Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has asked the City Council to approve more than $12 million in new spending on outside law firms, including $850,000 to continue fighting the Venice Dell Community, an affordable housing project long approved by the city itself. The request, filed October 17 under Report No. R25-0523, seeks to expand contracts with more than a dozen firms, among them Nossaman LLP, whose contract would be amended to include assistance with the lawsuit Venice Community Housing et al. v. City.
That line item, $850,000 in additional funding for the Venice Dell case, has sparked an unusually broad backlash. Dozens of organizations and hundreds of individual Angelenos have submitted letters to Council File 25-1225 opposing the request, flooding the City Council with messages urging them to reject what they see as a waste of taxpayer dollars and a betrayal of the city’s housing commitments.
Among the groups weighing in are the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, UNITE HERE Local 11, LA CAN, the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, PATH, the Downtown Women’s Center, SAJE, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, East LA Community Corporation, and NoHo Home Alliance. Collectively, they represent organized labor, service providers, tenant advocates, and nonprofit housing developers, the very sectors Los Angeles relies on to build and sustain affordable housing.
Their letters share a common alarm, that Feldstein Soto’s office is spending public money to actively sue the nonprofits developing Venice Dell, accusing them of not building the very project the city has obstructed. Several note that the city has already spent $620,000 fighting Venice Dell, and that its legal responses have all failed to date, yet the City Attorney continues to seek more funding. The Federation of Labor called the request egregious, warning that these funds are not being used merely to defend against lawsuits, but for proactive litigation against nonprofit developers. UNITE HERE Local 11 wrote that the move not only wastes taxpayer money, but risks the city’s Prohousing status and future state housing funds.
Other organizations emphasized the broader risks. The Downtown Women’s Center warned that the City’s stance creates a chilling precedent that jeopardizes future projects across Los Angeles and undermines progress toward addressing the housing crisis. PATH’s CEO Jennifer Hark Dietz urged councilmembers to reject the request and protect Los Angeles’ integrity, fiscal health, and commitment to inclusive housing. NoHo Home Alliance wrote that the litigation is no longer just about killing Venice Dell, but upending two long-standing and successful affordable housing developers who have provided high-quality housing and services in Los Angeles for decades.
Many letters referenced the State’s Housing Accountability Unit, which has already sent a letter of inquiry warning that the city’s actions could violate its own Housing Element and trigger a loss of its Prohousing designation, a status tied to eligibility for critical state housing funds. Losing that status could expose Los Angeles to monthly fines, loss of local zoning authority, and other penalties.
For advocates, the City Attorney’s request has come to symbolize a deeper contradiction in city government. She is asking the city to spend millions to block a union-built, deeply affordable housing project that fulfills its own adopted Housing Element while simultaneously pleading poverty in budget hearings. As one letter put it, “This exorbitant use of funds further exacerbates both the City’s dire budget and housing crises.”