Take Action Now –
USE THE FORM BELOW TO STAND UP NOW FOR OUR KIDS. WE HAVE TO STOP THE OVER-CONCENTRATION OF OVERSIZED, OVERPRICED AND DANGEROUS HOUSING PROJECTS IN VENICE
The email below — including the subject line — will be sent to the distribution list at the bottom on your behalf, and you will receive a copy!
Let’s Fight Back, Venice!
Subject Line: Vote No on Lincoln Apartments: Stop Putting Our Kids in Danger and Stop Overpriced, Oversized Projects
Email Body:
Dear City Planning Commission and local leaders,
I am writing to express my firm opposition to the Lincoln Apartments project (Case CPC-2019-6069-CU-DB-CDP-CDO-SPP-MEL-WDI), proposed by Venice Community Housing Corporation.
This project is grossly unfair to Venice’s most vulnerable and most important residents: school-age children. It is outrageous that funding for the project is expected to depend on the inclusion of residents with drug addiction and severe mental illness(Prop 2) despite having NO sober living requirement and no requirement to seek treatment. Bordering directly on St. Mark School (who opposes the project) and on the same street as Coeur d’Alene Elementary and Young Minds Preschool, the project will intensify the existing and well-documented threat posed by some clients of Safe Place for Youth in the neighborhood.
Evidence from the existing SPY drop-in center and a nearby VCH supportive housing projects shows an alarming increase in police calls for crimes including assault with a deadly weapon, battery, burglary, theft, and vandalism. St. Mark has called in police when SPY clients harassed students and parishioners, including one who caused a school lockdown by wielding a chain and smashing windows. Yet, in a written answer to these concerns, VCH says it sees no need for a security guard at the Lincoln Apartments. SPY already ignores many of its neighbor’s complaints.
Homeless housing projects are already over concentrated in our community. While Venice accounts for only 15% of Council District 11, 48% of supportive housing units located in neighborhoods in CD11 will be located in Venice.
We adamantly oppose this four-story supportive housing project, which will dwarf the surrounding neighborhood and surely cause parking problems in the neighborhood as it will have only 6 parking spaces for up to 98 residents and 45 staff and volunteers. Furthermore, the $20 million budget to build 40 units (at a cost of $500K each) depletes at an exorbitant rate, public funds that could be used to help many more homeless people.
The project makes little sense economically amidst the devastation wrought by COVID-19 and represents a threat to the well-being of the 800 children who live on or attend one of the three schools on the street. Both those experiencing homelessness and our children deserve better than this over-priced and poorly conceived project. We urge you to vote against it.
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