Lawmakers Tackle Tenants’ Issues

In a year of rising housing costs, Los Angeles lawmakers and advocates pushed through measures to help tenants and homeowners keep roofs over their heads.

The effort, and its success, signal the growing realization of the difficulties that poor and moderate-income families face in their attempts to find affordable housing.

Los Angeles has more renters than any other U.S. city except New York, and tenant groups tried to make lawmakers aware of their numbers in 2003. Members arrived downtown en masse -- sometimes bused in -- filling the City Council chambers and committee rooms as lawmakers weighed in on housing matters that, in other times, might have been left to market forces.

In some cases, victory for tenants and housing advocates spelled defeat for rental property owners.

The year also saw the passage of tenant-friendly legislation on the state level.

But these days, some apartment owners say they have their own reason to feel victorious: the election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“This change is sure to benefit rental property owners,” wrote Larry Cannizzaro, president of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, in an address to members. “... With Arnold as the ‘Governator,’ we are off to a good start in 2004.”

For 85-year-old Terrell Dotson of Inglewood, 2003 was a year of victory, which was brought about by the efforts of a wide variety of interests, including the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the Inglewood Police Department and concerned Times readers who had never met Dotson but had been moved by his plight.

The Inglewood condominium that Dotson had owned free and clear was sold at a tax auction after the World War II veteran failed to pay a $546 tax bill that he and his supporters say he did not know he owed.

His supporters argued that Dotson’s record of paying his bills in person, and the fact that he owned his house, should have indicated that he was not a scofflaw, but was someone who might need assistance.

After reading of his situation, people donated thousands of dollars and the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke helped negotiate a deal that allowed Dotson, who had been left homeless, to buy back his condo.

Dotson’s story prompted the Los Angeles County treasurer and tax collector to implement several changes to help keep other homes off the auction block.

The office redesigned property tax bills, making it easier for a property owner to know when a bill is delinquent. It also said that, in some cases, county staff members should have face-to-face interviews with homeowners to resolve possible problems.

While the county found ways to help homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council took steps to help tenants.

In May, the council amended the Rent Stabilization Ordinance to prohibit owners from evicting tenants through what some tenant advocates called a loophole in the law.

The amendment was a response to what was sometimes called the “landlord’s solution.”

Owners of rent-controlled apartments could change the leases of current tenants, requiring them to supply extensive personal information -- such as copies of Social Security cards and car registrations -- and to abide by a long list of regulations governing everything from window coverings to alcohol consumption.

Dennis P. Block, a landlord attorney, said: “A landlord has a right to make reasonable rules for the efficient operation of his building and also for the safety and comfort of other tenants who are in the building.”

Those who did not supply the information or abide by the new list of regulations faced eviction for failure to comply with the terms of their leases. Failure to comply with terms of a lease is cause for eviction under the stabilization ordinance.

After about a year of fighting in court, tenant advocates asked the City Council to change the law to prevent such evictions.

“It really has created enormous problems and we want to close the loophole,” said Los Angeles Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who proposed the amendment with Councilman Eric Garcetti.

The amendment was opposed by the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, which called it a violation of property owners’ rights.

In another move, the Los Angeles City Council voted to create a program to help prevent 12,000 federally subsidized housing units from reverting to the market rate. In exchange for the federal subsidies, owners are required to keep the units affordable. But as those requirements expire, the units can revert to the market rate.

This conversion to market rate is the focus of the new Los Angeles Affordable Housing Preservation Program, which targets units that have been built with, or operate under, some form of federal assistance.

The move was hailed by advocates and lawmakers as a major step in the city’s effort to preserve affordable housing in Los Angeles. The city is home to the nation’s largest stock of privately owned, federally assisted housing.

The program calls for the creation of a new notification ordinance that would allow city officials and others to know when an owner of a subsidized building plans to convert it to market rate. With advance notice, efforts can be made to buy the property and keep the units affordable.

The Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles did not take a position on the program. The California Apartment Assn. supports the preservation efforts, “as long as the efforts of local governments don’t interfere with the rights and obligations of the owner,” said Tom Bannon, chief executive of the group.

An ordinance setting the program in motion is expected to be completed in 2004, and the position of preservation coordinator has not yet been filled.

However, the mayor did appoint a housing department general manager to replace Garry Pinney. In November, Mayor James K. Hahn named Mercedes Marquez to head the department, effective Jan. 5.

Marquez served as deputy general counsel for civil rights and fair housing during Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Meanwhile, Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, faced a federal lawsuit claiming that he discriminated against African Americans and Latinos in an attempt to prevent them from living in his apartments.

The Housing Rights Center filed suit in February on behalf of a group of African Americans, Latinos and two disabled people. The lawsuit accuses Sterling of telling his employees to rent only to Koreans and Korean Americans.

In July, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits the real estate mogul from using “Korean” in his building names, in ads and in billboards related to the sale of his buildings or rental units.

Housing center attorneys had argued that Sterling’s renaming of buildings using the words “Korean” or “Asian” “alienates and distresses the current plaintiffs and tenants living in these properties as well as discourages potential applicants.”

A lawyer for Sterling likened the practice to incorporating the names of communities or cities in a building name, such as Santa Monica Towers. The attorney called the lawsuit foolish and the injunction irrelevant.

Judge A. Howard Matz disagreed.

“Use of the word Korean in the names of residential apartment buildings would indicate to the ‘ordinary reader’ that the buildings’ owner is not only receptive to but actually prefers tenants of Korean national origin,” he wrote. The case is set to go to trial in 2004.

The year ahead probably will see lively debate over the merits of a planning philosophy with a dry name -- inclusionary zoning -- but with a very immediate effect on a city’s housing stock. The question is whether this philosophy will come to Los Angeles.

Supporters want to create an ordinance that would require the developers of new housing projects to set aside a certain percentage for low- and moderate-income residents. Advocates view such policies, which exist in 110 municipalities in California, as a tool to increase the pool of affordable housing.

“There’s no question we need to pass it right now in order to continue the city’s progress in fighting the affordable housing crisis,” said Peter Kuhns, an organizer with the Assn. of Communities Organized for Reform Now.

Developers say such a policy would stifle housing production and unfairly shift the burden of providing affordable housing to them.

Some local developers and business interests, such as the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles, have voiced concerns about or opposition to a mandatory ordinance.

In a report issued earlier this year, the Central City Assn. suggested ways that the city could streamline its building process to help get housing built faster and for less money. In addition to rising construction costs, building is slowed by “increasing code requirements, bureaucratic inspection processes, planning and zoning restrictions” and not-in-my-backyard activism, the report said.

The issue of inclusionary zoning promises to take center stage as lawmakers, housing advocates and developers seek a consensus.