Are you looking for a cheap apartment close to Downtown LA? Do you love the smell of sausages? Are you related to a member of the Vernon city council? Then perhaps you should consider a home in scandal-plagued but affordably-priced Vernon. You can join "the vast majority of Vernon's roughly 100 residents" living in the city's 25 or so housing units ("nearly all of the residential property within its borders"), paying low rent and even getting nice renovations. According to the LA Times:
- Vernon's spent more than $3.7 million since mid-2006 maintaining and renovating its housing
- The city has collected only about $472,000 in rent in that time
- Earlier this year, the city passed a new rate structure: $120 per bedroom
- Mayor Hilario Gonzales pays just $360 a month for his three bedroom "ranch-style
home on Furlong Place, a cul-de-sac lined with palm trees and trimmed lawns behind City Hall"
- His son and daughter-in-law live next door and pay just $240 per month
- Compare to neighboring Maywood and Huntington Park, where houses go for about $1,000 per month
- "Vernon residents pay less on average than even tenants in Los Angeles' toughest housing projects"
But hurry and get your cheap Vernon housing now. Records reveal that the low rents have hurt the city's finances. The city council will vote on a new system on Tuesday "that calls for rents to be based on a market value determined by independent analysis and states that, other than emergency personnel, no other applicants shall be granted special leasing priority."
· Vernon's low rents good for residents, bad for city's finances [LAT]
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