A coalition of housing and tenants rights advocates held a rally and bus tour to call attention to rising rent in the San Fernando Valley and beyond, and the need for a new rent cap for rent stabilized buildings across the city of Los Angeles.
The Keep LA Housed-FIX LA Reality Rally and Bus Tour on Aug. 22 began outside Van Nuys City Hall. The bus tour made stops outside apartment buildings in North Hills and Canoga Park, where rents are slated to be raised and some tenants are facing the possibility of ending up homeless because they won’t be able to pay the higher rates.
Jenny Colon, who has lived in the same North Hills apartment for nearly three decades, said her current rent will likely be doubled in the near future. If that happens, she would be forced to move out and try to find a new apartment she can afford, which she described as increasingly rare.
Colon said she is also being harassed by the property manager of her building, a tactic she believes is a common practice among landlords who are trying to “push me and others out as tenants” so they can raise the rent.
“He’s yelled at me [and] has had me followed. … He also left me without access to a working toilet for several days [and] when my apartment got flooded, he neglected that as well,” Colon told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. “There’s a lot of people that have dealt with [similar harassment] and have already been unjustly thrown out onto the streets, and we’re talking about very, very vulnerable communities.”
Sergio Vargas, co-director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) – one of the main organizers of the rally and bus tour – said that approximately 70% of apartment buildings in the city of LA fall under the Rent Stabilized Ordinance (RSO). But despite the ordinance, which was first enacted in 1978, many renters are paying “60% to 70% of their total income just on rent,” he said.
“It’s creating a dire situation, with people living paycheck to paycheck, and creating a lot of stress in families. Many people are doubling up in rentals – bringing in their aunt, grandma or uncle to help pay the rent, because one family alone can’t pay the rent anymore,” Vargas told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. “That’s the reality of what we’re seeing now in Los Angeles.”
To help make rentals more affordable, the coalition – which includes the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 721 and other groups – is calling for a change to the existing rent cap formula for RSO buildings citywide.
“We want to have a ceiling [for rent increases] of 3% or less – that’s the rent cap that we’re trying to pass and we have a lot of support,” said Vargas, noting that the existing formula “hasn’t been changed in more than 40 years” and currently allows for increases from 3% up to 10% depending on inflation.
“But there’s been multiple years when inflation has been down, so the rent increase should have been zero, but that didn’t happen,” he explained. “If we keep working with this outdated formula, we’re going to keep seeing more and more rent increases, and a lot of people who are living and working in the city of Los Angeles won’t be able to remain here or could even end up homeless.”
The bus tour also made stops at two city-owned empty lots, which Vargas and other housing advocates hope the city of LA will consider as sites for future affordable housing complexes.
Vargas said that the rally and bus tour event was an opportunity to inform area residents about their rights as renters and to “put pressure on the city council to support [a rent cap],” he said.
“We need the City Council members in the San Fernando Valley to listen to us – we need their votes, we need their support,” added Colon. “No one wants to end up living on the streets.”