Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, who is leading the charge against a lawsuit accusing the city of ignoring California’s affordable housing mandates, lives in an affordable housing development himself on the city’s west side, but insists that doesn’t make him a hypocrite.
Strickland, a former state senator and assemblyman who owns a political and business consulting firm, has since 2018 resided in an 1,800-square-foot condominium on Breezy Lane in the upscale Cape Ann community, which was built for those who qualify to purchase units based on family income limits.
But Strickland said his connection to the four-bedroom condominium where he lives is tenuous. His wife, Carla D. Strickland, bought the unit in 2000, 19 years before they were married. Although the couple placed the condo into a joint living trust following their marriage, Strickland said the mortgage remains in his wife’s name.
However, Strickland lists the property in his statement of economic interests, placing its value at $100,000 to $1 million. In an interview, Strickland said that even though his wife owns the condo, he included the property on his state-required Form 700 in the interest of transparency. “If I didn’t do that, I would be attacked on that, too,” he said.
Strickland also individually owns a home in Moorpark in Ventura County that also was placed into the living trust, according to public records.
In Huntington Beach, affordable housing applicants are prohibited from owning other residential properties. However, that restriction apparently affects only those applying to live in an affordable housing unit, not those who already have purchased one.
For all his bluster about the need for Huntington Beach to resist state housing mandates, Strickland maintains there’s a place for affordable housing in the community, just not at the risk of losing its seaside suburban identity.
“I am supportive of suburban affordable housing,” he said. “But I am very much…
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