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| Government |
| LA County leaders greenlight effort to pay homeowners to house the homeless |
| 2017-08-17 |
| [LA Daily News] A pilot program that pays some Los Angeles County homeowners to build a second dwelling on their property to house homeless people was approved with a 4-0 vote Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors. Homeowners in unincorporated communities who qualify can receive up to $75,000 to build a second dwelling in areas zoned for such structures, while others may get $50,000 to update and legalize an existing dwelling. The program was introduced last year as part of Los Angeles County’s set of 47 strategies to solve homelessness. The office of Regional Planning will work with several departments countywide with an allocated $550,000 in part to be used to offer subsidies. Unlike a guest house, second dwellings include kitchens. The program also will streamline the permitting process and provide technical assistance to homeowners within the county’s unincorporated areas, who would qualify, officials said. Details of who would be housed and the selection process are still under discussion, said supervising regional planner Connie Chung on Monday. Funding allows for two to three new second dwellings, and for the remodeling of two to three existing ones, she added. The program is expected to be completed within 18 months. Homelessness spiked 23 percent across Los Angeles County’s neighborhoods and suburbs this year compared with 2016, with more than 55,000 people sleeping on sidewalks, in their cars, or along the Los Angeles River, according to results of a count taken in January and released in May. Meanwhile, Los Angeles city and county voters approved two measures recently: Proposition HHH, a parcel tax, was approved by voters in the city of Los Angeles in November and is expected to raise $1.2 billion in bonds for the construction of 10,000 units of housing. Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax, was passed by Los Angeles County voters in March to raise an estimated $355  million a year for 10 years to help homeless people transition into planned affordable housing. That quarter-cent sales tax is set to begin on Oct. 1. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #19 USN, don't tell me. Tell it to the Mexicans, the Chinese, the Arabs, the Somalis and the New Yorkers. Tell it to the developers and politicians who tell us it's our responsibility to provide "affordable housing" for all the homeless freaks. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-08-17 19:37 |
| #18 This is just a scam to get them out of downtown and foist them on LA County's remaining rural areas. They've been foisting them on San Bernardino and (eastern) Riverside counties up until recently. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2017-08-17 15:03 |
| #17 Dear Ubu @ #15: I read 'da Burg, and have no desire to live in CA; any part of it. I have to visit there as part of work and that is my constant reminder about how totally screwed up the state is. My condolences to you. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2017-08-17 14:19 |
| #16 The program also will streamline the permitting process and provide technical assistance to homeowners within the county’s unincorporated areas, who would qualify, officials said. This is just a scam to get them out of downtown and foist them on LA County's remaining rural areas. |
| Posted by: JHH 2017-08-17 13:49 |
| #15 If they want affordable housing they can move out to the desert. Everybody in the whole wide world wants to live in coastal southern California but the sad fact is they can't. (OK, some of you Rantburgers don't but if you did live here you'd know what I mean.) There is no such thing as affordable housing in coastal southern California, there are only the developers who make money building houses that they claim will be affordable and the crooked politicians who enable them. It's all a lie. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-08-17 12:57 |
| #14 I foresee a bunch of meth labs and "shooting galleries". |
| Posted by: Pappy 2017-08-17 12:55 |
| #13 In TLH we have dorm-houses. They slipped in under a law regulating the number of non-related abiding in the house. The law as been since fixed but grandfathering is still around. Good news is fireworks a beer are easy to find. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2017-08-17 12:45 |
| #12 Just FYI - typical rent in San Diego is ~$2000/Mo |
| Posted by: Frank G on the Road 2017-08-17 12:40 |
| #11 There are incredible numbers of bums in SoCal, and they are emboldened and aggressive as any gang banger. I can't help but wonder what it'd be like to have a neighbor who decides to open a flop house and become an absentee landlord on the county dollar. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2017-08-17 12:34 |
| #10 Because living somewhere is subsidised rents become unaffordable. It's basic Ricardo's law (density of emoluments in an area defines the price of living there). |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-08-17 12:19 |
| #9 to help homeless people transition into planned affordable housing Just remember, 'Affordable Housing' is usually not affordable. It's heavily subsidized (let's just call it 'free') for the 'underprivileged'. Guess who pays for that. Otherwise the required rents/payments are well beyond what most homeless can afford. So the '$355  million a year for 10 years' is just the tip of the iceberg for the compassionate voters in LA County. Upkeep be hard. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2017-08-17 11:51 |
| #8 Plus who pays for the damages to the house? As a landlord, I found about this really quick. Why does property get trashed? It's not theirs. |
| Posted by: Raj 2017-08-17 11:38 |
| #7 Remember (de facto) unregulated nursing homes? Exploitation is just around the corner. Heck, according to VDH, they've already turned a blind eye to all sorts of zoning violations in housing illegals. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-08-17 11:22 |
| #6 I lived in 1 stall of a 2 stall garage during college. Who qualifies as homeless? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-08-17 10:48 |
| #5 Plus who pays for the damages to the house? And how does broke LA county pay for this? This whole program seems set to fail. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2017-08-17 10:30 |
| #4 #3 - Exactly! |
| Posted by: Frank G on the Road 2017-08-17 10:18 |
| #3 Then they would use the squatter laws against said homeowner if they ever wanted them out. |
| Posted by: chris 2017-08-17 09:27 |
| #2 Home or business? You decide. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-08-17 08:54 |
| #1 What could possibly go wrong? |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2017-08-17 08:49 |