During her reelection campaign, Culver City Councilwoman Meghan Sahli-Wells expressed anxiety about residents who were vulnerable to becoming homeless last year if their city rental assistance subsidy was not reinstated by the council. By a narrow 3-2 vote, the then 50-plus residents were allowed to remain in their homes.
As this year’s budget negotiations are taking place, the possibility that those remaining on the city’s housing assistance program could lose their subsidy is now less likely, due to a state reimbursement of crucial funding.
In the city’s 2016-17 budget documents, city finance officials state nearly $50 million that was borrowed from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency’s Housing Set Aside Fund several years ago will soon be available for potential housing needs. “Beginning in the fiscal year 2011-18, the Successor Agency will be in a position to request funding from the tax increment associated with the former [Redevelopment Agency] to pay off debts owed to the Housing Authority. This will allow funding for staff costs, programs, and some level of affordable housing projects over the next decade,” the document states.”
Successor agencies were created by cities through Assembly Bill 26 in 2012 after the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown eliminated state redevelopment agency to replace those entities.
Housing Director Tevis Barnes said her department expected to have the $49 million paid back at some point. “We won’t get it all back at once,” she cautioned. “If the City Council gives us direction, we would continue our rental assistance programs and other programs to help our seniors and others who need assistance.
“But largely we would be looking to continue to build more affordable housing units like the Globe [Avenue project], Culver Villas and Tilden Place,” Barnes said.
Sahli-Wells said she finds the reimbursement “very reassuring” because it could prevent those who rely on rental assistance ending up on the street. “One way to fight homelessness is to not create more homeless people,” Sahli-Wells said.
Homelessness is on the rise, with 46, 874 people countywide without shelter or temporarily homeless, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Sahli Wells noted those numbers were close Culver City’s resident population. “Imagine our city, but without any homes,” she said in amazement.
Culver City’s homeless count found 101 homeless, with nearly a third of them living on Culver City streets.
Calling homelessness “the most compelling crisis that confronts us,” Second District County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas (D- Culver City) sponsored a series of initiatives this year to fund homeless services. In February, the county set aside $100 million to combat the problem, based on a motion by the supervisor. The board is considering how to raise additional funding through a variety tax increases.
“To address the profundity of the crisis and the depth of poverty and homelessness in the county, we have to do more,” Ridley-Thomas said during the supervisors’ May 12 board meeting. “It won’t get better unless we have significant intervention. Each member of this board has said repeatedly that one-time funding isn’t sufficient. Now it’s time to get on with the rigorous exploration of the kind of funding that would be necessary.”
Culver City Homeless Committee Vice Chairwoman Deborah Wallace said the supervisor’s efforts on homelessness were crucial for municipalities to confront their own local situations. “I think the Los Angeles County Supervisors passing of legislation to provide $150 million in funding to assist the homeless is an outstanding move to eliminate our serious crisis of homelessness. I applaud Supervisor Mark Ridley -Thomas efforts to fund the fight against homelessness,” Wallace said.
Sahli-Wells says she hopes a citywide discussion on homelessness and how Culver City assists its vulnerable residents will happen at some point.
“That’s a discussion that I would love to be part of,” she said. “Two of my major questions would be what do we need to do in Culver City and how do we do it?”
Gary Walker contributed to this story.
