Affordable Housing

State officials Friday earmarked $30 million in voter-approved housing bonds for a group with ties to Staples Center owner Philip Anschutz, for sprucing up the street next to his multibillion-dollar entertainment projects in downtown Los Angeles. Legislation governing access to the bond money, and tailored to Anschutz's purpose, passed just hours before lawmakers adjourned last year. The funds come from a pot of $2.

A state panel has approved $30 million in housing bonds to improve the Figueroa Street area near Staples Center in downtown L.A. even though the initial application failed to show how the project would help provide affordable housing. The funding was approved Thursday night by the state's Local Assistance Loan and Grant Committee after the state allowed backers of the project to submit additional information.

A look at upcoming events: Wednesday Affordable housing: Volunteers will begin framing houses in the Calle Rolando neighborhood of San Juan Capistrano for disabled veterans and low-income families under the Habitat for Humanity program of building affordable housing. Friday USO benefit: "A Concert for the Troops," helping Los Angeles-based USO centers, will be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. More than 1,000 military people will attend the concert, which will be shown on tape-delay to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For much of the 20th century, Los Angeles was one of the few major cities in the United States--maybe the only one--that offered so much promise to new arrivals when it came to residential architecture. In New York and other large cities on the East Coast, showing up as a new resident without a trust fund has always meant scratching out a living and moving slowly up the housing totem pole, from undersized apartment to slightly-less-undersized apartment.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday will unveil a $5-billion, five-year plan to build housing for the poor and middle class. The blueprint, which calls for thousands of new homes along subway and bus lines, and developments with people of all incomes living together, would, according to the mayor's deputies, alter the look and feel of the city forever.

In 2006, California voters passed Proposition 1C, a $2.8-billion housing bond. Los Angeles currently can get a share of the funds to build affordable housing for seniors, but the city's current need is for affordable housing open to families -- and in order to get money for those projects, it needs voters to update earlier authorizations. There's no good reason to lose out on this funding and the housing it would bring. The Times urges a yes vote on Measure B.

As the cost of Wall Street's credit crisis has mounted, the hunt for villains has intensified and the accusations of fault have widened. At first the focus was on greedy profiteers among lenders and investment bankers, who were an easy (and deserving) target.

Re "West Hollywood dealt a blow on 'Tara,' " Oct. 31 It's no surprise that West Hollywood has lost in court again in its quest to build so-called affordable housing in one of the most expensive cities in L.A. County. Had the city done the right thing from the beginning and built the housing on a noncontroversial lot, there's no doubt the matter would have been closed years ago. Instead, residents' tax dollars have been spent on legal fees. That is money that might have been better spent building affordable housing elsewhere.

WITH apologies to David Letterman, the Top Five reasons why landlords hate rent control are: No. 1. As private citizens, they believe they shouldn't be forced to do government's job of providing low-cost housing. No. 2. In few sectors of private enterprise does a city tell a business how much it may charge. No. 3. Rent-control buildings sell for less, even in high-rolling realty days. No. 4.

DON'T let the Hollywood lights blind you: Los Angeles is a city of renters, and without rent control, the workers who keep the city running couldn't afford to live here, tenant advocates insist. Frail but feisty, 79-year-old Doris McKendall could be the poster child for the rent-control cause. She lives on $851 a month from Social Security and pays $653 for a rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment a few blocks west of La Cienega Boulevard. When she moved there in 1984, the rent was around $400.