The LA Tenants Union has been collecting the stories of tenants in Los Angeles to show evidence of deplorable living conditions, landlord harassment, and unjust evictions. The city has failed to protect its tenants again and again. With these videos and true stories, we are telling our own stories.
Housing Nightmares is a video series by the LA Tenants Union that documents what a nightmare it is to be a tenant in LA today. As City Hall and the Housing and Community Investment Department continuously fail to protect our housing rights, we invite tenants dealing with unsafe housing and landlord abuse to tell us their stories.
Landlords and developers use an array of tactics to intimidate, harass and eventually displace working families, breaking the social and cultural fabric in communities such as Boyle Heights. Emptied units hit the market under exorbitant rent prices, or as AirBnB vacation rentals. But the mariachis of 2nd Street and their neighbors are organizing in resistance against unfair rent hikes and unjust evictions.
The Ellis Act is a California state law that allows landlords to evict tenants in rent-controlled units if they are planning to “go out of business.” But landlords and developers use the law as a loophole to remove rent-stabilized units from the market with impunity. They then either demolish rent-stabilized buildings, convert them into condos or boutique hotels, or list vacated units on Airbnb illegally.