To the editor: I’m happy to see the L.A. Times editorial board continuing to light a fire under the city to build the Venice Dell affordable housing project (“Stop finding ways to kill the Venice Dell homeless housing project and get it built instead,” March 23). As a Venice homeowner located a several-minute walk from the site and a UCLA urban planning professor, I’ve been excited to see the housing get all the necessary approvals and beat back NIMBY lawsuits. And I’ve been incredibly frustrated to see City Councilwoman Traci Park and City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto maneuver to effectively try and kill the project.
Most inexplicable is the failure of Mayor Karen Bass, who ran on a platform of ending homelessness, to push forward a housing development that will provide 60 units of permanent supportive housing for people exiting homelessness, plus 60 affordable units for low-income families and artists who otherwise would be at risk for displacement and homelessness. As the headline of your editorial says, “Get it built!”
Chris Tilly, Venice
..
To the editor: Yeah, former Councilman Mike Bonin was the “champion” of the homeless at the expense of the taxpaying public, who could be damned for wanting a clean, safe community in which to live. Park was a great champion of the residents of Venice with her opposition to this and other bad projects. This project would cement a dangerous population of homeless people into our community. This was shown to be an example with the temporary homeless housing at the transit lot on Main Street.
Your opinion says, “The Venice Dell project is not a rogue project on a piece of land haphazardly turned over to the developers by the city’s Development Department and City Council.” But that is exactly what it is. The neighborhood council and the people of Venice in large part have rejected this project. I guess our opinions just don’t matter.
Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice
..
To the editor: Thank you for exposing the hypocrisy of our elected officials who claim to want to solve the homeless crisis in Venice. Park is catering to the NIMBYs; she refuses to honor the City Council and the Coastal Commission, which have approved this worthwhile project.
Sheila Goldberg, Venice
