HOUSING BOND PLAN FALLING SHORT $1 BILLION PROPOSITION NEEDS TWO-THIRDS OF VOTES.

Byline: RICK ORLOV and KERRY CAVANAUGH Staff Writers

The largest bond measure in Los Angeles history that would pump $1 billion into affordable housing was falling short of the necessary votes in partial election returns Tuesday.

Measure H, requiring two-thirds support from the voters, would cost property owners roughly $15 per $100,000 of assessed value. Officials estimate the owner of a home valued at $350,000 would play an extra $53 a year in property taxes, while the owners of a $500,000 home would pay an extra $75 a year.

With results trickling in before midnight, Homes for LA Families Co- chair G. Allan Kingston said he was still optimistic the measure would draw the crucial 66 percent needed to pass.

``It's very very difficult to get to two-thirds vote on a bond measure,'' Kingston said. ``We've done as well as anybody could to get together a coalition of people who care about doing something about one of the largest issues in the history of the city.''

City officials say the measure would allow the city to develop a more organized approach to its housing needs by concentrating denser, below-market housing near transit lines and corridors while moving Skid Row transients into housing complexes.

``Think about this: a $1 billion investment in housing with a $6 billion economic impact,'' Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa argued at a recent housing summit.

With the average monthly rent in Los Angeles at $1,500, low-income units are priced according to tenant income, with sample rents ranging from $400 for a two-bedroom apartment to $950 for a four-bedroom unit.

``At times, people don't really remember there are security guards, food service workers, bank workers and a whole lot of people not served by our current housing situation,'' said G. Allan Kingston, president of nonprofit housing developer Century Housing and a co-chairman of the Homes for L.A. Families campaign committee.

Kingston and others say Los Angeles is suffering a housing crisis because not enough homes have been built over the past decade to meet population growth -- and the homes that are available are too expensive for most people.

Still, the need for affordable housing is much greater than the 10,000 units the bond would provide, said Valley Village resident and apartment owner Victor Viereck.

``There's so much more demand for what is there. You can't overcome that by subsidizing things,'' said Viereck, who sat on the city's housing task force in the late 1990s.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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