1 Vernice Hankins
From: OZ <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 11:57 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Cc: Phil Brock; Christine Parra; Oscar de la Torre; Lana Negrete; Kristin McCowan; Gleam Davis; David White; Douglas Sloan; Andy Agle; James Kemper; Sam Catanzaro; Dolores Quintana; Jorge Casuso; [email protected]; Emily Sawicki
Subject: 👍 SUPPORT 16-E: voucher payment standard+Small Area FMRs
EXTERNAL
—> How you vote on this item is a test on whether you support affordable housing in Santa Monica. <—
If you vote no, clearly you don’t support affordable housing for the lowest-income citizens, including those coming out of homelessness. You do want to address homelessness and provide housing for those unhoused, don't you?
This item is long overdue, and urgent also due to an external (HUD) deadline in January.
The currently used, 6-year-old, outdated voucher payment standard is not sufficient to allow voucher holders access to affordable housing in our uber expensive city. The payment standards for the County of Los Angeles and Orange County are higher than ours, even though the rents in Santa Monica are higher than the average rent in those counties.
The switch from a uniform voucher payment standard throughout the city to a Small Area FMR would grant the lowest-income tenants in Santa Monica access to housing in all parts of the city, not just the low-opportunity neighborhoods with lowest rents. It would affirmatively further fair housing by preventing a concentration of vouchers in low-rent areas, which is currently happening.
Please vote YES on this item.
*
This is also to demand that Himmelrich recuse herself from this item due to her self-reported bias towards the Housing Commission (see the 2/22/22 City Council meeting).
The most recent representation of Himmelrich’s bias was the fact that she REFUSED to agendize Housing Commission’s reports as a City Council 13 item, which is an item designated for reports of city boards and commissions to provide an avenue for the advisory boards to communicate with the City Council. This resulted in a delay in getting this item on the agenda, which in turn risks jeopardizing this item due to an external January deadline (HUD) regarding the Small Area FMRs.
Question: in what modern, progressive city is the mayor allowed to single-handedly prevent an item like this from being agendized because she is upset that her husband is no longer eligible to serve on the Housing Commission, (where incidentally he never showed an interest in fixing the outdated Item 8.D
11/29/22
1 of 2 Item 8.D
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2 voucher payment standard to make sure the lowest-income Santa Monicans have a fair shot at finding housing)?
Where was our City Manager in all this?
How about the Mayor Pro Tem?
By the way, Ms. McCowan, minorities are disproportionately represented among Santa Monica’s voucher holders when compared to the city’s general population. Do you care about those very low income minorities and their ability to access to affordable housing in the city? Regards,
Olga Zurawska
Item 8.D
11/29/22
2 of 2 Item 8.D
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