Being Forced Out by Low Incomes, Rising Rents
Sheila Bernard moves from one neighbor’s apartment to the next, like a doctor visiting patients in a trauma ward. She knows her neighbors’ histories, their fears, their dismal prospects for finding new homes.
As president of the Lincoln Place Tenants’ Assn. in Venice, she lobbied to keep them from losing their apartments. She attended meetings with housing representatives, enlisted the help of legal aid attorneys, staged a protest.
But several months and several eviction notices later, the tenants still must move. Their dilemma illustrates a reality confronting many residents of Venice: Affordable housing, which once helped define this community, is disappearing.
“We are under siege. We’ve got 800 units of [affordable] housing on the Westside,” Bernard said of the collection of 52 buildings spread across 35 acres. “We are using every legal and political avenue to try to save this housing.”
Historically, Venice has been a diverse community that offered even moderate- and lower-income residents a shot at property near the beach. But now it is being pressured by L.A.’s rising rents.
The owners of Lincoln Place now refuse to accept tenants who use federal housing vouchers. And earlier this month, owner Robert H. Bisno announced that he had launched a comprehensive renovation--one that would price out many longtime residents.
The battle over affordable housing in Venice underscores a larger fight being waged in Los Angeles. As rents skyrocket--fueled by an increasing population and a housing stock that hasn’t kept pace--landlords have an incentive to get rid of long-term tenants and those living on federal subsidies, say legal aid attorneys and tenants. Landlords argue that they need to raise rents to make a profit.
Throughout the city, people in the federal government’s so-called Section 8 program are literally left holding the vouchers. Three years ago, 90% of local participants were able to find landlords that would accept the subsidies. That rate is now 41%, the lowest in the 15 years since the Los Angeles Housing Authority began keeping computerized records, said Steve Renahan, Section 8 director for the agency.
Tenants groups are not sitting by quietly.
“There’s a revitalization of tenant activism going on in Los Angeles,” said Peter Dreier, professor of politics and public policy at Occidental College. “It’s not surprising given the housing market. A lot of tenants have their backs to the wall.”
In the case of the 795-unit Lincoln Place complex just east of Lincoln Boulevard, owners have started work on a long-postponed plan to transform the aging, garden-style apartments.
Some of the 52 buildings will be demolished and replaced by condominiums; others will be renovated. Most residents will be forced to move. Rents will increase substantially. There will be no affordable housing. And the 1950s complex will receive a new name: The Village at Venezia.
The plan to transform Lincoln Place has been around since the early 1990s. In an attempt to preserve affordable housing, the city rejected the proposal in 1995, leading to a slew of lawsuits.
In September a judge ruled that the city had violated the Ellis Act, a state law that gives landowners the right to leave the rental housing business. The judge ordered the city to comply with the ruling and allow developers to begin work. The city is appealing.
Cheaper Units Not ‘Profitable’
In the meantime, Bisno has offered what his attorney calls an olive branch: If the city drops the appeal, the owner will agree to include a small number of affordable housing units in the Village at Venezia.
“Affordable housing is not a profitable venture,” said Bisno, chairman and chief executive of TransAction Financial Corp., which owns the complex with Aimco, a multibillion-dollar real estate investment trust. “Affordable housing is ordinarily something a developer contributes in exchange for certain concessions from the city. The city, contrary to offering us any concessions, has made the operation of this property as difficult as humanly possible.”
Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, a pivotal figure in the battle, did not return several calls seeking comment. For now, at least, the city can do nothing to stop the project.
“They do have a legal right at the moment to [launch the project] without needing to seek any permission from the city,” said Assistant City Atty. Gwendolyn Poindexter.
But even before tenants learned about plans to proceed with the work, some were shaken by the landlord’s refusal to accept federal vouchers.
The owners now demand that all tenants pay the full rent themselves, rather than rely on Section 8 vouchers, one of the government’s primary rental subsidies. Legal aid lawyers say the move is an attempt to push out the poor.
“The owner knows the tenants can’t pay the full market rent without assistance from [Section 8],” said A. Christian Abasto, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.
The move has left the tenants, some of whom have lived there for decades, with few options. They must move out or come up with hundreds of dollars more in rent each month.
“I’m going to be 91 years old,” said Wanda Wolski, whose only sources of income are a $477 monthly Social Security check and $255 from Supplemental Security Income. “How many options can I have?”
Under Section 8, Wolski’s rent for her one-bedroom apartment was $654. Her contribution was $155, and the rest was paid by the government. Those not using the federal subsidy pay $1,200 to $1,300.
Bisno said the federal program’s yearly inspections, delayed payments and low rents are the reasons that landlords are leaving the program.
“We and a number of landlords have determined the cost of the Section 8 program greatly outweighs its benefits,” he said.
A Start in 1952 With Federal Money
Lincoln Place has a long history, both of offering affordable housing and of landlord-tenant conflicts.
The complex was built in 1952 with a Federal Housing Administration loan and the encouragement of the government. In 1989 the owners received a 20-year, $372,000 loan from the city to renovate one of the dozens of buildings on the property, said Ralph Esparza, assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department.
In addition to the loan, the city offered 100 families Section 8 vouchers. Rents were relatively low, even for those without the subsidy.
But last fall, changes in federal law made it easier for landlords throughout the nation to leave the Section 8 program. That move--coupled with a 3% vacancy rate and a housing shortage in Los Angeles--has made times hard for the 91,000 people citywide who benefit from Section 8 rent subsidies.
In the two ZIP Codes that cover Venice, 238 housing vouchers were accepted by landlords in 1998. This year, 146 were.
“We didn’t do anything wrong, but they have been liberated by Section 8 to throw us out,” said Ferdinand Groder, 61, a subsidized tenant at Lincoln Place.
Officials with the Section 8 program offered to increase the rents the federal government pays on behalf of tenants to $824 for a one-bedroom. That offer was not accepted, said the city’s Renahan.
Bisno has already rehabilitated some units and raised rents to $1,650 to $1,750 for one-bedroom, one-bath apartments.
“We don’t have the authority to require the owner to execute new Section 8 contracts,” Renahan said. “We offered the owner the maximum payments we can legally offer, and that hasn’t done it.”
When tenants heard that their homes were endangered, they enlisted the help of Bernard, who has worked as a tenant organizer for 12 years.
She brought in attorneys, who met with tenants and filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on their behalf. The suit accuses Lincoln Place owners of discrimination against Section 8 tenants, based on their source of income.
Bisno denied the allegation and said the program cannot “expect the private sector to pick up the difference between what they’re willing to pay and the market.”
“Clearly, Section 8 is not keeping pace with the marketplace,” he added.
One day in August, Bernard visited several tenants, all of whom had received eviction notices. Attorneys had hoped to get an injunction preventing evictions while the lawsuit was pending, but the effort failed. None of the tenants had good news to report.
Pauline Conway, 79, had answered at least 75 “for rent” ads and still had not found a new home. Groder found an apartment he could have afforded with his Section 8 voucher, only to be rejected by a landlord who refuses to accept the subsidies.
Wolski could not even imagine living someplace else, and insisted that she would not leave her home of nearly 30 years. “Nobody is gonna make me move,” she said, sitting in a wheelchair in her apartment.
The lists of apartments that take federal housing vouchers “are all inland,” said Douglas Waters, who has lived in Venice for 40 years. “We had to go to the Thomas Guide to find out where they were. I’d never heard of them.”
Weeks after expressing those fears, nearly all of the tenants had agreed to drop their portion of the lawsuit. In exchange, they will be allowed to remain at Lincoln Place for a year. Most also received $5,000, standard relocation benefits for senior citizens. Conway has finally found an apartment and has moved.
“None of these folks are militant,” Bernard said. “They’ve been pushed into a corner because they really had no options.”
Bisno said the settlement was fair.
“I think we went above and beyond the call of duty,” he said.
Now all Section 8 tenants, except one couple, plan to move from the complex. The building where some of them live is scheduled to be torn down.
Battle Inspires Plan to Run for Council
But legal aid attorneys said they are going forward with the lawsuit on behalf of the couple.
Bernard’s goal as a tenant association president and a community organizer has hardly been accomplished. She argues that the loss of affordable housing destroys a community.
“We have been over and over providing tax and other incentives to private owners who, as soon as it is to their advantage, stop helping the people,” Bernard said. “We can no longer invest in these types of deals.”
As the battle over Venice continues, Bernard has decided to run in 2003 for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Affordable housing will be a key component of her platform.
In the meantime, she continues to work with other tenant groups in Venice that are facing the same issues, and she has not given up pushing for affordable housing at Lincoln Place.
“We’re all hoping for a miracle,” Bernard said. “We will keep trying as long as there’s a stick of this place still standing.”
