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Venice is known for its offbeat boardwalk, its artists and street performers. But tech-driven gentrification has changed Venice fundamentally. Housing in the neighborhood now has more in common with Santa Monica than the Venice of the past. But even with the area’s higher cost of living, many artists choose to stay.

Patricia “Patches” Poston makes most of her income from selling her impressionistic paintings on the boardwalk. After bouncing between temporary living situations, she’s landed in a studio unit for $1,500, where she lives with her two children.

Patches’ booth, displaying her impressionistic artwork.
Photo by Zoha Malik. 

Artists like Patches are loath to leave Venice. And as we sat near her booth, it was easy to see why. The boardwalk has reliable foot traffic and draws the kind of crowd interested in buying art. And, living away from the neighborhood makes it tedious to set up and break down a stand. It’s even harder when you have kids who have to get to school. Plus:

“Why do I have to live somewhere else? Shouldn't I be able to live where I work?” Patches asked.

Patches is on a few low-income housing lists. But those opportunities are scarce in Venice and hard to create. That’s thanks to the neighborhood’s location in a coastal zone, the cost of land… and, maybe most important, organized opposition to low-income and homeless housing.

Former LA City Councilmember Mike Bonin used to represent Venice. He championed affordable housing projects, including the long-stalled project called Venice Dell. If built, it would create 120 units of low-income and homeless housing – with some units allocated for artists — just two blocks from the beach.

Many residents hated it, including the current representative of Venice, Councilmember Traci Park. In an LA City Council meeting last year, she described the project as a “hideous, massive prison structure."

Councilwoman Park did not provide a comment for this story.

The project has been mired in lawsuits and bureaucratic limbo since being unanimously approved by the LA City Council in 2021 and 2022.

Mike Bonin has heard a lot of pushback to affordable housing. When it comes to organized opposition, he says it’s been most visible with Venice Dell, “given it’s right in the center of Venice.”

There is, of course, organized support as well, including the project’s non-profit developers and other local non-profits. Plus, at least one member of the Venice Neighborhood Council’s homeless committee, named Pat Raphael.

Raphael, who is also an art vendor, lives in a black camper van. I met up with him after he parked near the boardwalk.

Pat Raphael sat in his black camper van. Photo by Zoha Malik.

Raphael told me he’s lived and worked in Venice for more than 10 years now. In that time, he’s learned how some of his neighbors view affordable housing.

“There is a common social science acronym of NIMBY, Not In My Backyard, where people say, ‘Hey, we should do these things, but just don't do it here.’ So I feel like there is a little bit of that going on,” he said.

Some Venice residents aren’t even aware affordable housing is an option at all. Another boardwalk vendor, Mike Lawrey, runs a graffiti store. He jokingly described his living situation as a “trap house,” then said, “I kind of wish it was. Then rent would be probably more feasible.”

Artists like Lawrey could have another shot to get on a housing list. Venice Dell recently notched a legal win. An LA Superior Court judge ruled against a city board’s decision to block the project; a decision city authorities cited to avoid starting construction.

If the city doesn’t appeal the decision, the project could break ground in early 2028.