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Tag: SROs

  • AIDS Healthcare Kills $27M Deal to Buy Skid Row Buildings

    AIDS Healthcare Kills $27M Deal to Buy Skid Row Buildings

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    The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has scotched a deal to buy six single-room occupancy hotels and apartment complexes on L.A.’s Skid Row for  $27 million.

    The Hollywood-based nonprofit, the world’s largest charity for those with AIDS, withdrew its offer to buy the buildings containing 415 units in a receivership sale from the Skid Row Housing Trust, the Los Angeles Times reported.

    The reason: AHF found the properties in need of millions of dollars in further repairs and would continue to run large operating losses, according to foundation spokesman Ged Kenslea.

    The buildings scuttled in the deal include the Boyd, Hart and St. George single-room occupancy hotels, and the Lincoln, New Carver and Rainbow efficiency apartments. The deal this month had included $5 million for ongoing repairs.

    “Any buyer of these properties will find themselves in the same situation that led to the failure of Skid Row Housing Trust in short order unless a new model can be developed,” Kenslea said in a statement.

    The foundation pullout came hours before the City of Los Angeles filed documents in court opposing the deal.

    The foundation and the city hadn’t agreed on a plan to maintain comprehensive social services for tenants and to resolve hanging health and safety code violations, according to the filing, which said the city would have withdrawn its objection if such terms had been reached.

    “The city is committed, as evidenced by its $36.5 million investment in the receivership, to preserve permanent supportive housing for the city’s most vulnerable residents,” Deputy City Attorney Alia Haddad wrote in the filing. 

    The unraveling of the sale could put the city on the hook to increase the funding authorized over the past year to rehabilitate and operate the buildings. It also puts the receiver back to square one in its aim to salvage the properties owned by the trust.

    Jackson Wyche, a senior project manager with Receivership Specialists, the Sawtelle-based firm managing the Skid Row Housing Trust portfolio, had said the foundation’s offer was “the only viable path forward.” 

    The receiver said if the AHF deal to buy the half-dozen buildings wasn’t approved by May 10, its bank account would run dry by the end of the month

    “We are engaging with prospective purchasers and hope to have a new deal in place in the next two weeks (possibly sooner),” Wyche said.

    Skid Row Housing Trust financially collapsed in February last year, largely forsaking its 29 buildings and 1,500 formerly homeless tenants. The city then pushed its portfolio into receivership.

    Since then, the receiver has sold 11 of the troubled properties to nonprofit affordable housing providers such as LA Family Housing and People Assisting the Homeless, or PATH.

    Receivership Specialists, led by Kevin Singer, has put the remaining 18 trust buildings up for sale on the condition that they remain homeless housing.

    Singer said in court filings last week that three undisclosed bidders made substantive offers for the trust portfolio that were lower than the foundation’s, or involved complicated financing that the receiver believed wasn’t viable.

    — Dana Bartholomew

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    TRD Staff

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  • School safety comes into focus in Montgomery Co. after arrest of student accused of planning shooting – WTOP News

    School safety comes into focus in Montgomery Co. after arrest of student accused of planning shooting – WTOP News

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    The coordination between law enforcement and school officials in Montgomery County — along with the initial report from a witness — was credited for averting a potential catastrophe after an 18-year-old student was charged with making a threat of mass violence targeting Wootton High School in Rockville.

    The coordination between law enforcement and school officials in Montgomery County — along with the initial report from a witness — was credited for averting a potential catastrophe after an 18-year-old student was charged with making a threat of mass violence targeting Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland.

    The incident came a week after Montgomery County Public Schools heard from student school board member Sami Saeed who urged the board to move faster on school safety. At that meeting, Saeed cited his own survey of students and said that many felt nothing was being done to deal with their concerns about safety in their own schools.

    During a news conference regarding the arrest of 18-year-old Alex Ye, Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones was asked if he believed that school resource officers (SROs) should be brought back.

    Jones said, “Our officers are committed to being in those schools when needed and being visible when required.”

    After the news conference, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told WTOP he had never supported removing SROs from the schools. He said he currently gets messages from parents and community members detailing fights and even videos taken by students inside schools.

    “I can’t help but believe that some of the violent attacks that we’re seeing in our schools that are being photographed by other kids — and these are pretty vicious attacks — would not occur if a police officer was on school property,” he said.

    At the same news conference, Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando, who heads the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he doesn’t see the need to restore SROs.

    He said that police haven’t disappeared from schools under the community engagement officers (CEO) model. “I see our CEOs active in the schools.” The difference with the new model, Jawando said, is “they’re not patrolling the hallways, they’re not there all day. But if there’s an issue, they’re right there.”

    On Friday, Kennedy High School Principal Vickie Adamson sent a letter home to parents explaining that a trespasser had entered the school during lunch and “brandished a knife.” According to Adamson’s letter, security disarmed the trespasser, and the school’s CEO was “already on school grounds, and security quickly alerted her to the situation.”

    In 2021, the SRO program, which placed officers in a single school full-time, was eliminated.

    Under the current program, the CEOs are assigned to a single high school cluster, have access to a workspace and respond “when called upon by the school leadership,” according to a Montgomery County Public Schools survey on the topic.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Kate Ryan

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  • RBI DG Sankar calls for fintech SRO to proactively address industry issues

    RBI DG Sankar calls for fintech SRO to proactively address industry issues

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    RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar, on Tuesday, called for self-regulatory organisations (SROs) in the fintech industry to proactively address issues such as market integrity, conduct, data privacy, cybersecurity, and risk management.

    “As regulators continue to contemplate, implement, and refine regulations for the orderly development of the fintech sector, SROs could play a pivotal role in the fintech industry by promoting responsible practices and maintaining ethical standards,” said Sankar at the Global Fintech Fest 2023.

    These industry-led bodies will help establish guidelines and codes of conduct that foster transparency, fair competition, and consumer protection. Further, they will facilitate collaboration between fintech firms, regulators, and stakeholders, creating a framework for innovation with guardrails, he said, adding that SROs will help build trust among consumers, investors, and regulators.

    “What is different about the recent financial innovations is the speed and scope of such changes making them potentially much more disruptive,” he said, adding that rapid technology changes can outpace regulatory frameworks, thus raising issues about market integrity, consumer protection, data privacy, and fair market practices.

    Fintechs have brought about transformation in the form of increased efficiency, with which financial products and services are delivered and consumed. This has been driven by digitisation of information for easier access, processing and transmission, direct interface between buyers and sellers, borrowers and lenders, and payers and receivers, and democratisation of fast communication channels.

    “Put together, these efficiencies lead to lower cost, quicker transactions and better inclusion. This is clearly a desirable outcome and one that should be actively encouraged and promoted, which is what the focus of policy making and regulation currently is,” Sankar said.

    In turn, traditional financial players are reacting by either internalising innovations to compete with fintechs, or are collaborating with fintechs through one-to-one partnerships or by purchasing their services.

    The second route is more functional because fintechs can perform in areas where they have a competitive advantage and banks can focus on their areas of their expertise. While customers benefit from curated products and services at competitive prices, the regulator also takes comfort from the fact that the traditional players are well regulated.

    “Perhaps the sweet spot lies in fintechs acting as both competitors as well as collaborators. The existence of competition is necessary to create incentives for fintechs to invest in innovations as well as pushing traditional entities to stay on their toes. At the same time, collaboration is essential for innovations to be absorbed into the financial systems,” he said.

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