City Fights Subsidized Housing Loss
In a bid to keep hundreds of low-income tenants in their homes, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order, blocking three apartment owners who are attempting to remove their buildings from a federally subsidized housing program.
City officials said the owners had failed to abide by a state law that requires them to notify tenants and several public entities before leaving the Section 8 program. Such notification theoretically would give governments or private groups a chance to purchase the properties to maintain them for low-income residents.
“There’s a variety of options that we can engage in to preserve affordable housing, but if we don’t have the notice that these properties are going to market rate we can’t act,” said Sarah Dusseault, assistant deputy mayor for economic development.
Without the restraining order, some tenants may face increased rents and possible eviction by the end of next week, officials said. A judge is expected to rule on the restraining order Friday. The city also has filed a complaint seeking an injunction.
The filings follow a months-long effort by tenant advocates, local members of Congress and City Council members, who had asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to reject the owners’ applications to leave the program.
Local HUD officials approved the owners’ applications, arguing that the federal agency has no responsibility to enforce state and local laws.
HUD’s response has baffled local officials and tenant advocates, who said that the agency’s own Section 8 guidebook states that “owners must also comply with any state or local notification requirements.”
Responding to a letter about one of the properties, a HUD official said the regulations do not require the department to enforce the rule.
“Nowhere does the guide provide for any action on HUD’s part as a result of the owner not ... following state or local notification requirements,” wrote Jerome Champion, HUD’s director of multifamily housing in Los Angeles.
But the City Council, citing the state law concerning notification, unanimously voted last week to explore legal action against the three apartment owners.
“I am not questioning a person’s right to remove units from this program,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, who introduced the motion with Councilwoman Wendy Greuel. “What I am questioning is whether or not the process of doing so was adhered to and whether or not tenants were being treated fairly. We have 80,000 people on a waiting list for this program, so every unit counts.”
HUD officials did not return several phone calls seeking comment.
The controversy stems from three Section 8 contracts: with LA Pro VI, involving six buildings scattered in South Los Angeles; Arminta North and South, two buildings in Sun Valley; and One Venice Apartments, in Venice.
A 2-year-old state law requires owners seeking to terminate a contract to notify renters a year in advance. Public entities that must be notified include the city, the California Housing and Community Development Department and the local housing authority. In addition, owners must notify entities on a state-maintained list of nonprofit groups and others interested in preserving low-income housing.
Allowing owners to leave the program without notification is “going to be a tremendous signal to other owners that they can opt out ... without having to go through the necessary steps that were put in place to protect tenants,” said Larry Gross of the Coalition for Economic Survival.
But the general partner of the Sun Valley buildings, Kurken Alyanakian, said owners had “complied with all laws that we are bound by as far as notification” is concerned.
He said he is not bound by state law because the law was passed after he applied to leave the program. The other two apartment owners could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The issue of notifying Section 8 tenants of possible changes in their housing has also arisen in Claremont. Earlier this month, that city filed a lawsuit and, in a settlement, the owner of the Brighton Park apartments agreed to give new notices and keep the 40 units in the Section 8 program for a year, said Min Chang, a staff attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, who assisted tenants.
