A City Hall perceived as irresponsible and complicit has sat idle in recent years as 20,000 rent-controlled apartment units in Los Angeles have been destroyed or converted.
Working class tenants have been into the streets, scrambling to find replacement housing while luxury units were built to replace the affordable apartments that have been lost.
That was the story told in part over the weekend by the Los Angeles Times in a page one investigative report.
“The paper did a good job of documenting the destruction and pain caused by this housing trend,” said Jill Stewart, campaign director of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative.
“Unfortunately the Times did not go the extra mile and properly lay the blame for this tragedy at City Hall’s doorstep – as it should have,” said Ms. Stewart.
“This is a crisis City Hall has helped create because of its cozy relationship with the real estate industry.”
Ms. Stewart called on Mayor Garcetti and the City Council to immediately place a moratorium on projects that will destroy affordable housing unless the new project will provide significant numbers of affordable units.
At the least, she said, the city should replace the lost affordable units with an equal number of new affordable units.
“Homelessness is spiking in Los Angeles as a direct result of City Hall’s thoughtless behavior,” said Ms. Stewart.
“Our elected officials have looked the other way for years. Meanwhile, landlords and developers razed or converted building after building and wiped out our inexpensive rent-controlled apartments.”
Since January, the Coalition to Preserve L.A., sponsor of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative aiming for next March’s ballot, has challenged the frequent backroom deals and votes by theCity Council to place outsized luxury buildings in neighborhoods that were once affordable.
The City Council has openly ignored critics who say the preservation of existing affordable housing is the only way to prevent a housing disaster and the spiking homelessness in L.A.
The actions and inactions of the City Council have set off a dramatic domino effect on block after block of Los Angeles: Landlords jack up their rents and evict existing tenants. They, too, seek to join the luxury density movement promoted and approved by City Hall.
As the Coalition to Preserve LA has reported, all but one of 17 elected officials at City Hall are accepting campaign cash, gifts and/or money for their pet projects, from developers and the real estate industry.
Since 2000, the City Council and mayor have accepted $6 million from real estate industry sources alone. This amount does not include contributions from an army of land-use attorneys and lobbyists who facilitate the real estate industry’s big-growth agenda at City Hall.
Mr. Schwada may be contacted at john.schwada@gmail.com
