Local residents were outraged Tuesday after the California State Senate passed legislation that would create a new layer of local government to buy burned lots in L.A. for the purpose of building low-income housing.
The legislation, S.B. 549, introduced by State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), would “authorize the County of Los Angeles to establish a Resilient Rebuilding Authority” that could collect local property taxes if it uses “at least 40 percent of the total funds received … for the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of housing, including the costs of predevelopment and land acquisition, for households with incomes below 60 percent of area median income for rent or purchase.”
The proposal emerged from a “Blue Ribbon Commission” established by L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath to establish guidelines for rebuilding in the county, which was devastated by the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire in January. Some local residents were enthusiastic about the idea of a new authority to control rebuilding, seeing it as an alternative to city and county government.
But there has been major pushback since the proposal was announced, partly because the Blue Ribbon Commission met in secret and the proposal for a new authority took local residents by surprise last week.
“Absolutely insane proposal to further screw our neighbor. When will we stop voting for these dangerous people and wake up?!?” one resident posted on a community chat.
Another replied: “I have no problem with middle income living in newly constructed apartments. I grew up working class and lived among teachers, insurance salespeople, small business owners and other hard-working people. We all had a hard work ethic and were respectful to each other. That is a lot different than what current politicians are proposing for the area.”
The passage of the bill in the State Senate came a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) allocated $101 million for low-income housing in the Palisades and Eaton fire zones. Many residents are still struggling to find the money to rebuild, since many were underinsured or lost their insurance in the months before the fire, thanks to state policies that limited premium increases and provoked insurance companies to leave California.
While some residents expressed support for the idea that people who had previously traveled to work in the Palisades might be able to afford to live there instead, others were outraged at the prospect of importing an indigent population to the area.
The Center Square reported: “To qualify as Supportive Housing Multifamily Housing, a project must provide at least 40% of its units for the homeless, or individuals who have spent at least 15 days in ‘jails, hospitals, prisons, and institutes of mental disease.’”
Some residents have suspected that the reason state and local authorities failed to prevent the spread of the fire, and have been slow to permit rebuilding, is precisely because they want local residents to give up on rebuilding and to sell their land, so that it can be redistributed to the migrant population or the poor, and allow for a new, planned city model.
The idea of “affordable” housing has split local leaders since the fire. Opponents argue that “affordable” housing already existed in wealthy areas like Pacific Palisades, which had a trailer park and many residents on fixed incomes who had bought homes when property was cheaper.
The bill will move to the State Assembly for consideration on Wednesday. If passed, it will likely be signed by Gov. Newsom, not only to give effect to his existing policies, but also because he is testing the political waters for a presidential run, and the idea of redistributing land could be popular among an increasingly radical Democratic Party primary electorate.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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