By Mathew Millen Santa Monica
Another shooting at a Community Corp. of Santa Monica low-income housing project on 16th Street near Broadway on Oct. 6 validates the Housing and Urban Development Study “In the Crossfire.” That study conducted during the Clinton Administration concluded that 1) there is a strong correlation between low-income residents and crime, and 2) residents and neighbors of low-income housing projects are twice as likely to be victims of gun violence verses residents who do not live near low-income housing projects. The city gave millions of dollars to Community Corp., which saturated the Pico Neighborhood with low-income housing. History reflects nearly every shooting in the Pico Neighborhood is adjacent to a low-income housing project.
The police reported one of the victims in the 16th Street shooting is a Los Angeles gang member. In light of all the shootings Community Corp.’s tenant screening and leasing practices should be subject to greater scrutiny by the residents of Santa Monica. Community Corp. denies residency to applicants who have filed for bankruptcy recently, but rents to drug dealers, alien smugglers, registered sex offenders and gang members.
Community Corp. is developing high-density, low-income housing projects at 26th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, 15th Street and Broadway, and Centinela Avenue and Pearl Street. They will be demolishing Shakey’s restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard for a high-density, low-income housing project.
According to Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board member Oscar de la Torre, the city’s saturation program was done to intentionally segregate minority residents in the Pico Neighborhood. HUD will be forcing the city to end their segregationist practices by requiring the city to develop the low-income housing north of Wilshire and south of Pico boulevards.
If you live near one of these projects you might want to ask your council member why millions of dollars of your tax money is being given to Community Corp. so they can rent to people who don’t live in Santa Monica, and who have criminal records.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 13, 2005. Read the original PDF.