Santa Fe Art Colony Agreement for Low and Moderate Income Rentals

Every week, dust blows through the windows of Eva Pietraszak's maze-like loft from a concrete recycling establish adjacent door. It coats the furniture and the brightly colored paintings that hang on every wall. At night, a train runs past her sleeping room window. She doesn't have air conditioning or heat. Just Pietraszak, a painter and sculptor, says the weather are worth it in exchange for more than than 1,000 square anxiety of space, 20-pes ceilings and $ane,300 a month rent.

"These are some things that we are willing to deal with because we beloved the infinite," said Pietraszak, who shares her home with a roommate. "We love the community."

Eva Pietraszak'south fine art studio. Photograph by Anna Scott.

She lives at the Santa Fe Fine art Colony, a complex of 57 live-work units in an industrial area south of Fifty.A.'s Arts District. The property, a former terry cloth robe manufactory, was converted into low- and moderate-income housing for artists in 1986 under a xxx-twelvemonth agreement with L.A.'southward now shuttered Community Redevelopment Agency. That understanding was supposed to expire in 2016, simply the depression rents ended up being extended into this twelvemonth. Now, property owner Fifteen Group (based in Miami) has given find that rents will finally increase on Nov. 1, in some cases more than than 100%. Information technology could mark the end of an era for a property that'due south been largely insulated from the economic forces that take brought wine bars, trendy restaurants and million-dollar condos to the nearby Arts Commune in contempo decades.

"It'southward a tremendous loss on a personal level," said Sylvia Tidwell, head of the Santa Fe Art Colony Tenant Clan , whose hire is scheduled to jump from $1,426 to $iv,493 per calendar month. "Only beyond that it's a loss to the city and the community and the culture."

An unusual history

The Santa Atomic number 26 Art Colony was the city's first publicly subsidized artists' housing. When it opened, it included xiv market place-rate units and 43 rent-restricted residences. Francesco Siqueiros, a painter, printmaker and instructor, was one of the first to move into an affordable unit of measurement. He recalls submitting a portfolio and putting himself on a waiting list.

"I simply then happened to be ane of the persons to be able to win the jackpot," he said. Previously, he'd been living in a 200-square-foot room at the nearby American Hotel. "Getting a place like this…seemed to exist a great deal for sure."

Francesco Siqueiros. Photo by Anna Scott.

The 30-yr rent restrictions were scheduled to expire in 2016, merely were extended into 2017 afterwards the city determined that the owners hadn't provided proper notice to tenants. When new owners purchased the building for $xv million and indicated they would be raising rents to market rate, city councilmember Jose Huizar (whose district includes the Arts Colony) helped negotiate some other extension. The new owner, Fifteen Group, ultimately agreed to continue existing rents for the 43 restricted units through Nov. 1 of this year.

Current rents vary at the Art Colony. For example, Siqueiros, who moved there in 1988, pays $800 a month. Pietraszak, who has lived at the property since 2011, pays $one,300.

The scheduled increases besides vary. Siquerios says he was able to negotiate his new rent to $i,100, which he can beget. Pietraszak expects her rent to become up by $600, which she says will be a stretch, fifty-fifty though she has a roommate and works multiple jobs, including every bit a total-time high school teacher.

" I drive for Lyft, and I'm too probably going to become dorsum to doing some security, which is what I did in college," she said. "I grade papers until 3 o'clock in the forenoon as it is, and so it's gonna be interesting. "

Fifteen Group did non respond to interview requests.

"Santa Fe Art Colony open up house" sign. Photo past Anna Scott.

A bigger picture

The Santa Atomic number 26 Fine art Colony isn't the but property in the city facing expiring affordability restrictions. In the next 2 years, more than than 11,000 apartments around L.A. are expected to go from rent-restricted to market-rate, according to city documents. Metropolis Council Housing Commission Chair Gil Cedillo calls the coming wave of expiring covenants "a tsunami."

"It'll be a setback for all our efforts to build affordable housing in the city," he said.

The city's Housing and Community Investment Department is looking into ways to preserve affordability at properties with expiring contracts. In the meantime, individual City Council members have negotiated with owners in some cases on a project-by-project basis.

In an emailed argument, a spokesperson for Huizar indicated that his office has already washed all information technology tin for tenants at the Santa Fe Fine art Colony.

"The Santa Fe Art Colony is an integral part of the Arts District and Downtown Los Angeles," the statement said. "Regardless of what is legally permissible, preserving these units as affordable is the right matter to exercise. Information technology is our hope that the owner of the Santa Fe Arts Colony will do everything possible from this point to help go on artists in the customs."

A novel idea

The Santa Iron Art Colony Tenant Association is pursuing one somewhat novel pick: buying the belongings. Working with a Bay Area nonprofit, Safer DIY Spaces , the association made an offer to purchase the Art Colony from Fifteen Group for $16.8 million. Notwithstanding, they're even so working on cobbling together financing, which would come up past partnering with one or more outside entities, such as an affordable housing operator or philanthropic arts arrangement.

Members of the Tenant Association are counting on a California constabulary that requires owners of properties with expiring rent restrictions to entertain purchase offers from housing nonprofits, tenant associations and sure other potential buyers that want to maintain the low rents. So far, withal, 15 Grouping has not responded to their offering.

The tenants might become a reprieve from City Hall in the meantime. The Metropolis Council this calendar week is expected to vote on a proposal to ban all rent increases in the metropolis until January. ane, 2020.

The outside of the Santa Iron Art Colony. Photograph by Anna Scott.

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Source: https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater-la/1400-to-4000-rent-hikes-are-coming-to-historic-artist-community/is-it-the-end-of-an-era-for-las-only-affordable-housing-for-artists

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