FIGHTING: Evicted Lincoln Place tenants get court date
SM COURTHOUSE — A handful of aging and disabled tenants from the Lincoln Place apartments will have a chance to challenge the legality of a mass eviction from the post-World War II affordable-housing complex in Venice.
The buildings are currently slated for demolition to make way for market rate housing.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins on Monday sided with the tenants by denying a request by the property owners — Denver-based Apartment Investment Management Co. (AIMCO) — to have the challenge dismissed.
A trial date has been set for Jan. 8. “I feel, finally, that justice is being served,” said Barbara Sternberg, a former Lincoln Place tenant who was evicted in October. “I feel now that there is some fairness in the law.
“I’ve found a new place to live, but I’m paying $600 more a month,” Sternberg added.“Aside from the money, I miss the real sense of community we had there. I miss those casual conversations around the mailbox... and the laundry room.”
Attorneys for AIMCO declined to comment on Monday’s ruling.
Cynthia Eichner, vice president of corporate communications for AIMCO, said, “We are confident the (final) ruling will be satisfactory for both the residents and our company.”
AIMCO claims 13 households still living in the complex on Lake Street — just off Lincoln Boulevard, near the Santa Monica border — are doing so illegally after the company ordered them to vacate the premises by Aug. 31. AIMCO filed its motion for summary judgment on the grounds that one of the declarations submitted by the tenants should have been excluded because it contained evidence that is inadmissible.
Tenants are challenging an unlawful detainer filed by AIMCO, accusing the company of not acting in good faith after applying for demolition under the Ellis Act, a state law passed in 1986 which says that landlords have the unconditional right to evict tenants to get out of the rental business.
For an Ellis eviction, the landlord must remove all of the units in the building from the rental market. When a landlord invokes the Ellis Act, the apartments can not be rerented, except at the same rent the evicted tenant was paying, for five years following the evictions.
Many use the Ellis Act to convert rental units to condominiums, which was the plan filed by the original owner of the property. When AIMCO purchased it, there was a belief amongst residents that the condo idea would be scrapped and they would be allowed to stay.
Legal advocates for the tenants contend AIMCO — a corporate landlord that owns 50 apartment complexes in California — is not going out of the rental business. Therefore, they argue, AIMCO is forfeit from exercising the Ellis Act.
AIMCO, which has refused to accept rent from tenants, has plans to replace all buildings on the 33-acre property with contemporary housing, complete with affordable units for low-income residents, AIMCO officials said.
Most of the tenants have already left, accepting relocation packages that included thousands of dollars to help pay for moving expenses.
Those who did not accept AIMCO’s offer were evicted this past December, with some forming a “tent city” nearby to stage protests.
Under an agreement reached during a series of mediations, 40 households comprised of elderly tenants and those with disabilities were allowed to remain at the site until demolition commenced.
However, AIMCO ordered those tenants to vacate the property Aug. 31. Many have left, however, 13 households still remain.
In the past, officials with AIMCO said they offered in October 2005 and in April of 2006 to allow existing tenants to remain at Lincoln Place at their current rents for life.
Those offers were rejected by the tenants’ association, who said they could not trust AIMCO to fulfill their promise.
For the past two years, AIMCO officials said they have offered “generous monetary relocation packages” far in excess of what state and local law requires.
Tenants said even if they accepted money, it would not be enough for tenants on fixed incomes who would see their wealth quickly evaporate because of rapidly rising market rents.
Lincoln Place, a garden-style campus of 52 buildings built in 1951, was originally backed by the Federal Housing Authority to support World War II veterans and their families. However, it always has been privately owned.
Once offering 795 affordable apartments, the site has been largely abandoned in the face of an ongoing legal battle that began shortly after 1993, when the property owner proposed a redevelopment plan that called for 850 units to be built on the site, most of which would be market-rate condominiums.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.