Residents from the Wilshire/Montana neighborhoods gathered at Saint Anne Church on Colorado Avenue on Monday to engage with the Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (HCHC) over the development of three new sites, 1217 Euclid, 1211 14th Street and 1146 16th Street.
Once built, the projects would serve individuals and families making anywhere from 30 to 80% of the area median income, as well as people experiencing homelessness. The 14th St site will include permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals with The People Concern — a 501(c) non-profit organization that specializes in evidence-based solutions to homelessness — as the lead supportive service provider.
However, if you thought just because the Fourth of July was behind us that the fireworks had stopped, then you’re very much mistaken. The strategy adopted by the HCHC for this particular meeting was to provide a presentation and then, rather than have a traditional-style Q&A where members of the public might ask questions that were answered by relevant officials, five different “stations” had been set up, behind the designated seating area to address different categories of questions.
According to Sarah Letts, Executive Director of HCHC, their research had suggested that this was the most effective method. But this was not an opinion shared by almost all of the 80 or so gathered crowd and when that strategy was announced, the assembly did not hold back in expressing their feelings towards this questionable idea.
“Lots of people will ask the same questions, which will just have to be repeated over and over,” said one.
“We all want to hear the answers,” said another, while another said, “This is an attempt to divide and conquer.”
Letts also objected to the Daily Press video recording the meeting, saying, “You will have to turn that off [after the presentation] because you don’t have everyone’s consent.” And while that’s not actually a thing, as a gesture to prevent an already volatile situation from becoming further inflamed, her “request” was respected.
Tensions remained high from the outset and after a non-stop barrage of angry complaint and frustration, there was little Letts could do and so she agreed to a compromise of a 20 minute Q&A session after the presentation where residents could ask questions in an infinitely more logical format.
“We’ve heard concerns about safety and questions about our security plan, we recognize the community’s concerns about safety in general and specifically the proposed 40 apartments for people experiencing homelessness. The safety of all people, including neighbors, employees and visitors to local businesses and institutions, is of primary importance to HCMC,” Letts said during the presentation.
The proposed projects, which ultimately will come back for final approval by the City Council, include approximately 130 units on the three city-owned properties in line with the city’s 2021-2029 Housing Element.
The amount of heckling was borderline disrespectful, with frequent shouts of “insincere” and “bullshit,” but it also reflected the passion of the people inside the hall.
“This isn’t open mic night, let’s not have hecklers. If you’ve got questions, I’m happy to stay all evening and answer them. But let’s go through the presentation and be respectful of the other people here,” Kevin Daly, founder of Kevin Daly Architects, the firm that will design the new structures, before he started his portion of the presentation.
The presentations themselves offered another chance to hear the plans that have more or less been finalized since this topic last came up before City Council in March. They included details of the parking solutions and final building renderings. But it was predominantly the issues of public safety and reduced parking that prompted most of the concern.
“We live on Euclid just across from Vons parking lot and we’re scared. We’re scared, the neighbors are scared and businesses are scared. They’re scared by the stories that we’ve heard that this is permanent, supportive housing, basically for homeless people,” said resident Kay Johnson.
“Safety is a predominant concern in the neighborhood. So this particular block … is a highway for transient homelessness with ill intentions … Every day there’s a new person showing up causing chaos and moving on. We are concerned and by the way, police rarely respond to those because they consider them to be minor disturbances … So I’m looking forward to more conversations specifically about security and safety,” said one gentleman.
“There’s a lot of emotion in the room, right? But we also wanted to make sure that our safety situation improves and our neighborhood does not get worse, we cannot afford worse,” said another.
An alternative perspective was provided by Erica Robinson, ODR Program Manager for St. Joseph Center. “What we find in this line of work is safety increases when clients are going into permanent housing, permanent housing increases safety, because clients who are on the street, that’s when you’re doing all the crimes and everything, but they’re inside and your needs are getting met. They don’t have to engage in the crimes that they have to do out of survival,” she said.
On top of everything else, there was the issue that residents had not received any notification whatsoever over the multi-year period through the mail regarding these proposed developments. “You’re saying that we were informed and in five years — that includes lockdown — some of us had nothing else to do but read our mail. I did not get any,” said another resident.
“It’s a city project at the end of the day, but the city never engaged with the residents, except for stating you should be following city council meetings and Portal uploads of documents that are part of a process, right. So it’s a city project, but the city never engaged with the residents,” resident Michael Morgan told the Daily Press.
“I think the overall climate of our city is one where many are fearful, when they walk down the streets, they don’t feel their neighborhoods are theirs anymore. And I think all those things, the fear factor, affects the supportive housing concerns, whether they’re valid or not,” Mayor Phil Brock said.
Brock arrived mid-way through the meeting and City Manager David White was present throughout, but wouldn’t say anything other than, “You can reach out to city staff [for comment].”