Low-rent covenants are expiring all over Los Angeles, and tenants are scrambling to find affordable places to live, writes columnist LATstevelopez.
What’s happening at Hillside will soon be happening at dozens of other apartment buildings in Los Angeles. As many as 10,000 below-market units could be lost in the next few years, with an equal number in the rest of the county also jumping to full-market rates.
Tenants, understandably, feel crushed by the relentless forces of gentrification and profiteering investors. But Tom Botz, the owner of Hillside, makes valid points too. He says he’s simply executing his right to begin earning a full return on his investment. He said he believes low-income renters deserve subsidies, and if the city can find a way to provide them, he’s open to keeping his current renters in place.
Natalie Minev, a Legal Aid Foundation attorney, has a different take. The 30-year covenant did indeed expire a year ago, she said, but she claims Botz should have pursued options for maintaining the building’s affordable rents. Minev sued Botz two weeks ago on behalf of the Hillside Villa Tenants Assn. — a recently formed uprising of residents fighting to stay where they are — alleging that the eviction notices violated state law.
Steve Lopez: Touring L.A.’s old Chinatown before it's too late with a man who knows all the secrets » But Dimond disputes that Botz still owes $5 million on the building, which has layers of complicated financing. Dimond said his counteroffer is to keep rents at the current rate for three years in return for waiving debt.Whatever happens at Hillside, California has a massive, unchecked crisis — a storm of rising real estate prices, low production of new units and flat wages for working folks. Danielle Mazzella of the California Housing Partnership said the state is about 1.
But even if the bill were to eventually pass, it won’t be in time to help those in trouble right now.
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