Santa Monica officials approved a $123 million, 122-unit apartment building for the homeless just days after an audit found California could not account for how it spent $24 billion on homelessness from 2018-2023.
The units will include studios, 1-2-3 bedrooms and retail space.
The mayor said it fulfills housing requirements.
“Moving forward in bringing affordable and permanent supportive housing to city-owned land is a key step in our strategy to fulfill our Housing Element requirements,” Mayor Phil Brock said.
“I look forward to the next steps and ultimately seeing families move into these new homes and thrive.”
The audit indicated the massive spending did not consistently track impact.
When asked how costs will be controlled, the city said all cities must provide affordable housing and using city land lowers development costs to meet mandates.
California “is experiencing a housing and homelessness crisis, and all cities across the state are required to adopt a Housing Element that includes affordable housing,” a city spokesperson stated.
“Santa Monica has dedicated several city-owned sites for affordable projects, a key strategy to lower costs to develop this needed housing and meet the mandates in the council-approved Housing Element,” the spokesperson added. “The city is following this strategy with council recently approving the agreement to move forward with developments on three city-owned sites along Euclid Avenue.”
It will follow the strategy of three recently approved developments on city-owned Euclid Avenue sites.
