December 9 , 2005

Contact:

Clare Sassoon
(310) 403-0941
clare_sassoon@earthlink.net

Judy Branfman
(310) 486-2595

Clergy to Hold Ecumencial Mass at Lincoln Place Tent City

Lincoln Place Resident Launches a Fast in Hopes of Restoring Housing for Locked-Out Tenants

Demonstration information:

Who: Father Tomas from St. Clement's Catholic Church with additional local clergy; Lincoln Place residents, including a resident and mother of two, Maria Louisa, who says she will fast until the locked-out residents are returned to their homes; and neighbors and community members representing a number of local organizations and community groups

What: An ecumenical service performed by local clergy in support of evicted Lincoln Place residents who are trying to have the city enforce the agreement made with Lincoln Place owner AIMCO to keep them in their homes and save much-needed affordable housing

When: Friday, December 9, 2005, at 7 p.m.

Where: Lincoln Place Tent City, at Frederick St. and California Ave. in Venice, adjoining Lincoln Place Apartments. This is just east of Lincoln Blvd, south of Rose Ave. and north of Venice Blvd., next to Ross Dress For Less. (map)

Why:

Father Tomas and other local clergy will lead a service in support of evicted residents of Lincoln Place, some of whom are their congregants. They will be blessing Lincoln Place and it residents, who have maintained a vibrant and diverse community as they have fought to stay in their homes for 18 years. Maria Louisa requested that her priest, Father Tomas, lead the service when she began her fast on Wednesday: “I’m fasting to support our community at Lincoln Place so that the families can come back.”

Lincoln Place residents established a Tent City late on Tuesday, December 6th, after being locked out of their apartments. The Tent City has been maintained since then. The owner of the property, major apartment-owner AIMCO Venezia, LLC (“AIMCO”), locked 21 children and 65 adults out of their apartments at Lincoln Place in order to extract development concessions without community process and that are in violation of state and city environmental laws. Further, the evictions are in clear violation of the tenant protection conditions of the only approved development plan for the site, the Vesting Tentative Tract Map 51337 (the “VTT”). City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has refused to issue an injunction against the evictions while a resolution is worked out.

Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, and the local Grassroots Venice Neighborhood Council have all pledged to deny giving any development concessions to AIMCO if they lock out tenants. At least 80 households have received an extension of their evictions to March 2006 due to disabilities or age factors.

Lincoln Place Apartments (bordered by Palms Ave., Lincoln Blvd., Lake St., and Penmar Ave. in Venice), a 668-unit garden apartment complex built in 1950, was unanimously awarded Historic District designation by the California State Historic Resources Commission in August 2005. The decision was reaffirmed on November 4 when they rejected AIMCO’s request for a redetermination. The 35-acre complex was designed by Ralph Vaughn, an important African-American architect, who had worked with Paul Williams, and was also one of the first African-American set designers working under Cedric Gibbons.

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© Lincoln Place Tenants Association
Email: info@lincolnplace.net