Investigate first, take checks later

The irony is too much.

The Huntington Beach City Council is hitting up owners of

illegally converted condos for about $20,000 to pay for affordable

housing -- payments that would have been covered had those changes

been done by the books. Council members also are suggesting they take

liens out on the condos to pay the fee.

What they are doing is asking for money most of these condo owners

just don’t have. In essence, they are making what was affordable

housing for these people unaffordable.

And for what? To create affordable housing for someone else. See

where this doesn’t make sense?

Asking condo owners who have already been victimized to pony up

this money simply is not the right answer. That is not to say the

city shouldn’t get the affordable-housing money, but they need to

wait until police investigations of the illegally converted condos

are done and then go after those responsible.

People who probably had to scrape and save to buy a converted

apartment are the very same ones the city is trying to protect with

these laws. They’re not technically low income, but they’re probably

first-time buyers or have worked their way up to affording a condo in

Huntington Beach. To penalize them defeats the whole purpose of

subsidizing housing.

The city can afford to hold off on getting that money while the

responsible parties are caught. And it should.

City leaders need to be proactive in following the paper trail and

finding out who failed to get permits, have inspections done and pay

all the applicable fees. Those responsible then need to pay

restitution.

If the city gets the money from current owners, or even their

title companies, we worry that this sad story will end there. The

incentive to find those responsible suddenly diminishes, and those

who should be paying these affordable-housing costs will be free and

clear.