ACLU Sues on Behalf of Tenants

Claiming a gross violation of free speech and privacy, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a group of Pico-Union residents who say their landlord is retaliating against them for trying to organize tenants in the federally subsidized apartments.

According to the lawsuit, landlord Frank De Santis Jr. had two tenant organizers arrested on suspicion of trespassing in November after residents invited them to a meeting at the Los Angeles Gardens apartments, a low-income housing complex.

The suit charges that the arrests were part of an ongoing campaign by De Santis and his nonprofit housing corporation to intimidate residents and prevent them from taking an active role in the complex.

“People who live in low-income housing have the same rights as residents of a Beverly Hills mansion to meet with whoever they want to in their own home,” said David Schwartz, an ACLU attorney representing the tenants.

“This is an outrageous violation of their constitutional rights.”

An attorney for De Santis and other employees of the Community Partnership Development Corp., which owns the complex, called the charges groundless and said his clients had filed their own lawsuit against the tenant organizers for harassing residents.

“Our clients deny any intimidation of any tenants,” said attorney Eric Epstein.

“Outside tenant organizers . . . have been going door to door, barging in on apartments. Many of our tenants said they want nothing to do with these people.

“We believe that in a private residential apartment building the owners and other tenants have the right to reasonably restrict entry by outside people.”

Epstein said his clients were vindicated Friday when a federal judge refused the tenants’ request to stop alleged intimidation and interference by De Santis. U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian ruled that the landlord’s restrictions were reasonable.

However, the tenants said they will ultimately prevail when their lawsuit goes to trial.

“We want other tenants to know we all have the right to organize in our own homes without pressure from our landlords,” said resident Jose Sanchez, one of the plaintiffs. “They need to know we have a voice.”

ACLU attorneys said the managers have been harassing residents with verbal abuse and intimidation since the activist tenant association lost a bid to buy the housing complex three years ago.

The suit charges that De Santis is trying to erode the watchdog role of the tenants, who are concerned about how the owners are spending a multimillion-dollar federal housing grant to improve the apartments.

Residents say the landlord rigged a tenant association election in the fall to oust the activist board, according to the lawsuit.

Epstein denied the charge.

“Prior to the election, there was a lot of caretaking to ensure it would be a fair election,” he said. “There was nothing unfair about the process.”

Tension between residents and management escalated Nov. 25 when police officers arrested two organizers with the Coalition for Economic Survival on suspicion of trespassing while they were attending a meeting at a tenant’s apartment.

Eight police officers, five squad cars and a police helicopter were on hand to make the arrests, tenant organizers said.

The two organizers were taken outside the building, handcuffed and searched by police, who said they were arresting them on behalf of the management, according to the suit.

The next day, one of the organizers tried to visit a tenant and was arrested again, the suit said.

“This may sound like something out of [George] Orwell, like Big Brother,” said Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, a group advocating affordable housing.

“It’s frightening and it should frighten anyone. This isn’t supposed to happen in America. Yet it did happen, which means that if it doesn’t stop here, it could happen to anyone.”

Gross said there is a growing harassment of tenant organizers nationwide by landlords who do not want to lose control of their property.

“This could have a chilling effect on tenants and organizers’ efforts to improve substandard housing,” he said.

The landlord’s actions violate the rights to free speech, privacy and association, as well as federal housing guidelines that protect the tenants’ rights to organize, ACLU attorneys said.

Epstein acknowledged that tenants need to give management 48 hours’ notice before holding meetings in their apartments, but said the policy is to prevent disruptive behavior that disturbs other residents.

“No management company would let outside people freely roam through an apartment complex,” he said.