Current economic disruptions aside, we historically have had two major housing challenges in Santa Monica: retaining the limited affordable housing we still have, and creating new affordable housing.

Changes in state law over ten years ago altered Santa Monica’s original 1979 rent control.  New tenants moving into voluntarily vacated apartments now pay full market rent, and in less than a decade we have lost over fourteen thousand formerly affordable units.

Santa Monica builds new deed-restricted affordable housing, and converts existing apartment buildings to permanent affordability, through our non-profit affordable housing developer Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM).

Using our redevelopment and other local money, leveraging it with state and federal funds, we were still unable to keep up with the loss of affordability.  I led our CIty Council to pass a law mandating on-site affordable housing in almost all market-driven new residential zone multi-family projects.

No longer will developers be allowed to demolish rent-controlled apartments  without replacing at least

Santa Monica City Manager Lamont Ewell, Councilmembers Shriver and McKeown, and CCSM Board Chair Patricia Hoffman, at the groundbreaking for a tropical-themed affordable housing project.

some of the lost affordable housing.  Our new law eliminates in most cases the cheap "in-lieu" fees developers previously could pay to make a token gesture toward affordable housing.

Instead, real housing units affordable to specified income brackets must be built on site, as part of the condo subdivision.  These inclusionary units will help Santa Monica meet the "30% affordable" mandate voters gave the City with Prop. R, passed in 1990.

Award-winning CCSM affordable housing at 502 Colorado Avenue.

(Don’t forget that any TV set graphic on my website links to a video!)

Recently I fought hard (and successfully!) to more than quadruple the amount of redevelopment money our city commits over the next thirty years to affordable housing.

If you need subsidized affordable housing:

Santa Monica
Housing Authority

Community Corporation of Santa Monica

Elect Kevin again, in 2010:  Re-election campaign site