing, according to a letter sent to Mayor Richard Riordan from the Affordable Housing Commission in April.

Housing department officials acknowledged that rehabilitating existing units would be cheaper than building from scratch, but maintained that putting a new development--to include a day care center--on the vacant lot at Tobias Avenue and Tupper Street would benefit the community.

The Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee will make a recommendation on funding for the project next week, officials said.