3.
​GO TO TENANTS UNION MEETINGS

They often are able to help you know how to speak up for yourself in different situations. They listen, share experience and resources, can remind us that we aren't alone, and bring units in a building together to strengthen their voices and communication. Their website also has many resources: www.latenantsunion.org

Signatures & COMMENTS

1. Robert D. / Hollywood / 90038 / CD13
2. Bill A. / Larchmont / 90004 / CD13: No one can afford to live anywhere.
3. Rene / East Hollywood / 90027 / CD13
4. Susan R. / Mar Vista / 90066
5. Private / Mid-City / 90016
6. Corey Rieger / Thai Town / 90027 / CD13: Signing for preservation of actual affordable housing & rent control.
7. Private / Fashion District / 90014: Nothing is affordable for the average person now.
8. Private / Pico-Union / 90006: I don't believe what the mayor is doing is in the best interest of the residents.
9. Private / Los Angeles: I'm all for low-income housing, but you can't demolish existing housing for that purpose.
10. ​Private / Outside of CA: The brazen money grab, even when clothed in an absurd claim as to what constitutes "low income" within this district, is absurd and repugnant and needs to be A: stopped, and B: brought into the public discourse.
11. Private / East Hollywood / 90004 / CD13
12. Private / East Hollywood / 90029 / CD13
13. Private / Hollywood / 90038 / CD13
14. Private / Highland Park / 90042 / CD 1: Preserve RSO!! Amend ED1
15. Private / Highland Park / 90042 / CD 1: PRESERVE RENT CONTROL! (RSO)
16. Private / Highland Park / 90042 / CD 1: Modify ED1 to protect RSO tenants. Amend ED1
17. Private / Highland Park / 90042 / CD 1: Preserve RSO
18. Glenn M. / Mid-Wilshire / 90004: No Demolitions of Rent Control Housing for ED1
19. Private / Alhambra / 91803: Maintain affordable housing
20. Claudia M. / Highland Park / 90042: Strong faith in the protection of marginalized populations
21. Private / East Hollywood / 90029 / CD13: Rent control
22. Private / Hollywood / 90038 / CD13: Allegedly illegal ED1 isn't protecting the unhoused. Preserve RSO units. 
23. Private / Sherman Oaks / 91403
24. Private / Outside of CA: No affordable housing!
25. Simon Hammel / Burbank / 91501: As long as politicians in Sacramento keep control of local zoning laws hundreds of miles from where they live, and cooperate speculative investment is a major player in housing or foreign investment is allowed, I am in favor of as much local control of zoning as possible.
26. Steve G. / Outside of CA: LA's homeless problem is already bad enough.
27. Private / Burbank / 91501

-Distrito 1 del Consejo Miembro del Consejo Eunisses Hernandez​

​La posibilidad de eliminar unidades [de alquiler controlado] debido a los esfuerzos de racionalización de permisos y autorizaciones impacta significativamente la estabilidad de la vivienda de las comunidades vulnerables... Exacerba la falta de vivienda, especialmente porque las tarifas de reubicación no cubren adecuadamente los alquileres que se disparan a precios de mercado, ni se adaptan equitativamente a los hogares más grandes. 

​Opinion: How tenant unions are finding power in numbers to fight L.A.’s housing crisis
By Annie Powers and Leonardo Vilchis-Zarate, April 10, 2024
www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-04-10/los-angeles-housing-crisis-tenants-unions-evictions-city-council

• Many Los Angeles residents struggle to stay in their homes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city instituted a moratorium on evictions. Since those restrictions ended in April 2023, evictions have skyrocketed well past pre-pandemic levels. 
• The city’s answer is to send tenants to the courts and provide them with bare-bones legal representation. Yet few people have actually gotten access to an attorney to help them fight eviction, and even then, burdened with excessive caseloads, these lawyers negotiate measly sums in exchange for tenants’ relocation rather than fighting for them to stay in their homes.
• ​In a tenant union, residents of an apartment complex join forces to represent their interests as a collective. Unlike the city’s delayed response to housing problems — which occurs only once residents reach the eviction stage or arrive at the courts — tenant unions are proactive. They negotiate directly with landlords and carry out protests, rent strikes, community events and other strategies to help protect their homes. And tenants get to be part of the conversation in solving the city’s housing woes.

​

​Environmental Reviews Are Holding Up New Affordable Housing In LA, Despite Mayor's Promise
​by David Wagner, Jan 22, 2024
​https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-ed1-mayor-karen-bass-executive-directive-affordable-housing-city-ceqa-appeals-environmental-review-sawtelle

• "During her first week on the job, Bass signed an executive order streamlining the approval of new affordable housing. Executive Directive One, or ED1, represents her biggest step toward making good on those promises. And exempting new affordable housing from lengthy environmental reviews has been a key pillar of ED1."
• "Now, about a year after her swearing in, LAist has found that city officials have quietly started accepting environmental challenges from groups opposed to new apartments."
• "One developer aiming to construct a four-story apartment building for low and moderate-income renters in the Westside neighborhood of Sawtelle was assured in writing by the L.A. Planning Department in mid-December that their project was exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Two weeks later, the same department accepted a CEQA appeal from opponents of the development."
• "Standing in a dirt parcel where two single-family homes were recently torn down to make way for the 44-unit project, Scheibe said, 'We would not have acquired this lot if it wasn't for ED1.'”
• "​City planning officials also recently accepted a CEQA appeal for an ED1 project in the San Fernando Valley’s Sherman Oaks neighborhood."
• "If the apartments were being rented today, most one-bedroom units in the building would rent for no more than $1,892 per month. 'If you go two blocks over, you're looking at $3,000 rents for a one-bedroom'..."​
• "The number of people experiencing homelessness in the city of L.A. increased 10% last year to 46,260 [2023]."
• "Most L.A. County tenants pay more than 30% of their income on rent according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a level deemed unaffordable by federal government standards." ​

​

​GWNC Land Use Committee Continues Opposition to ED1 Apartment Project Proposed for 507 N. Larchmont Blvd.
by Liz Fuller, April 24, 2024
https://larchmontbuzz.com/larchmont-village-news/gwnc-land-use-committee-continues-opposition-to-ed1-apartment-project-proposed-for-507-n-larchmont-blvd/ ​

• ​​At its monthly meeting last night, the Land Use Committee of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council took yet another look at – and voted once again to recommend continued opposition to – the 7-story, 52-unit, 100% affordable apartment project being proposed at 507 N. Larchmont Blvd. under the provisions of the Mayor’s Executive Directive 1.
• ...A standing-room-only crowd of area residents urged the group to oppose the project based on its height, potential to later turn 12 “recreation” areas into market-rate dwelling units, and its lack of parking based on what the neighbors contend is a flawed calculation of proximity to a major transit stop.
• This month, property owner Sean Tabibian visited the Land Use Committee’s virtual meeting to give a brief overview of the project details and address questions from committee members and area residents, 87 of whom showed up to vehemently oppose the project. (Total attendance peaked at 97 during the session, including committee members, staff, and representatives of the local press.)
• Tababian did, however, provide some new information about the size and pricing of the building’s units, which will be approximately 350 square feet (“micro units”), and rent for about $1,700/month... Finally, Tabibian also said that even if the recreation spaces were converted to market rate units, he couldn’t get much more than $1,700 for them on the open market because they’re so small. 

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​

Proposed ordinance could limit redevelopment of RSO units in Northeast L.A.
by Stephen Sharp, April 22, 2024
​https://la.urbanize.city/post/proposed-ordinance-could-limit-redevelopment-rso-units-northeast-la

• "'The possibility of eliminating RSO units due to permit and clearance streamlining efforts significantly impacts the housing stability of vulnerable communities,' reads the motion introduced by Hernandez. 'It exacerbates homelessness, especially as the relocation fees do not adequately cover skyrocketing market rate rent, nor do they equitably accommodate larger households.'" 
• "Hernandez sites Los Angeles Housing Department Data, which found that the 1st Council District has 51,631 rent stabilized units with a median rent ranging between $1,100 and $1,500 per month, versus average market rate rents of roughly $2,657 in Northeast Los Angeles."
• ​"The motion was spurred in part by a proposed development on Toland Way in Eagle Rock, where an eight-story building with over 100 homes is planned for a site developed with 17 rent stabilized units. According to Hernandez's motion, as well as The Occidental, most of the existing tenants were unaware of plans until they were published by 'niche media outlets focused on development.'"​ ​​

​Affordable housing at the expense of existing tenants? L.A. council seeks new protections
​by David Zahniser, May 2, 2024
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-02/affordable-housing-tenants-council-seeks-new-protections

• Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has begun pushing for new safeguards to ensure that projects submitted under the ED1 program do not result in the rapid demolition of rent-stabilized apartments in her Eastside district.
• On Tuesday, the City Council — at Hernandez’s urging — voted 13-0 to instruct the Department of City Planning to draft [emphasis added] a temporary ban on the approval of affordable housing projects that result in the demolition of five or more occupied rent-stabilized units in parts of her district. 
• The new regulations... must be drafted and come back for another council vote... [As of June 25, 2024, the ban has not been drafted or voted on.] Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, did not provide the mayor’s position on Hernandez’s proposal when contacted by The Times. 
• In December, the City Council passed a motion from Councilmember Kevin de León seeking a temporary ban on the demolition of rent-controlled apartments in Boyle Heights. That ordinance has been drafted but not yet approved by the council [emphasis added], said Pete Brown, a spokesperson for De León. [As of June 25, 2024, the December draft has not been voted on.]
• During her recent State of the City speech, [the mayor] announced that the city had cut the permitting process for 100% affordable housing projects from six months to 35 days.
• Last year, [renters' rights activists] pointed out that dozens of tenants in South Los Angeles were being pushed out of apartments targeted for demolition by developers using ED1’s fast-track process.
• ​Bass is looking to transform her executive order into a permanent ordinance. Although the proposal has been endorsed by the city’s planning commission, it has not yet come before the council.

Los Angeles' One Weird Trick to Build Affordable Housing at No Public Cost
by Ben Christopher, Feb 7, 2024
https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/02/affordable-housing-los-angeles/

• "In the year and change since, the city’s planning department has received plans for more than 13,770 affordable units, according to data provided by the city’s planning department. That’s just shy of the total number of approved affordable units in Los Angeles in 2020, 2021 and 2022 combined."
• "The city has also been the subject of at least two lawsuits and a multi-front political battle over whether and how to turn the mayoral decree — which is only in effect as long as Bass wants it to be and barring a court’s decision to end it — into a permanent fixture of Los Angeles housing policy."
• "And while Bass’ order and the state’s density bonus laws are pulling privately funded developers into the suddenly profitable world of affordable housing development, other economic forces are pushing them out of the high-end luxury market: High interest rates have made waiting around on municipal approvals that may never come an especially costly proposition. Los Angeles’ recently enacted tax on multimillion-dollar real estate transactions, the so-called mansion tax, has also slowed the fancy apartment building business, said Ligety. As a result, he said, 'market rate developers are discovering affordable housing for the first time.'”
• "Developers flocking to the city’s new program are essentially 'making a bet,' said Gary Benjamin, a land-use consultant who advises developers on how to navigate the city’s planning and permitting bureaucracies. The bet is that housing costs are so astronomically out of reach in Los Angeles that even someone making north of $70,000 per year would jump at the chance to rent 'a more bare bones product without all the bells and whistles' for what could amount to a modest rent reduction."
• Still up for debate: Just how many incentives and waivers the city is willing to grant 100% affordable developers as they make use of the state’s density bonus program. So far that decision has been left to the planning department’s discretion. That unlimited economizing and supersizing has resulted in projects that are “substantially out of scale” with their surrounding neighborhoods, according to a planning department assessment. The most recent version of the ordinance caps the number of developer freebies at five. Slocum, the developer of the proposed Echo Park apartment building, said most of his projects would “no longer work” if subject to such a cap. He said he needs eleven or twelve.​

​

​By ATC Research:
​
"Under ED1, 100% affordable is defined as a project with 5+ units where: all units are at 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) or lower (HUD rent levels); OR units are mixed-income, with up to 20% of units at 120% AMI (HCD rent levels) [Moderate Income level], but a balance at 80% or lower. The 2023 AMI for LA County is $98,200.*"

​

𝕒 "low" income is double our income

• ​Mayor Karen Bass passed a temporary rule to fast-track 100% affordable housing development to "aid in swiftly sheltering people who are unhoused."⁰
• But "low income" ED1 units are for people who make $70,000 a year or less.     
• Unhoused people don’t make $70,000 a year.
• The average yearly income for people in Council District 13 is $36,000.¹ (LA Census 2020) 
• Most landlords in LA only take applications from people who make three times the rent.
• Unhoused people don't make three times the rent so many ED1 landlords won't have to consider them. ​​

​​𝕓 relies on the goodness of a developer's heart

• If a landlord has a choice of signing a lease with someone who makes $70,000 or someone who makes less, it seems like they will take the person who makes more. If they have the choice of signing with someone makes $70,000 or someone who has a voucher, it seems like they will take the person who makes more. A real 100% affordable building wouldn't depend on what things "seem" like. It would be clear. But ED1 does not clearly protect the unhoused.
• How will ED1 help the unhoused who don't have vouchers? 
• When ED1 was created, there was an opportunity to make concrete help, but ED1 relies on the goodness of a developers heart to help the unhoused. 

𝕔 voluntary vouchers

• The units aren't subsidized public housing.
• The Section 8 Vouchers program is voluntary for landlords to participate in.
• Not every homeless person has a voucher.
• An unhoused person has to win a lottery to get on a voucher waitlist; then they can stay on the waitlist for years.
• If they receive a voucher, they have to find a landlord that will take it before the voucher expires.
• Landlords legally can’t turn someone away because of a voucher, but they often say it’s for other reasons. 
• Many landlords won't take vouchers. 
• "We have a couple of thousand vouchers that people could use, but we need landlords to be willing to take those vouchers." (Mayor Karen Bass in 2023)​
• "A study found that in LA, less than half of those who got vouchers were able to find a lease before the vouchers expired." (ABC 7 News) ​More Info: No Guaranteed Subsidies

​
 𝕕 rent-stabilized is legally affordable

• Rent-Stabilized (RSO), affordable homes are quickly being demolished to make way for ED1 housing. More Info: What is RSO
• Rent-stabilized (RSO) housing was deemed truly "affordable" by a judge in 2023: "Because the RSO prohibits landlords from raising rents to reflect 'normal market value' under certain circumstances, RSO housing units are affordable housing within the ordinary meaning of the phrase."
• Destroying real affordable housing for housing that isn't legally forcing anyone to take in a homeless person, will create more homeless people.
• ​ED1 states that it considers it to be progress if there is "A decrease in the number of persons being evicted from existing housing units," yet it is being used to evict people from existing housing units, at a faster pace. 

​
 𝕖 studios the size of a parking spot

• Average studios are between 400-600 square feet.  ED1 studios can be 167 square feet, the size of a parking space. 
• 80% of these micro-unit studios cost $1766 per month. To be considered by most landlords, a person needs to make three times the rent. Three times $1766 is $5,298.
• Most unhoused people don't make $5,298 per month. ​
• Many current Council District 13 residents also don't make $5298 per month.
• So most landlords won't accept an application from them.​

​
 𝕗 much more rent per square foot

• Average one-bedrooms are 787 square feet. ED1 bedrooms can be 350 square feet, about the size of a school bus. ED1 two-bedrooms can be 525 square feet, the size of two cars next to each other with doors open.
• Units are less than half the size of normal units, removing stability & long-term rentals for couples and multi-generational families with children and grandparents.
• ED1 units are micro-units.
• In micro-units, rent is 92% - 300% more per square foot than larger units. ​​More Info: No Space

 𝕘 72% of units have no parking

• According to ATC Research, ED1 units on average are 5 stories high, have 74 units, and 75% of projects have zero parking spaces.
• Concessions are being given so front, back, and side yards can be cut in half and many more units are packed into a project. Plus there’s no requirement to have parking underneath most ED1 buildings. More Info: No Parking
• Competitive bidding has been removed. "The public works competitive bidding laws are intended to eliminate favoritism, fraud and corruption in the awarding of public contracts. Work that is exempt from competitive bidding includes emergency work..." 
• ED1 developers don't have to pay construction workers "prevailing wages" that are "roughly equal to what unionized construction workers earn on public infrastructure projects."²
• No environmental reviews are required for ED1 projects. ​
• "...Scientists find that one in four lives lost during heat waves could be avoided... New research suggests more trees could cut heat-related ER visits in LA by up to two-thirds... While it’s generally a feel-good kind of investment for cities, we need to tie those investments to public health outcomes..."¹¹ More Info: No Environmental Review
• Many developers have said that if it weren't for the concessions given by ED1, they wouldn't be building these units.

 𝕙 potentially not legal

• The legality of ED1 is being challenged in the courts.
• The mayor made a local state of emergency about the unhoused, but according to a lawsuit, city and state laws say local emergencies can only be for one-time unexpected occurrences that are natural disasters, not chronic city problems. The lawsuit alleges these laws are written this way because during local emergencies, the mayor is granted extra power and it can only be used short-term for the crisis. State law says a local emergency can only last 7 days and if it lasts longer, city council has to ratify the emergency within 7 days and it has to be renewed every 60 days. This seems to be so one person doesn't have executive power for too long. According to the lawsuit, the emergency wasn't ratified within 7 days and even though it began summer of 2022, it has never been renewed as of summer 2024. 
• One of the executive powers granted by the emergency is to take away our public comment window when developments are being proposed, denying us of due process, which the lawsuit claims is also illegal. More Info: No Public Comment
• Executive Directive 1 also removed environmental reviews which the lawsuit says breaks state law and under ED1, historic homes can be torn down.
• The permit approval process is sped up making it harder for neighbors to protect themselves. ​More Info: Is ED1 Legal?

 
𝕚 right to return to half the size, double the rent, years later

• We are losing our homes in ways that can't be replaced, making the community displaced.
• Sending renters with affordable rent into the expensive Market-Rate rent pool usually means they have to move out of town.
• We have a "Right to Return" to the new units being built but must pay Market-Rate for years waiting for the new units to be built. Landlords are not required to pay for interim housing for their tenants.
• We have a "Right to Return" to an equal "bedroom type" - but not equal size. 
• Couples in a 750 square foot one bedroom can only return to a 350 sq foot space. Most can't live there long-term. When our square feet are cut in half, even if we paid the same amount of rent, our rent doubles per square foot.
• We have a "Right to Return," but not to keep the rent rate we are at -or- our Rent-Stabilization rights. We return to whatever the city deems "affordable" the year we move back. The current "affordable" rate for 80% of the Moderate Income 350 square foot one-bedrooms in ED1 buildings is $2,837. 
• Without rent-stabilization, our rent can go up any amount each year.​ More Info: ED1 Rent Prices

Don’t destroy the affordable Rent-Stabilized homes we currently have to build micro-units that are unaffordable for many constituents of District 13, and many other council districts in LA, both housed and unhoused.
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Click pic for detailed map

​Council District 13 (CD 13) is geographically the smallest council district in Los Angeles and the most densely populated.¹⁴

Council District 13 includes all or parts of: ​
​

​Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Echo Park, Elysian Valley, Glassell Park, Historic Filipinotown, Hollywood, Larchmont Village, Little Armenia, Melrose Hill, Rampart Village, Ridgewood-Wilton, Silver Lake, Spaulding Square, St. Andrews Square, Sunset Square, Thai Town, Verdugo Village, Virgil Village, Western-Wilton, Westlake, Wilshire Center, Windsor Square

not affordable

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​What is Council District 13?