No place to go
Yolanda Ibarra, 35, calls about an apartment rental while searching for new housing in Los Angeles. Her family of eight was being evicted from an apartment and was now competing with thousands of other low-income residents being pushed out of Echo Park, Westlake, Hollywood and other neighborhoods near the citys core undergoing gentrification. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Yolanda and Santiago Sanchez face moving out of the one-bedroom apartment that had been the family home for the last nine years. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Karla Ibarra, 14, does her homework on top of her bunk bed while brother and sister Alan Jose Sanchez and Kelyn Maria Sanchez, both 3, play. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Tenants talk at the end of a hallway of the Echo Park apartment complex that was being vacated for renovations. The buildings owners, Western Regional Properties, offered tenants $10,000 to move out − slightly more than the city- required relocation fee of $8,200. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Santiago Sanchez, 35, drives around in a borrowed van looking for an apartment to rent. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
After inquiring about an apartment to rent, Yolanda begins to sob as manager Josie Carrillo tells her, “What you’re looking for is impossible.” About 65% of the citys rental units are studios or one-bedrooms, according to the 2000 Census. But rental households in the city are relatively large. The census found that nearly half were made up of three people or more, and 8.5% have six people or more. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Kelyn Maria Sanchez watches as her family packs up belongings from the one-bedroom apartment in Echo Park. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Before the move, Kelyn plays between bunk beds inside the Echo Park apartment that had been the familys home for almost a decade. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Santiago and his step-daughter Karen Ibarra, 12, move some of the family’s belongings from the one-bedroom apartment. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Yolanda watches daughter Karen pack items into a borrowed van the family was using to make the move. Santiago had to disassembled the seats of the van to create a space large enough to hold most of the familys furniture. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Yolanda talks with daughter Karen, who looks out over her new neighborhood. There were some bright spots to the new location: The upstairs neighbor became like another grandmother to the children, and the new elementary school was better than the last. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
