California Housing Finance Agency v. Elliot

In California Housing Finance Agency v. Elliot (1976) 17 Cal.3d 575, the court considered the definition of a "low rent housing project," and concluded that it could encompass a "mixed-income" development in which rental accommodations for persons of "moderate" income were combined with rental units for those who, without financial assistance, could not obtain adequate housing. ( Id., at p. 592.) The court also held that a private ownership of a project did not preclude a finding that a public body had developed, acquired, or constructed the project within the meaning of article XXXIV, if the public body's financial and regulatory involvement was sufficiently extensive. ( Id., at pp. 589-591.) The projects at issue in Elliot were developments in which no more than 75 percent of the units would be made available to those who needed financial assistance. Left unsettled was whether Elliot precluded a different result in other cases in which other or lesser proportions of housing units were reserved for low income tenants.