Affordable Housing

Historic downtown buildings that house homeless families from Pasadena and Glendale are now showing the planet some love. On Thursday, Union Station Homeless Services unveiled the eco-friendly renovation of Euclid Villa, funded by a $1.18 million Los Angeles County Community Development Commission grant. Among other improvements, the 14-unit complex near the Pasadena Convention Center received solar panels, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, new flooring, a garden makeover with drought-tolerant plants and a padded-cork surface for its playground.

City officials have turned down a proposal from Los Angeles affordable housing developer PATH Ventures to build a veterans facility in South Glendale, citing its steep price tag. During a closed-door meeting last week, the City Council, it in its dual role as Housing Authority, rejected PATH Venture's roughly $1.4-million proposal to purchase a property on the 1200 block of South Maryland Avenue, formerly owned by the now-defunct nonprofit New...

Glendale has yet to get back the roughly $1 million it loaned to an affordable housing developer it's now suing, but last week the City Council took over one of Advanced Development Investment, Inc.'s properties after some legal back-and-forth. As a result, the council, acting in its dual role as Housing Authority, will have to decide how to use the vacant lot once slated for a 36-unit affordable housing rental property at 327-333 Salem St. “We're discussing the options,” said Councilman Ara Najarian in a phone interview.

For Ascencia, Glendale's largest homeless services provider, the end of redevelopment could mean an annual loss of $50,000 through 2015. Ascencia has a contract with Glendale's Redevelopment Agency for $50,000 each fiscal year through 2015 to help fund an emergency housing program. But with redevelopment agencies dissolved under a state-imposed plan, Executive Director Natalie Profant Komuro said she's not counting on the money. “It's a serious loss of money and we're going to need to figure out how to fill the gap,” she said.

Glendale's legal tab for fighting an affordable-housing developer who allegedly bilked millions from the city are about to double. On Tuesday, the City Council, acting in its multiple roles as the Redevelopment Agency and the Housing Authority, voted to spend $150,000 more on a fraud lawsuit filed against Advanced Development & Investment Inc. last year in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The city so far has paid $127,000 to Burke, Williams and Sorensen, a law firm assisting Glendale in the case.

As Glendale shuts down its redevelopment agency in the coming months, City Council members will have a new hat to wear - one they don't particularly like. Once directors of the redevelopment agency, council members are set to take the helm of a new successor agency in charge of winding down the program after the action was relucantly approved on Tuesday. “I just think it's a sad situation,” said Councilman Ara Najarian. Glendale's redevelopment agency is one of about 400 throughout the state that got the ax after the state Supreme Court upheld a law eliminating the agencies as part of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to fill a multibillion dollar budget shortfall.

John Drayman's connection to a number of investigations - federal and local - continued to make headlines this year, keeping the former city councilman in the spotlight long after he lost his seat on the dais in April. Investigations into his ties with an affordable housing developer accused of massive fraud and his alleged role in embezzlement of funds from the local farmers market dominated the news cycle this year - a fall-from-grace story that left his voter base in North Glendale bristling.

A defunct nonprofit entangled in financial issues that promised to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars it owed the city of Glendale has filed for bankruptcy, a move that may stall those plans. New Horizons Family Center filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Oct. 25, according to court records. The nonprofit faces liens, legal issues and a lengthy list of creditors. “Obviously it puts taxpayers' money at risk, so I'm concerned about that,” said Councilman Ara Najarian, who has long complained about city oversight of New Horizons.

Glendale officials have denied a homeless advocacy group's pitch to buy property tied up in the city's legal fight against Advanced Development & Investment Inc., an affordable housing developer under federal investigation for fraud. John Molloy, executive director of PATH Ventures in Los Angeles, said his nonprofit offered to pay more than $1 million for the property after a court-appointed receiver in charge of the land at 327-331 W. Salem St. put it up for sale. Although the receiver was interested, Glendale officials were not, Molloy said.