Santa Monica’s regional affordable-housing pitch ran into a very local problem last Tuesday: who gets to control the money, and whether the city could be asked for more of it later. The City Council unanimously delayed a decision to join the proposed Westside Cities Affordable Housing Trust, sending the agreement back for revisions before a Sept. 8 vote.
According to Santa Monica Daily Press, the council’s concerns center on a joint powers agreement that would create a separate public agency for Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Culver City and Beverly Hills. Councilmember Dan Hall supported the broader concept but objected to leaving future city contributions and board voting rules unsettled.
The trust has been years in the making. The Westside Cities COG says it has spent more than three years exploring a regional housing fund that could leverage state and federal money, provide technical assistance and help finance land acquisition, rehabilitation and affordable-housing development.
The Money Is Real, But So Are The Strings
The proposed trust would tap into the region’s growing affordable-housing funding network, rather than asking each city to build an entirely new one from scratch. LACAHSA says Measure A provides roughly $380 million annually and requires 60% of its revenue to go toward affordable-housing creation, preservation and ownership.
That could give the trust meaningful early cash: the consultant presenting the plan estimated it could release about $8 million later in 2026 if all four cities join, according to Santa Monica Daily Press. But Hall questioned whether a future board should be able to set a formula that could assess member cities if Measure A funding falls short.
Why The Board Setup Became The Flashpoint
The proposed seven-member board would include one elected representative from each participating city and three housing experts. A California Assembly analysis of Senate Bill 20 says the law allows local agencies to create regional housing trusts and requires at least two board members to have housing or homelessness-policy expertise.
Santa Monica’s debate is therefore less about whether experts belong in the room than about how much power they should have once they get there. City staff has said joining the trust would not force Santa Monica to approve, fund or locate any particular development, and would not change the city’s land-use authority.
The city’s public City Clerk’s agenda archive lists the next discussion for September 8. That gives staff several weeks to rewrite the agreement while the other three city councils consider whether to join a regional housing experiment that could make affordable-housing dollars stretch further—provided everyone can agree on who holds the purse strings.
