Venice residents could soon be booted from their longtime homes to make way for a controversial affordable-housing project backed by mayoral candidate Nithya Raman.

Venice Dell is a proposed 120-unit affordable and supportive housing development on city-owned land near the Venice Canals.

The project would include 68 apartments for formerly homeless residents, 49 for low-income residents, and three units for onsite managers.

Low-income housing, where tenants are facing eviction over the proposed Venice Dell Housing site. (Jonathan Alcorn) Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post Tenants Mary Alice Crowe and Alan Phillips face eviction over the Venice Dell Housing project. (Jonathan Alcorn) Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post

However, a low-income fourplex already sits on the site, meaning longtime residents would be forced out to make way for the project.

Mary Alice Crowe, 71, has lived in her city-owned Venice apartment on the proposed site for 43 years. Her neighbor Allan Phillips has called the same fourplex home for 35.

“I know everyone in the neighborhood. They all know me,” Phillips told The California Post.

“I love it here. I don’t want to go anywhere else. Why should I?”

The dispute is set to play out in two court battles: The residents seeking to stop the project, while the nonprofit developers have filed a separate action to kick them out before their case can be heard. 

The nonprofit developers have filed an action to kick Venice residents out before their case can be heard.  WESTOCK – stock.adobe.com

Developers argue they cannot wait for the tenants’ legal action to stay because $42.5 million in taxpayer funding is at risk, with a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The project must secure its full financing package by September 2027, according to the filing.

Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents Venice, said the lawsuit against the tenants exposes ”a truth the public deserves to see.”

“The same people who claim to champion tenants and low-income families are now asking a court to evict them from their homes,” she told The California Post.

LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman controversial affordable-housing project. (Jonathan Alcorn) for CA Post Crowe, 71, has lived in her Venice apartment for 43 years. Phillips has lived there for 35 years. (Jonathan Alcorn) Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post

Meanwhile, the project’s price tag has fueled another fight.

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto concluded in February that Venice Dell was “infeasible and unauthorized.”

Her report put the proposed project at roughly $133 million, up from about $86.9 million under an earlier agreement, even as the number of units dropped from 140 to 120.

That works out to roughly $1.1 million per unit.

A public parking lot is the proposed site of the Venice Dell Housing project. (Jonathan Alcorn) Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post Low-income housing units, right, where tenants are facing eviction over the housing project. (Jonathan Alcorn) Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post

For Crowe, however, the battle is much more personal. She was 29 when she moved into her apartment. She raised her son there and built her life in Venice.

“I’m 71,” she said. “It’s been my whole life in Venice, pretty much. I’ve raised my son here, lots of friends, family. Everything familiar comes from here.”

The public parking lot where the proposed Venice Dell Housing project site will be constructed. (Jonathan Alcorn) Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post The California Post sought comment from Raman about the tenants’ concerns. (Jonathan Alcorn) for CA Post

“They want people that live here, work here, raise their families here, exactly what we have done this whole time,” Crowe said.

“But now they want new families.”

The California Post sought comment from Venice Community Housing, Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, LAFLA, Public Counsel and Raman about the tenants’ concerns and whether the Ellis Act process should begin before the larger lawsuit is resolved.

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