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.

But Strickland said his connection to the four-bedroom condominium where he lives is tenuous. His wife, Carla D. Strickland, bought the unit with her former husband in 2000, and jointly obtained a $315,000 mortgage, according to public records. Although Tony and Carla Strickland placed the condo into a joint living trust following their marriage in 2019, the mortgage remains in the name of the mayor’s wife.

Nevertheless, Strickland lists the property in his statement of economic interests, placing its value at $100,000 to $1 million. In an interview, the mayor 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 was placed into the living trust as well, according to public records.

In Huntington Beach, affordable housing applicants are prohibited from owning other residential properties. However, that restriction applies only at the time of application for the affordable housing program.