August 30, 2006

Contact:
Sheila Bernard (LPTA President) - (310) 871-6368
Laura Burns (LPTA) - (310) 392-5079
Email: lincolnplace@lincolnplace.net

LINCOLN PLACE TENANTS TAKE STRUGGLE TO AIMCO SHAREHOLDERS

Tenants ask big investors, lenders to influence AIMCO executives to stop mass evictions of elderly and disabled in Venice, CA, and for social responsibility; tenants also ask Court of Appeals for an emergency stay

VENICE, CA ­ The Lincoln Place Tenants Association (LPTA) is taking its campaign to prevent the imminent eviction of 40 elderly and disabled households from Lincoln Place Apartments in Venice, CA, to the major investors and lenders of owner Apartment Investment and Management Co. (AIMCO) (NYSE: AIV).

"We’re concerned that the real owners of Lincoln Place, namely AIMCO stockholders, are not aware that this travesty is being perpetrated in their name and for their benefit," said Sheila Bernard, president of the LPTA.

AIMCO has announced it will file evictions with the court on September 1, 2006, and that the elderly and disabled could be subject to forcible removal by Los Angeles sheriffs.

Lucy Siam, a 77-year-old disabled resident who lives on $869 a month, says, “If I am forced from my home, I have no idea what I’m going to do. Today’s rents are completely beyond my means. I can hardly make ends meet as it is.” Celia Harriman, an 84-year old low-income resident who has suffered a stroke and pneumonia, says, “Facing eviction has exacerbated my health problems. I fear I will not survive all the pressures of a move. Won’t someone help us?”

Tenants are looking to the real owners of Lincoln Place, its shareholders, to put pressure on AIMCO executives to leave these vulnerable residents in their homes. Tenants also assert that the evictions flagrantly violate redevelopment terms AIMCO previously agreed to and are thus illegal. "Lincoln Place is where the rubber meets the road on socially responsible investing (SRI) in real estate. Up till now, SRI has concentrated primarily on how the physical environment is affected. It’s time to look at the harm done to people, too," said Laura Burns, a member of the LPTA who was evicted by AIMCO last year.

Many of the banking institutions and mutual funds that are the largest investors in AIMCO have pledged that they will only engage in socially responsible investment. Deutsche Bank, for example, is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, and JP Morgan Chase has committed to enacting policies that will not cause social harm. "We cannot believe that these companies consider the eviction of seniors and disabled on fixed incomes, who have no possibility of finding alternate housing anywhere in the Los Angeles area, a socially responsible thing to do. Many of these tenants have lived here for decades. Their entire lives, social and health networks are here in this place," said Bernard, a teacher whose pension, ironically, will be administered by CalSTERS, a joint venture partner with AIMCO. "We are appealing to these institutions to live up to the public commitments they have made."

AIMCO stock is held primarily by institutions and mutual funds. According to the current Yahoo Finance website, the largest institutional holders are Cohen & Steers, Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., The Vanguard Group, Security Capital Research Company, Inc., Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd, State Street Corporation, Morgan Stanley, and FMR Corp.

According to the same website, top mutual fund holders of AIMCO stock are Fidelity Real Estate Investment Portfolio, Vanguard Specialized-Reit Index Fund , Goldman Sachs Mid-Cap Value Fund, American Century Real Estate Fund, Cohen and Steers Realty Shares Inc., Hotchkis and Wiley Large Cap Value Fund, DWS RREEF Real Estate Fd II, Cohen and Steers Realty Income Fund, Price (T.ROWE) Mid-Cap Value Fund, and Hotchkis and Wiley Mid-Cap Value Fund. In recent SEC filings and press releases, AIMCO describes itself as the largest apartment real estate investment trust in the U.S.

The Lincoln Place Tenants Association likewise called on AIMCO’s lenders to help, and in particular on Aegon N.V., whose subsidiaries Monumental Life Insurance Company and Transamerica Life Insurance Company must approve any termination of leases at Lincoln Place, according to a deed of trust recorded in the Los Angeles County Recorder’s Office. The tenants are asking Aegon if it has, in fact, approved the termination of their leases and whether it really means to profit from the displacement of WWII veterans’ wives and tenants with severe mental and physical disabilities. Aegon also has a policy of social responsibility, according to its website. Transamerica Life Insurance Company holds the note on a $72.5 million loan on Lincoln Place Apartments.

In the Courts

Tenants have also gone to the courts to prevent the evictions. In 2002, the City of Los Angeles approved a redevelopment of the property subject to the condition that no tenant be evicted against their will. The condition was offered by AIMCO and its then partner and subsidiary Los Angeles Lincoln Place Investors, Ltd., and is binding on all successors in interest. In 2003, AIMCO became sole owner of Lincoln Place. Rather than live up to its binding agreement to relocate tenants within Lincoln Place, AIMCO began evicting tenants in 2005. On December 6, 2005, 58 households were locked out of their apartments by L.A. sheriffs, the largest single-day lockout in the history of Los Angeles. Now senior and disabled tenants fear they will have to face the same trauma.

The tenants have petitioned the Court of Appeals to issue an immediate stay and to enforce the redevelopment condition which prohibits forced evictions. Their suit against the City of Los Angeles and AIMCO is based on a 2005 published opinion, Lincoln Place Tenants Assoc. v. City of Los Angeles, which held that the City must enforce project conditions and that both the City and AIMCO acted illegally in the demolition of five buildings at Lincoln Place when they ignored the conditions required relating to the historic significance of the complex. The Court of Appeals issued a permanent injunction on demolitions until conditions are met or officially changed in a public process with a new environmental impact report. Lincoln Place has since been placed on the California Register of Historical Resources.

In a hearing before the Superior Court of Los Angeles, Assistant City Attorney Susan Pfann stated that she will recommend against the issuance of any demolition permit, as AIMCO is not complying with the tenant conditions of the redevelopment project. With demolitions thus precluded by both the redevelopment conditions and historic designation, tenants wonder what the rush is for AIMCO to empty out the buildings, since any change to the project is years away. To date, AIMCO has capitalized over $20 million dollars in interest and expenses on Lincoln Place, which is not currently on its books as a working rental property.

Lincoln Place Apartments is a 38-acre garden court complex built from 1949 to 1951 by the noted Modernist architects Ralph Vaughn and Heth Wharton in Venice, CA, and is a designated historical resource of the State of California.

Meanwhile, as tenants anxiously wait to see if the Court of Appeals will stay their evictions, residents such as Frieda Marlin, an 84-year-old disabled widow of a WWII veteran, hope that this appeal to AIMCO’s shareholders, lenders and partners will not fall on deaf ears: "I know down deep most people are good, they don't want to make their money by throwing old and sick people like me on the street." Chuck Snow, a severely disabled Vietnam veteran tethered 24 hours a day to an oxygen tank, vows, "They will have to drag me out of my home and down the street, oxygen equipment and all. They promised me I could stay in my home and I intend to do so."

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