Low-income housing advocates are suing the city of Los Angeles and City Council for allegedly obstructing the construction of a 140-unit project in Venice that plaintiffs say is needed to house chronically homeless people in the coastal community.
The nonprofit group LA Forward Institute, two taxpayers and a homeless individual filed the lawsuit on July 10 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging that city officials are blocking the construction of low-income residential units in violation of the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The project, called the Venice Dell Community, has been vetted, and city officials and developers approved a Disposition and Development Agreement in June 2022, according to the lawsuit. The project will provide 68 units for those experiencing chronic homelessness and 68 units for low-income households and artists, the complaint says. The project includes four manager units.
The lawsuit places much of the blame for project delays on 11th District City Councilwoman Traci Park and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto.
“Since taking office in 2023, Councilmember Traci Park and … Feldstein Soto, acting on animus against the project and the chronically homeless, disabled and Black and Brown Angelenos it would house, have pursued a number of backdoor strategies to thwart and obstruct Venice Dell,” the lawsuit states. “These efforts not only undermine the city’s own stated policies, but they violate state law.”
The City Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Housing Department, another defendant in the case, declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The plaintiffs are represented by Public Counsel, which provides pro bono legal services to nonprofits; Western Center for Law and Poverty; and Strumwasser & Woocher LLP.
Faizah Malik, Public Counsel’s managing attorney, told the Southern California Record that the city Planning Commission has concluded the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and that the City Council has already approved numerous zoning documents for the project, including a tentative tract map, coastal development permit and General Plan amendment.
“The only thing that has changed since these approvals is administrations, which the city itself has acknowledged recently,” Malik said in an emailed statement “This collaboration changed when City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and Councilmember Traci Park came into office. Since their election, they have been searching for avenues to block the project despite the city’s approvals, repeating arguments that the NIMBY opponents to the project have raised.”
The courts have rejected those not-in-my-backyard arguments challenging Venice Dell, she said.
"The lack of clarity around the city’s sudden opposition and issues with the project is part of the reason why we brought our case,” Malik said. “The project is entitled and has land-use approvals. Many city departments worked collaboratively for five years with the developers to move the project through these approvals.”
The opposition to the project and claims that it will alter the “character” of the neighborhood point to “thinly veiled racism” and animus against the disabled, according to the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the city’s alleged obstruction as unlawful and a waste of taxpayer money and to enjoin the city from causing any further delays. They are also asking the court to award the plaintiffs attorney fees and court costs in accordance with the state Code of Civil Procedure.