By Mat Millen Santa Monica
Recent crimes in the vicinity of Community Corp. of Santa Monica low-income housing projects validate the H.U.D. study, “In The Crossfire, The Impact of Gun Violence on Communities.” That study (during the Clinton Administration) concluded those residents who live in and around low-income housing projects are more than twice as likely to suffer firearm related victimization.
With a sex offender living in a CCSM building on Delaware Avenue accused of burglary, and a firearm found at the notorious CCSM building on 17th St. (numerous gun-related incidents, including bullets shot into a resident’s bedroom), I now understand why the executive director of CCSM, and director of the city housing authority — the two people responsible for developing multi-family low-income housing in the Pico neighborhood — refuse to buy a home adjacent to the projects they develop in the Pico neighborhood. They don’t want to be victimized by their tenants.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 21, 2004. Read the original PDF.