Second in a series
Re “Tenants Were Told ‘Pay up or Move – Those Are Your Options’”
[Editor’s Note: Distressing reports such as the following incident are bobbing up around Culver City this season. The unprecedented notion of rent control is being heatedly discussed in some quarters of the city following two recent deaths suffered by persons just informed of titanic-sized rent increases. City Hall remains stoutly opposed to the concept.]
Before new ownership took charge this summer, says longtime resident Jose Garcia, “our apartment complex was exactly what that sign says, ‘Harmony Village.’”
For years, he has served as the putative on-site manager since the landlord resided in Burbank.
The versatile Mr. Garcia, who shares a “home with his wife, across the lawn from his forced-to-leave mother-in-law, said that after former owner Gordon Ecker departed, “everything changed.”
“When (Mr. Ecker) was selling our place, he said that we could work with the new owners. He inherited this property from his late mother. She was the owner when we moved in 19 years ago. Mrs. Ecker believed in charging affordable rents in Culver City. She used to tell us, ‘I want people to be able to afford their rent and have a nice little place to live.’
“Mrs. Ecker did a lot of the work herself. When upgrades were needed, she did it to keep the costs down.”
A faraway look came into Mr. Garcia’s steady eyes. “Those days are long gone,” he said. “Things have changed.”
Like the rents, which rocketed 105 percent for some but not all of the 12 upstairs and downstairs units.
“They gave us 60 days to decide whether to move or pay the increase,” Mr. Garcia said.
The Garcias will stay, but Mrs. Garcia’s mother, after 25 years, is being forced to live elsewhere.
Most of the quarters are pocket-sized. One-third of the occupants already have been forced to flee, and more – openly desperate for a safe landing location. Others, including a 20-year tenant, have sworn they will leave within weeks, not because they want to.
How serious is the new ownership that took control in June?
A recently arrived tenant woke up the other morning to find a three-day notice, warning him to pay now or get out.
(To be continued)
