FULLERTON : City Rejects Federal Funds to House Poor

The City Council this week refused funding to a nonprofit agency to begin planning a rehabilitation project that would have provided affordable housing, saying the city is not required to do so by law.

The 3-2 council vote denied the La Habra Neighborhood Housing Services up to $55,280 for the rehabilitation planning of an apartment complex in northeast Fullerton.

Council members Jan M. Flory and Don Bankhead cast the dissenting votes, saying they believe the NHS project would improve the area and help poor people.

Mayor Julie Sa and council members Chris Norby and Peter Godfrey, however, said they feared that because NHS is a nonprofit organization, it would not have to pay property taxes. Furthermore, they said, the city has met state mandates for affordable housing and is not required to provide any more.

The money NHS sought would have come from federal funds meant for the purpose of providing affordable housing. Because the council refused to grant the NHS request, the funds will be returned and the federal government will give the money to another city, Fullerton officials said.

During a three-hour public hearing Tuesday night, several residents spoke against government-aided affordable housing and suggested that the city instead spend money on crime prevention programs.

“I say the city shouldn’t be in the apartment business,” resident Barbara Marr said. “The city should be in the business of cleaning up crime infestation.”

Other residents spoke in favor of affordable housing, pleading with the council to have compassion for the needy.

“Let’s not buy into the mean-spiritedness sweeping our country,” resident Lorril Senefeld said. “Building affordable housing does not mean it will be rented to drug addicts and lazy people. . . . The housing is needed by families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs, working women with small children and people who work in our hospitals and schools and who clean our houses.”

But resident H.W. Thompson said: “The way to show compassion is to find a way for the private sector to do it.”