Neighborhood council to take action on Reef Project report



The South Central Neighborhood Council and community members discussed possible courses of action on the Reef Project Environmental Impact Report on Tuesday, October 20, 2015.

The South Central Neighborhood Council and community members discussed possible courses of action on the Reef Project Environmental Impact Report on Tuesday, October 20, 2015. | Rachel Cohrs, Intersections South L.A.

With the deadline for public comment on more than 800 pages of documentation on the proposed Reef Project development approaching, the South Central Neighborhood Council said it needs more time to sort through the information.

“The language is hard to understand, and it’s just too much,” said council member Martha Sanchez. “I want to be able to understand what I’m reading. . .I want to have time for an expert who knows more to explain what this means to community members.”

The Reef Project is a $1.2 billion development of high-rise condos, commercial space, and a hotel to be erected in South LA. The project has received some pushback from community residents.

A rendering of the proposed $1.2 billion Reef Project development. | Courtesy of Gensler and PATTERNS

A rendering of the proposed $1.2 billion Reef Project development. | Courtesy of Gensler and PATTERNS

The paperwork under review is the Environmental Impact Report that describes the different community impacts the project could have on nearby residents. The Los Angeles Department of City Planning’s summary of the report describes that the Reef Project’s largest disruptions will affect local aesthetics, air quality, noise, traffic and transportation.

The report, released Sept. 17, is available solely in English, and is only available by either visiting the Department of City Planning office, visiting one of four library locations, or paying $7.50 for a copy on CD.

“Looking at this neighborhood, for [the document] only to be provided in English is absurd. We have lots of monolinguistic Spanish-speaking people around here. It’s hard enough for the average person to understand, not to mention if they don’t speak the language,” council member John Parker said.

The South Central Neighborhood Council has authorized a committee to submit a public comment before the Nov. 2 deadline. The statement will be based on community input the council has gathered since its town hall meeting last month. The exact content has yet to be determined.

A visual map of the location of the Reef Project south of downtown Los Angeles. | Courtesy of Gensler and PATTERNS

A visual map of the location of the Reef Project south of downtown Los Angeles. | Courtesy of Gensler and PATTERNS

The council also plans to submit a request to the city to extend the deadline, but the prospects of success look grim after another organization’s request was denied.

Reef Project representative Will Cipes said that although the official deadline for comment may pass on the report, the developers will still be open to community insight regarding a community benefits package attached to the project.

According to Cipes, however, the community benefits package with the city isn’t quite concrete.

“We have talked about the broad concept of an agreement [on a benefits package] but we have not talked specifics,” Cipes said.

Cipes estimated that the official city council vote on the development will likely be at least six months away.

The Environmental Impact Report didn’t measure how much potential displacement the existence of market-rate apartments could cause in the surrounding area. Preliminary analysis conducted by SAJE, a local nonprofit advocating for tenant rights and affordable housing, identified 4,445 individuals within a two-mile radius of the Reef Project who could be at “very high” or “high” risk for financial strain and/or displacement if the development is built.

To educate community members and provide a place for residents to voice concerns about the project, the South Central Neighborhood Council is organizing a community forum on gentrification Wednesday, Oct. 28 at Santee Education Complex at 6 p.m.

“We want to do something that is really going to benefit people,” South Central Neighborhood Council President Jose Reyes said. “We don’t want to do something just to say we did something.”

South LA seniors face poor conditions, unfair evictions



CES HUD tenants meet with CES Tenant Organizer Valerie Lizárraga at an apartment complex near USC to discuss maintenance problems such as cracked-deteriorating bathroom flooring, missing bathroom vents, broken appliances and a cockroach infestation. | CES Facebook

HUD tenants meet with CES Tenant Organizer Valerie Lizárraga at an apartment complex near USC in 2013 to discuss maintenance problems such as cracked-deteriorating bathroom flooring, missing bathroom vents, broken appliances and a cockroach infestation. | CES Facebook

By Lauren Day

Juana Vasquez has lived in her West Adams apartment for 20 years, and despite making regular requests for her refrigerator to be replaced, the appliance has been leaking water since the day she moved in.

“They never replaced nothing,” said Vasquez’s son, Carlos Rezabala, who helps his mother translate from Spanish. “It’s still the same… We’ve been asking for a long time.”

Vasquez and her son have had to settle for unhurried maintenance, making her living conditions “filthy,” said Rezabala.

He described his 82-year-old mother’s carpet as “disgusting.” He said the windows of the apartment, part of a senior housing complex subsidized by the city, have broken from age. But the property managers “don’t want to change, they don’t want to replace nothing,” he said.

Carlos Aguilar, from the Coalition for Economic Survival, said property managers of rent-controlled or affordable housing often take advantage of their tenants. Senior citizens are among the most vulnerable, he said, “because of their age and lack of knowledge and awareness of what their rights are.” So are people from “marginalized or ignored communities,” such as South L.A.

Aguilar said he saw one woman forced out by “constructive eviction” – a legal term meaning the tenant was obligated to leave because her residence did not meet basic standards.

“Owners refused to do the repairs and maintenance,” said Aguilar. “The property got to such bad condition that the place was deemed uninhabitable.”

His coalition organizes Los Angeles tenants in rent-controlled and subsidized housing that face harassment, illegal evictions, illegal rent increases and slum housing conditions. CES also helps to educate tenants about their rights and encourages them to make sure those rights are honored by their landlords. The organization is also working on programs to preserve affordable housing units in the City of Los Angeles.

The looming threat for seniors, if these battles are not fought, is homelessness, advocates said.

In 2013, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority counted a total of 2,300 homeless people in District 8 – nearly 775 people above the L.A. City average. South L.A. as a whole had the highest number of homeless senior citizens – roughly 950 people. In contrast, East Los Angeles had the least number of homeless seniors, totaling about 185. The organization does not keep data on the number of seniors who became homeless as a result of evictions.

Vasquez, the tenant with the leaky refrigerator, lives in HUD-subsidized senior housing in District 8. But that’s no reason for the property to be substandard, Aguilar said, adding: “It has everything to do with who manages and who owns that property.”

Vasquez made little headway with the latest property manager of her apartment complex. Her kitchen light was out for more than a year before the building’s management fixed it, said her son.

Affordable housing is crucial in areas like Vasquez’s where the average annual salary is $33,360, according to the city’s 2013 Economic Report – nearly $24,000 below the city average. The median rent where Vasquez lives was $1,086 in 2014, whereas the average rent in Los Angeles was $1,463, according to the RED Capital Group, a lending institutions specializing in housing.

Most buildings built before 1978 in Los Angeles are rent-controlled properties, including many South L.A. neighborhoods.

Current tenants of rent control properties are only subject to limited annual rent increases, monitored by the city. But illegal rent increases still occur “because if a tenant doesn’t know,” the person is “never going to challenge it,” said Aguilar.

Landlords must comply with the 14 eviction requirements of the L.A. Rent Stabilization Ordinance. However, some conduct constructive evictions, which are not legal, but rather “sheer harassment, intimidation or lack of repairs and maintenance,” Aguilar said. Tenants in these circumstances are often “so frustrated that they just move out.”

Rezabala said he is not willing to give up the fight for his mother, adding: “They’re abusing us, that’s what they’re doing.”

Some housing rights attorneys believe their clients are targeted just because they are easy to evict. According to Nick Levenhagen, an attorney at Bet Tzedek Legal Services, tenants in Section 8 housing that is subsidized by the city typically “hate to complain” because they fear losing their housing.

For Section 8, landlords generally have the legal right to decide whether they want to accept Section 8 vouchers for the following year. However, in rent-controlled properties, landlords must comply with the “just cause” eviction requirements of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance when terminating a Section 8 tenancy.

But landlords often try to work around that regulation. The daughter of an elderly couple with a Section 8 subsidy, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the building owners told her parents they did not want to accept Section 8 vouchers any more, aiming to remodel and eventually increase the rent. The move was illegal, according to Levenhagen, the family’s attorney.

The couple eventually agreed to a settlement: They would move after 17 years of living at the apartment in exchange for a payout from the landlord.

Wrongful evictions put low-income seniors at risk of homelessness, according to Levenhagen.

“Unless you have an advocate who represents you, then you’re just going to go,” he said.

Such was the case for Rezabala and his mother, who are grateful for Carlos Aguilar’s help. “There was nobody… until we found Carlos,” said Rezabala.

Los Angeles does not posses enough affordable housing to accommodate all elderly residents on fixed incomes, according to Aguilar. It’s impossible for seniors whose sole income is social security or disability checks to make market price rent. “You end up having elderly homeless people,” he said. “That’s a side of the story that doesn’t get discussed.”

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Formerly homeless treasure affordable, dignified housing in South LA



Video by McKenna Keil

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Irvin Dixon spent the last seven years living on the streets of Los Angeles. He slept on public benches and waited in long lines to receive a meal. This week, by virtue of a collaboration of several local organizations, he has a home.

On Monday, the South L.A. Supportive Housing Program celebrated the grand opening of 56 units of permanent housing, which will give safe living for nearly 100 homeless people. For Dixon, this difference will create an immense change in his lifestyle.

“There’s nothing better to provide anybody than a sense of dignity,” Dixon said.

The units, which were formerly dilapidated but have since been renovated, are availabe to men, women, and children. The residents pay 30% of their monthly income in rent. For Dixon, that is about fifty dollars a month.

The new housing is for people who frequently use county health resources, a requirement that helps create a more efficient delivery of care and resources. Officials say it is more effective to provide people with a living arrangement instead of covering medical bills.

This article was originally published on Annenberg TV News.

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Free Fair Housing Certification Management Training



Free Fair Housing Certification Management Training Offered on Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Fair Housing Foundation will be holding a Fair Housing Certification Management Training at the Florence/Firestone Service Center at 7807 S. Compton Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90001 from 1-5pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013. This course is free and open to the public. This training is targeted towards property management professionals. Fair Housing Foundation will explain state and federal fair housing laws, discusses state and federally protected classes, advertising guidelines, and how to prevent allegations. Participants receive Fair Housing Certificate upon successfully passing course exam.

The Fair Housing Foundation is contracted to provide fair housing services to the residents of the city of Los Angeles. We educate the public about Fair Housing rights and responsibilities through workshops, trainings, and community events. FHF provides mediation and counseling services through our housing assistance hotline 1-800-446-FAIR and walk-in clinics. We also investigate issues of discrimination related to housing.

For more information or to RSVP for the Fair Housing Certification Management Training, call 1-800-446-FAIR

About the Fair Housing Foundation:
Founded in 1964, the Fair Housing Foundation (FHF) is a private, non-profit, non-partisan educational agency dedicated to promoting the enforcement of fair housing laws and encouraging an atmosphere of open housing through education, enforcement activities, counseling services, and outreach programs. We are contracted with cities throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties to provide Fair Housing services. Fair Housing Foundation serves over 10,000 clients annually through our programs.

Our Mission
Dedicated to eliminating discrimination in housing and promoting access to housing choices for everyone.

Flower Street residents tell the city they don’t want to go anywhere



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Listen to the audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

Residents of the 100-year-old apartment building at 2913 S. Flower Street are sending a letter to the city today.

“Dear Developers, City Officials, and members of the general public,
This letter is meant to express one simple intention: we will not leave our community without a fight,” the letter begins.

Many families in the 33-unit building have lived there between 15 and 35 years. But they have started to feel pressured by the growth of the neighborhood around them.

“There’s a lot of redevelopment of this area,” says Thelmy Perez, an organizer with the LA Human Right to Housing Collective. Her organization helped write the letter along with other groups LA CAN and Comunidad Presente. “You have the university to the south, you have now the proposed Farmer’s Field development that’s just north of us, you have the giant Palmer project that’s up here on the corner, you have the new Icon project that’s over here on the corner of Figueroa and Jefferson and the Metro [Expo] rail line.”

About half of the building’s residents are USC students. The low income families in the building like having students around and being part of the University community, but worry they might be asked to leave soon.

The building is managed by student rental group, First Choice Housing and owned by 424 W. Brown Road, LLC. First Choice Housing says it is not aware of the building being for sale.

Some residents say they’ve been offered money to move out though. So before any big changes happen, they have written this letter to the city and sought legal advice. Barbara Schultz is a lawyer working on the tenants’ behalf.

“Under the state’s Ellis Act a landlord is allowed to remove a unit from the market, but only if they’re going to permanently remove a unit from the rental market. They are not allowed to displace tenants only to either just replace them with new tenants or build a new building and replace them with new buildings,” Schultz says.

In October, USC agreed to contribute $20 million toward affordable housing as part of their University Village expansion project. Farmers Field reached a similar settlement with the city last week for $15 million. Until those projects begin, what will happen with those contributions is unclear.

It is clear that this neighborhood is changing quickly. Whether or not the rumors of the building’s potential sale are true, Perez says the residents want the city to know their concerns saying, “What we’re calling for is people-oriented development.”

Residents say they don’t mind changes in the neighborhood, as long as it means they don’t have to go anywhere.

Helping tenants know their rights in Boyle Heights



Maria Rodriguez has lived in her sunshine-yellow Boyle Heights duplex for ten years. With her first landlord, rents stayed relatively stable over time. But when he sold the building, subsequent owners have raised prices suddenly and dramatically.

It was when one owner requested an additional $500 or face eviction that Rodriguez began to panic. “In the beginning, I thought it was a joke,” Rodriguez said. “But then I got very nervous and was afraid that I had to leave this house.”

A friend put her in contact with the community organization Union de Vecinos, who intervened with her landlord on her behalf and had the rent lowered back to a more affordable rate.

Based largely in Boyle Heights and Maywood, Union de Vecinos describes their organization as a “network of neighborhood and building communities” where residents can come together to observe problems in their neighborhoods, reflect on some of the root problems and then come together to enact change.

Rodriguez has become a more active member of the organization over time. She cites graffiti removal and stop sign installations as ways the group has made her neighborhood a more pleasant place to live.

But things still aren’t perfect. Now that her rent is more stable, she’s more concerned about safety issues inside her home: mold in the upper corner of her bathroom that refuses to go away, a gaping hole in her ceiling from when a fire alarm was swapped out for one of a different size and a kitchen window with only heavy plastic for a pane.

Every time she tells her landlord about these problems, he sends someone out to fix them, but the work is quick and rudimentary at best. She finally got real windowpanes for her kitchen, but only after waiting more than a month with the plastic substitutes.

She’s not alone with her concerns about repairs. Around her neighborhood, the quick fixes are known as “Mickey Mouses.”

“Supposedly they come and fix the house, but they really don’t do a good job, just apparently it looks fixed, but it’s not really fixed. It’s all appearances,” Rodriguez said.

Laura Cuadros from Union de Vecinos works on community organizing related to tenants’ rights in Boyle Heights. She said the problem is not only the shoddy repairs, but also the equipment and trash inspectors and repairmen leave behind.

“It’s unsafe just to have this stuff lying around,” she said, pointing to a pile of twisted scrap metal and plywood in the yard of Rodriguez’s neighbor.

Rodriguez is happy to have her home and the support of Union de Vecinos. But she can’t help but worry about her kids. One night while she was sleeping, part of her ceiling began to crumble and fell onto her bed.

She motioned to her toddler sleeping soundlessly in a crib placed in a small walkway between her kitchen and living area. “What if the same thing were to happen again? How could I protect them?”

Housing and Tenant Services in South LA



imageLos Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc.
www.lanhs.org
Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services believes that strong neighborhoods can be achieved through quality affordable housing options.  It offers financial education workshops to workshops in an attempt to curb foreclosures and provide financial independence for low-income families.  Los Angeles Neighborhood Services also lobbies for the development and maintenance of affordable housing in communities of need.

imageFair Housing Foundation
www.fairhousingfoundation.com
Founded in 1964, the Fair Housing Foundation seeks to end discrimination in housing and to provide equal access to housing options to everyone regardless of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, socioeconomic group and any other characteristic protected by law.  It also provides services in dealing with tenant/landlord issues.  The Fair Housing Foundation serves South Los Angeles, Compton, Lynwood, Huntington Park, Bell and their surrounding communities.

imageBroadway South Neighborhood Revitalization Project
www.beyondshelter.org
Broadway South is a collaborative effort by Beyond Shelter and the Beyond Shelter Housing Development Corporation to provide an affordable housing complexes in South Los Angeles.  The program not only offers Section 8 housing but also seeks to address the socioeconomic needs of its residents.  It currently has housing complexes on 74th and Main, 79th and Broadway and 51st and Broadway.

imageHousing Rights Center
www.hrc-la.org
The Housing Rights Center provides housing services to residents throughout Los Angeles County.  It combines legal action with educational services to end housing discrimination.  Telephone and in-person counseling for both tenants and landlords is available.

imageLos Angeles Community Action Network: L.A. Right to Housing Collective
cangress.wordpress.com
The Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) engages in community and public policy activism in the South Los Angeles and Skid Row communities.  It’s Right to Housing Collective advocates for tenants’ rights at City Hall.  Among the Right to Housing Collective’s latest action was a protest outside of Councilmember Wesson’s office demanding changes to the city’s rent-control laws.   

L.A. Neighborhood Housing Services hosts foreclosure workshops



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Tenants in District 10 want a break from rising rents



On the morning of the most romantic holiday of the year, Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson had a “Valentine” hand-delivered to his District 10 campaign office, but the message on the card was anything but loving. 



Members of the LA Right to Housing Collective gathered outside Wesson’s office, demanding changes in the city’s rent-control law. A law that would temporarily freeze rent increases failed to pass last year. While rents are rising, many wages are not, and some tenants say they are seeing more and more families displaced from their neighborhoods.


Wesson was not present in the office when the group walked inside and delivered their card, which had a picture of a broken heart. A staff member in the office said she did not know when Wesson would be back or what his response would be to the group’s requests.

Interpreter services provided by Davin Corona, co-director of Comunidad Presente.

More stories on housing in South Los Angeles:

Protestors give Herb Wesson a hand-delivered Valentine
Historic South Los Angeles neighborhood breaks ground on new housing project
City Planning postpones ruling on luxury apartment complex

Protestors give Herb Wesson a hand-delivered Valentine



Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson had a “Valentine” hand-delivered to his District 10 campaign office this morning, but the message on the card was anything but loving.

Chanting “Housing is a human right” in English and Spanish, members of the LA Right to Housing Collective gathered outside Wesson’s office, demanding changes in the city’s rent-control law. Tenants want to see their rents stabilized and stop a 2 percent increase in utility fees.

Wesson was not present in the office when the group walked inside and delivered their card, which had a picture of a broken heart. A staff member in the office said she did not know when Wesson would be back or what his response would be to the group’s requests.