Stopping the City of LA’s Obstruction and Discrimination to Build Affordable Housing
The Venice Dell Community project is a 100% affordable and permanent supportive housing development that will create more than 140 affordable units dedicated to unhoused individuals, low-income artists, and other lower-income individuals and families. The project will be built on a city-owned site currently used as a surface parking lot in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is part of the City of LA’s plan to develop its land for affordable housing.
The project is being developed by experienced nonprofit affordable housing developers Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing Corporation and has been in the works since 2016. The project was vetted and considered at 18 public meetings between 2017 and 2022, and the City and the developers entered into a binding Disposition and Development Agreement in Junio 2022.
However, since Enero 2023, at the insistence of Councilmember Traci Park and LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, who both oppose the project, the City has been intentionally obstructing the remaining approvals to get the project across the finish line. These delays are undermining the City’s own housing policies and contributing to the city’s homelessness and affordability crisis.
On Julio 10, 2024, LA Forward Institute, along with taxpayers Sylvia Aroth and Professor Gary Williams, and unhoused individual Kathy Coates, filed a fair housing lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for obstructing the Venice Dell Community affordable and permanent supportive housing project. The lawsuit demands that the city proceed with all remaining approvals for Venice Dell and cease obstructing and delaying supportive and affordable housing projects. It also alleges these actions discriminate against people of color and individuals with disabilities. The plaintiffs are represented by Public Counsel, Western Center on Law & Poverty, and Strumwasser & Woocher LLP.
Tribunal
Superior Court of The State Of California, County Of Los Angeles – Central District
Estado
Archivado en
Caso No.
24STCV17156
Archivado en
07/11/2024
Evolución de la jurisprudencia y documentos clave
Denuncia presentada
LA Forward Institute and three Los Angeles residents filed a fair housing lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for obstructing the Venice Dell Community affordable and permanent supportive housing project. The lawsuit demands that the city proceed with all remaining approvals for Venice Dell and cease obstructing and delaying supportive and affordable housing projects. It also alleges that these actions discriminate against people of color and individuals with disabilities.
Documentos
Clientes
LA Forward Institute
LA Forward Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity whose mission is to make local government accessible and to advance accountability through civic education, leadership development, and coalition building. It is dedicated to a vision of Los Angeles County as a fair, flourishing region where our public institutions ensure that all people can live in dignity and reach their fullest potential as human beings. It advances racial and economic justice across a wide range of issues including housing, climate, transportation, unarmed crisis response, and good government.
Individual Plaintiffs
- Kathleen Coates and her partner became unhoused in 2023 when they became unable to afford the monthly rent of their previous apartment in Mar Vista. They currently live in a motor home, which they often park in and around Venice. Ms. Coates has a mental health condition that substantially impacts major life activities, including working. Her partner receives Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
Ms. Coates and her partner desire to live in supportive housing in Venice, so that they can both be close to where they work and where they receive medical care. Since becoming unhoused in 2023, Ms. Coates has been unable to find stable affordable or supportive housing in Venice or its vicinity. Ms. Coates has been injured and will continue to be injured by the City’s efforts to obstruct and delay the construction of the Project’s supportive and affordable housing, as Ms. Coates and her partner are chronically homeless, and would gladly live in supportive housing at Venice Dell if offered a residence there.
- Sylvia Aroth has lived in Venice for over 50 years. She is a current homeowner in Venice who recognizes the need for affordable housing in Venice and supports the construction of Venice Dell. Ms. Aroth brings suit as a Los Angeles taxpayer.
- Gary Williams is Professor of Law and Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Chair in Civil Rights at Loyola Law School. Professor Williams grew up in Venice and only left to attend Stanford Law School. Two of his sisters still live in the ever-shrinking African-American neighborhood within Venice. Professor Williams brings suit as a Los Angeles taxpayer.
Equipo jurídico
Consejo Público
Public Counsel es un bufete de abogados de interés público sin ánimo de lucro dedicado a promover los derechos civiles y la justicia racial y económica, así como a amplificar el poder de nuestros clientes a través de una defensa legal integral. Fundado y fortalecido por un modelo de servicio legal pro bono, nuestro personal y voluntarios buscan la justicia a través de servicios legales directos, promueven comunidades saludables y resistentes a través de la educación y la divulgación, y apoyan los esfuerzos liderados por la comunidad para transformar los sistemas injustos a través de litigios y promoción de políticas dentro y fuera de Los Ángeles.
Case Attorneys:
Centro Occidental sobre Derecho y Pobreza
Formed in 1967, Western Center on Law & Poverty fights for justice and system-wide change to secure housing, health care, racial justice, and a strong safety net for Californians with low incomes. Western Center attains real-world, policy solutions for clients through litigation, legislative and policy advocacy, and technical assistance and legal support for the state’s legal aid programs. Western Center is the oldest and largest legal services support center in the state of California.
Strumwasser & Woocher LLP
Since 1991, Strumwasser & Woocher LLP has represented and advised public sector clients, nonprofit organizations, and individuals across California on complex and high-profile legal issues involving local and state government, elections, education, land use, economic regulation, environmental protection, consumer protection, and workers’ rights. We are known for our successful trial and appellate litigation of landmark public policy and public-interest matters. Over the last thirty years, we have earned a wide array of victories in path-making litigation—including more than 50 published appellate decisions—and have advised clients on many of the most compelling issues facing Californians.
Pulse
- Press Release—LA Forward Institute and Community Members Sue Los Angeles Over Venice Dell Delays, 7/11/2024
Media Coverage:
- LA Times, L.A. officials continue to stall homeless housing project in Venice, new lawsuit claims, 7/12/24
- KTLA, L.A. officials accused of delaying affordable housing project in Venice, 7/12/24
- AirTalk, Lawsuit alleges intentional stalling of Venice housing development by elected officials, 7/12/24
- MyNewsLA, Venice Residents Sue City Over Alleged Attempts to Stop Housing Project, 7/11/24
- KNX News, L.A. sued over ‘illegal efforts’ to impede housing project in Venice, 7/11/24
- Daily News, LA is sued for slowing a project for homeless and poor on Venice Canal, 7/11/24
- LA Public Press, LA sued for stalling construction of supportive housing in Venice, 7/11/24
- LAist, New lawsuit aims to stop LA leaders from further ‘thwarting’ Venice homeless housing project, 7/11/24
FAQS
- What is the Venice Dell Community project?
- Venice Dell is a 100% affordable and permanent supportive housing project that will create more than 140 affordable units dedicated to unhoused individuals, low-income artists, and other lower-income individuals and families. It has been in the works since 2016.
- What is the purpose of the Venice Dell project?
- The Venice Dell community is being built in response to the Los Angeles housing crisis. More than 50% of Angelenos who rent are rent-burdened, and the median home price has reached nearly $1 million.
- Where will the Venice Dell project be built?
- The project will replace a city-owned parking lot at 200 North Venice Boulevard. A new public parking garage will be constructed to make up for the lost parking spaces.
- Has the project been fully approved?
- Yes, the project is fully entitled and the City and the Developers executed a binding Disposition and Development Agreement on Junio 30, 2022. There are a few approvals remaining that the City has been intentionally obstructing since Enero 2023.
- Why is there a lawsuit?
- While Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council have publicly supported and adopted policies to expedite housing solutions citywide to address the City’s devastating housing and homelessness crisis, as demanded by LA voters, some of the same elected officials are now covertly thwarting those efforts. Since taking office in 2023, Councilmember Traci Park and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, acting on animus against the project and the chronically homeless, disabled, and Black and Brown Angelenos it would house, have pursued a number of backdoor strategies to thwart and obstruct Venice Dell. These efforts not only undermine the City’s own stated policies, but they violate state law, including the state Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), state statutes prohibiting discrimination against affordable housing, the Los Angeles City Charter, the Los Angeles City Administrative Code, and the Equal Protection Guarantee in the California Constitution.
- What is the city doing to delay the project?
- The City is unlawfully obstructing Venice Dell in violation of state law. This includes city officials intentionally withholding approvals and agreements that are necessary before the project can break ground, and interfering with Coastal Commission review. These actions are denying housing opportunities to low-income individuals and people experiencing homelessness, who are disproportionately Black, Brown, and have disabilities.
- What happened with the lawsuits against this project?
- They were recently rejected. There have been two main legal challenges to the Project, both brought by the same NIMBY group in 2022: (1) a lawsuit challenging the Project’s CEQA exemptions, and (2) a lawsuit challenging the City’s approval of the development agreement.
- Both lawsuits failed. On Mayo 21, 2024, Judge Fruin denied the CEQA writ petition, upholding the Project’s land use approvals. On Junio 4, 2024, Judge Chalfant denied the challenge to the development agreement.
- Who is responsible for building the project?
- Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing are the developers of the project. The City selected them through a competitive bidding process, pursuant to the City’s desires to redevelop the city-owned parking lot.
- When did the project start?
- The City put out a request for proposal in 2016 and signed a development agreement with the developers in Junio 2022. The remaining project approvals have been delayed for two years now, delaying the construction of sorely needed affordable housing on the Westside.
- What is the goal of the lawsuit?
- The goal of the suit is to get the City to take the last few remaining steps to allow the project to break ground and open its doors to unhoused and low-income households who have been waiting for this housing.
- Who filed the lawsuit?
- LA Forward Institute along with three individuals who represent different sectors of the Venice community.
