Low Income Housing

With Westside rents hitting records, a group of affordable housing activists has identified Marina del Rey as the next stop in a long campaign to secure more low-income apartments along prime coastal land. Unlike most waterfront developments, the marina is owned by Los Angeles County, which leases it to developers, so county supervisors are in a position to demand more affordable apartments.

Touting President Bush's commitment to provide better housing for low-income Americans, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced Wednesday that $161 million would be made available this year to help thousands of first-time home buyers enter the market. Bush's program to aid families with down payments, which was signed into law in December, would be available for those earning up to 80% of the median income in their area, which in Los Angeles would be $47,600.

Plans for a major development approved by Camarillo should be halted because the city did not require homes for people with extremely low incomes, according to a lawsuit filed in Ventura County Superior Court. "In terms of the amount of very low-income housing that's needed and the amount that's been built, the city is way out of whack," said Barbara Macri-Ortiz, an Oxnard attorney representing two low-income Camarillo residents and a low-income former resident.

Several dozen corporations announced Monday in Los Angeles that they will invest $300 million to purchase federal income tax credits designed to help finance low-income housing nationwide. The credits are the principal federal program to encourage low-cost housing, and $60 million will go toward affordable housing in California. The announcement by the nation's leading syndicator of housing tax credits, an affiliate of the Local Initiatives Support Corp.

The City Council has approved plans for a 21-unit low-income housing project for seniors, despite protests from nearby homeowners who fear their property values will drop. The proposed Bowen Courts development would be at Yorktown Avenue and Lake Street, within the Huntington Classics neighborhood. The city bought the land in 1993 to build low-income housing because the redevelopment district lacks enough low-income housing to meet state requirements.

A new program designed to prevent deterioration and overcrowding in low-income rental housing has been approved by the City Council. The Rental Rehabilitation and Assistance Program will provide loans, mostly in the form of second mortgages, to owners who wish to maintain their housing without raising rents, officials said.

A city panel will meet today to consider buying a former nursing home for AIDS patients that could be transformed into a low-income housing project. The former Ahimsa Care Center, at 450 Glenneyre, has been vacant for about two years, said City Manager Kenneth C. Frank, who is seeking support from the Housing and Human Affairs Committee and hopes to bring the matter before the City Council on Feb. 20. Frank said the city has $800,000 in a housing fund set aside for such projects.

Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. is best known as a builder of sprawling suburban developments brimming with red-tile-roofed homes. But the Los Angeles-based home builder appears to be achieving success in another lesser-known but fast-growing venture: low-income housing. Since entering the market two years ago, the Los Angeles-based company has built more than 3,000 apartments for low- and moderate-income residents in California, Colorado and Utah.

About 200 angry homeowners who packed City Council chambers Tuesday night to protest a low-income housing development were told at the beginning of the marathon-length meeting the city could not legally deny the project. But that did not stop more than four hours of public debate over the proposed apartment complex, which was approved by the Planning Commission in September. Residents of the Westpark community asked council members to overturn approval of the 84-unit apartment complex.

In the Depression-era Wyvernwood Garden Apartments in the heart of East Los Angeles, the electricity often goes off if you try to run a toaster and a coffeepot at the same time. No cable TV, no high-speed Internet, no air conditioning. The orange stucco buildings in Boyle Heights, home to about 6,000 residents, are showing their age. The neighborhood has been troubled by crime and gang activity for more than a decade.