Free Republic

Phantom Affordable Housing - Inclusionary Con-Dough Conversions Don't Count as Affordable Units The Pasadena Pundit - July 7, 2007 Would you encourage your representative on your City council to vote for a so-called Inclusionary Housing Condominium Conversion ordinance amendment if you learned that it: 1. Would not count toward the affordable housing goals mandated by the State because such condominium conversions do not add new "rooftops," as they are already existing housing? (i.e., phantom affordable housing). 2. For every one inclusionary unit created about four or five apartment dwellers would still be displaced. This is very stressful for those dislocated....

Help renters be buyers As condo conversions spread, L.A. must innovate to provide affordable housing. By Marc B. Haefele, LOS ANGELES faces an enormous rental housing crisis. Condominium conversions are taking thousands of apartment units off the market, which is driving up rents even as the number of people who can only afford to rent increases. About 12,000 rent-controlled apartments have been converted into condos or demolished in the last five years — 8,000 of them since 2005. And...more than 60% of Angelenos live in apartments, and the average monthly rent is $1,600 citywide. But housing activist Paul DeSantis envisions...