Santa Monica Will Offer New Housing To Displaced Black Families

SANTA MONICA, CA — Years after they were forced from their homes over construction, Black families who were displaced in the 1950s and 60s will be offered new housing opportunities beginning this month, the city of Santa Monica announced Thursday.

The new Below Market Housing pilot for historically displaced households is looking to match families and their descendants who were displaced during the development of the Civic Auditorium in the Belmar Triangle neighborhood or the I-10 Highway in the Pico neighborhood with affordable housing units in Santa Monica.

The program is open to applicants beginning Jan. 18 through Feb. 22.

“We created this program in the earnest hope that former Santa Monica residents take advantage of this new affordable housing opportunity," Mayor Sue Himmelrich said in a statement.

“If you know community members who were displaced in the 1950s and 1960s, we ask for your assistance in sharing the pilot information so we can identify as many candidates as possible,” Himmelrich said.

The pilot will provide priority in City-funded housing and inclusionary housing for up to 100 applicants from households or descendants of households (children or grandchildren) who were displaced, according to the city.

If more than 100 households apply within the first 30 days of the application period, a lottery will be conducted. Otherwise, after the first 30 days of the enrollment period if less than 100 applications have been received then the enrollment period will be extended and households that applied within the first 30 days, and households that apply after Feb. 22, up to 100 applicants, will be reviewed for eligibility in the order they applied.

Today, fewer Black people live in Santa Monica than they did in the 1960s, The Los Angeles Times reports.

“We will be able to right a historic wrong,” said Santa Monica City Councilwoman Kristin McCowan told The Times. “Eventually, we’re going to do that for more and more people. And if other communities start to do their share, you can see a real tidal wave potentially across the country.”

This is the first time the city has added a program like this, a major move towards reparations. It follows Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision — and the first law of its kind — to sign a bill into law in September that returns land known as Bruce's Beach in Manhattan Beach to the Black descendants who were forced off of the land.

"For this inaugural period of the program, the City of Santa Monica is here to assist applicants given that documentation from 70 years ago may be available in different forms," the city said.

To learn more about the pilot and the required documentation, and to apply for the below market housing list, visit https://www.santamonica.gov/process-explainers/how-to-apply-for-below-market-housing-for-historically-displaced-households.

Anyone with questions about the program can contact housing@santamonica.gov.