RENTAL HOUSING IS NOT AT RISK UNDER PROP T

Prop T is about commercial development. Housing is exempt. Many of those in Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR), including the current chair of the Rent Control Board, and 3 former chairs have concluded that Prop T will have no impact on renters whatsoever or on affordable housing. They have all endorsed Prop T.

As former Rent Control Board chair Dolores Press put it:

"As a 32 year pro-tenant activist and leader, I can assure everyone that Prop T does not harm renters. In fact, SMRR is neutral on Prop T because it has no impact on renters or in the construction of new affordable housing.

On the contrary, Prop T's passage will enhance the quality of our daily lives."

Santa Monicans for Renters Rights and its full membership HAVE NOT TAKEN A POSITION on Prop T.

Within SMRR, however, there has long been a division over the amount of commercial development that should be allowed in our city. Some renters rights advocates, who have historically favored development and therefore are against any commercial building limits, are wrongly claiming that Prop T hurts renters.

Sadly, those wishing to strike fear into renters, a vulnerable population in Santa Monica, have tried to make a convoluted argument that developers will suddenly abandon their commercial plans and undertake wholesale demolitions of apartment buildings deep in residential neighborhoods instead.

As renters’ rights advocate and City Councilmember Kevin McKeown has said, this is just the old-school politics of fear. Since Prop T exempts all housing, it will remain up to the City Council to set housing policy. Regardless of Prop T, our City Council will need to redress the erosion of housing stock for condos which has been going on for many years in many neighborhoods. Prop T will have no affect on how Council decides to act on this issue because Prop T is not about housing. It's about commercial over-development.

Finally, please note that 98% of the money that is funding opposition to Prop T is coming from develops who will profit from more development.

These developers, who have never before expressed a concern about renters, have raised over $700,000, to try to kill Prop T so they can continue to build commercial projects here without regard to their traffic impacts.

That's who's paying for the mailings and phone calls that appear to be expressions of concern from a visible public official.

And the final irony. Just who are those developers who oppose T? They include developers who are evicting tenants on Ocean Avenue at San Vicente so they can tear down their 45 apartment units and replace them with fewer, luxury condos (Trammell Crow) and Village Trailer Park LLC which wants to replace one of Santa Monica's 2 remaining trailer parks with a 350+ unit complex. So if you think the real argument against Prop T is to "protect renters," follow the money. The LA Times just reported on this last Friday (click here).

For an overview that names names, see the article in the online newspaper, The Lookout.