The Los Angeles City Council’s Housing Committee forwarded a motion Wednesday that seeks to establish greater protections for tenants against a state law that allows landlords to evict people as a way out of the rental industry.
The Ellis Act, a state law passed in 1985, allows landlords to evict tenants and has been used to “flip” affordable apartments into condominiums and other projects, according to City Councilman David Ryu, who introduced the motion with Councilman Mike Bonin.
Los Angeles can’t stop Ellis Act-evictions without state action, but the councilmen said the city can change some of the requirements landlords must meet in order to “Ellis-out” a tenant.
“We can and must do more to protect our renters and affordable housing stock,” Ryu said. “This means increasing the affordable housing requirements in new housing, and increasing relocation assistance for displaced tenants. This means giving the city the power to acquire at-risk apartment buildings to protect the tenants that live there.”
The motion, if approved by the full City Council, would seek options to increase the relocation payments made to tenants displaced by the Ellis Act. Landlords who use the Ellis Act to evict tenants are required to pay them relocation assistance, but the amount varies depending on a tenant’s length of residency in a particular unit, Ryu said.
The motion also would give tenants the right of first refusal on new units built where their previous units were demolished, and that the units be made available to them below market rate.
Under the proposal, the city would look to increase the affordable housing requirement that mandates new housing complexes must offer 20% of the units at affordable-housing rates, and it would establish oversight on projects that seek density bonuses.
That means, according to Ryu, if a developer wants to qualify for an affordable housing incentive, they would need to build affordable units on top of the amount already required by law.
The motion also requests the city acquire affordable units that are at risk of being destroyed or taken off the market.
“Tens of thousands of families are being thrown out of their homes, and we need to be aggressive and creative in our efforts to stop it,” Bonin said. “The Ellis Act is causing a major hemorrhage of our affordable housing, and until the state repeals or reforms it, we are determined to explore and try anything to restrict its application or lessen its horrendous impacts.”
Larry Gross, the executive director for the Coalition of Economic Survival, said the Ellis Act is responsible for the loss of the 26,000 rent-controlled, affordable housing units since 2001.
“This represents over 26,000 households that have been displaced from their homes and likely now are paying double or triple the rents they were paying far from the neighborhoods they lived in,” Gross said.