‘Nonprofit’ Plan a Taxpayer Burden

* An interesting taxpayer problem is raised by your article (Sept. 1) about a “nonprofit” group that is in the process of purchasing a red-tagged apartment building, which it intends to convert into “the first low-income family housing project in the west San Fernando Valley.”

Your article says this “nonprofit” housing corporation says that after buying the building (price not stated in your article), it will spend $2.25 million just to renovate the building to provide a mere 25 units.

Hence the renovation costs alone come close to $100,000 per apartment unit. Add to that whatever the actual purchase price is, and we can see there is no way in the world that the “low-income” families would be anywhere near able to pay reasonable market rent in such an expensive apartment building. Rent should come to an average of something like $2,000 a month.

I expect that these pretty expensive apartments will be provided to the “low-income” residents by dipping into the well-worn pockets of the overburdened taxpayers at a time when we say we have no money to provide us with adequate police protection or education.

I’ve got a simple solution. Put some of these families in my apartment building at a cost of $575 to $700 a month rent. I provide my tenants with a well-maintained swimming pool, carpets, window blinds, lawns, trees and flower beds, parking, stoves, tiled showers, and tubs and a good neighborhood in the West Valley. The taxpayers and tenants will all come out ahead. The monies thus saved the taxpayers will provide us with the police and school needs.

By the way, I’m not a “nonprofit” operation . . . except when I’m forced to compete with taxpayer-financed giveaway programs.

LEON PERLSWEIG

Los Angeles