Housing Scam Averted
Here at FFFF we like to praise our City Council when they do something smart; when they don’t we smack them on the snout with a rolled-up copy of the yellowing Fullerton Observer.
Well, Lo and Behold! On Tuesday, last, the Council voted 3-2 to shitcan a horrible scam cooked up by California’s houseocrats to reward developers and speculators by taking over market rate housing at The Aspect apartment project and control rents – for people who make between $102,000 and $123,000. Yes, you read that rightly, Friends. According to our experts, if you make more than that, by definition, your housing is “market rate.” The perniciousness of this scam cannot be overemphasized. A new term has been cooked up to describe these unfortunate six-figure po’ folks: the Missing Middle.
The way this scheme works is that the City cuts a deal with the California Statewide Community Development Authority – a perfectly opaque agency, to be sure. The CSCDA floats a bond, the proceeds of which will buy out the existing owner, rewards up-front the agents and speculators who put the rancid deal together; management will be left in the hands of other parasites who are in on the deal, too. Did I mention that the sale price may well exceed market appraisal? Well, why not?
The funniest part of this may have been the revelation that the complex has a 98% occupancy rate – an astounding number – people who can ALREADY afford to live there! And these good folks will be the recipients of the small lowering of rents – or be forced to move out if they don’t have a long-term lease..
A reasonable person may well wonder why ANY of this is necessary, and the answer from the government Wohnungen uber alles crowd will be so crammed with feel-good bullshit that you know right away it’s a scam.
One of the problems is that because the apartment project is now owned by the government the property owner (CSCDA) pays no property tax; in order to sweeten the deal on The Aspect, the promoters promised a “Host City Fee,” essentially an annual tribute to the City. Meanwhile other entities are just shit-out-of-luck.
The enormity of this nonsense is pretty significant; all one has to do is look to Anaheim – a pay to play town where the City has spent gargantuan amounts buying up big apartment projects and rewarding the lobbyists like Curt Pringle, who skim right off the top of this sort of crap.
Well, finally, back to council meeting. Councilmembers Whitaker, Dunlap and Jung were adamantly opposed to this, to their credit. Not surprisingly, Zahra and Quirk-Silva who petitioned to put this item on the agenda were all-in for it, babbling phrases like “outside the box” and “innovative thinking” and brushing aside concerns about unknown details full of devils.
Thanks to Jung, Dunlap and Whitaker, and of course shame on Zahra and Quirk-Silva who were very clearly in the pocket of whichever lobbyist was promoting this idiocy.
Hansberg was there to promote this. I wonder if she was getting paid.
Who was the lobbyist on this?
Pete Mitchell and Rich Lambros.
Pete Mitchell is the swine that worked for the cops. Lambros has been hovering around government like a parasitic fly for decades. Buddy of Shawn Nelson’s, of course. That figures.
Redevelopment 2.0
Same scam, same people, same bullshit. Grift and take.
Mama Siva needs the do-re-mi.
Damion Lloyd read the definition of Crony Capitalism and it fit this PERFECTLY! In reflection, pretty much every project the City has had their hands on smells of Crony Capitalism.
Thank you Anonymous.
This ‘project’ smelled to high heaven, and Fullerton does not need this kind of arrangement with yet another ‘government agency’.
When paid shills come in from Glendale and wait 5+ hours to speak on how good this type of housing it, you know it isn’t.
Hard pass. Glad I said what I did, because it needed to be said.
Great explanation of this housing scam. The “other entities” you refer to are the school districts (FSD, FJUHSD, NOCCCD) who get the lion’s share of local property taxes. When these projects are taken off the tax rolls, schools are big losers. That’s what (thankfully) brought the redevelopment agencies down in 2011–the state could no longer backfill schools’ losses to property tax diversions.
There should never be a sentence that mentions Quirk-Silva without the word “babble” in it. He’s semi-literate in 2 languages. Uh, uh, uh, uh uh…
Equity!
“One of the problems is that because the apartment project is now owned by the government the property owner (CSCDA) pays no property tax;”
Guess what? While the property owner (CSCDA) pays no taxes, this type of ownership is called Possessory Interest and the individual apartment unit renters may be on the hook for the property taxes. It will be interesting to see what the County Assessor does.
Jesus, H., you are right! None of our crack experts even thought of that. Hmm.
I may have to follow up with a separate post.
The city of Anaheim currently has three of these apartment buildings owned by the CSCDA.
How did the government come to own it in the first place??
It’s so complicated only crooks like Silva, Zahra (and Chaffee’s in there somewhere I bet) can understand it.
This is what happens when the government controls housing. So if you voted for the 25-year one-party state, don’t come to me for sympathy. You voted for Venezuela.
I assure you they don’t understand it. They also don’t care. It’s about money.
BTW Quirk-Silva doesn’t understand how shoelaces work.