To Solve the Housing Crisis, First Fix the Housing Department

We think we’re pretty Special, us Angelenos, with actor neighbors, (mostly) fine weather, great restaurants, and of course, Rent Control. But…what if you don’t have one of these? Especially Rent Control?

Actually, most of Los Angeles doesn’t have it – over a million citizens! We are the disenfranchised, without any representation in the city. If you’re not sure if you have it, find out here.

The first place to go for help, everyone will tell you, is Housing. (City folk call it HCID. They pronounce it Hsst, like a serpent’s hiss.) THEY ARE LYING. If you are non-RSO, and have no Rent Control, HCID won’t even talk to you.

You are up Sheetrock Cliff. Your home can be taken away at any time, for no reason at all. Your great find is stolen from you. And your new rent will eat up most of your expendable income, so get prepared to feel…poor. And sullen.

You might be surprised that only 14 cities in California have any kind of Rent Control, so if you are still keeping that Gratitude Journal Oprah told you to start years ago, we can be thankful that at least part of LA has it, even if you and I don’t.

Rent Control (RSO) is only for buildings built before 1978. The reason it came about was because renters got so mad about rent, they said they wouldn’t take it any more!

Across California urban tenants suddenly felt their numbers, formed local groups, which quickly grew in intensity and strength. Tenant activists organized political agitation directed at state and city government. Gov. Brown’s

new ‘tenant hot line’ was getting 12,000 calls a day. “In response to tenant pressure, rent strikes, and steady news coverage about rent increases and angry tenants, especially seniors, the Los Angeles City Council passed a six month rent freeze in August 1978.”

If you are one of the favored ones, and have Rent Control, you:

• have protection from harassment
• can call on Housing inspectors at any time to check something out, either in your apartment or in the common area
• will not be evicted, except if you are very naughty, or your landlord has a relative who is moving in
• will get relocation fees of from $8,200 to $20,450, if you are the rare person who does get evicted
• Pay 3% rent raise max, once a year
• Have a Tenant Habitability Plan, which has to vet any major construction in a unit before the owner starts work, makes sure you are safe and healthy, and may even cover hotel costs if you have to be temporarily moved.

If you don’t have Rent Control ( non-RSO), this is how Housing will help you.

We don’t have Rent Control. We don’t feel special. In fact, we feel pretty wretched.

2965 Waverly Dr. feels like a war zone, and so far, no Allied soldiers to help us out against our predatory landlord, Taylor Equities.

But here’s the kicker: Although the Housing Department can’t or won’t help half the renters in the city, they are always helping 100% of all the landlords! See, HCID stands for Housing and Community Investment Department. It’s for developers. To help property owners…against YOU.

Landlords and tenants don’t have to be contrary, of course, but they do have opposite goals. Does the Housing Department have a mediation service, or training? No. They are telling well-heeled landlords, with all the power, how to control tenants. All the time.

May I quote the Bible?

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

Or, from Abraham Lincoln:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Bad landlords aren’t going to go away unless we make them. Come on, Los Angeles, grow a pair.