Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launches new campaign to aid renters

Post date: Jul 13, 2016 5:27:4 AM

Los Angeles City Hall launched a new campaign Monday to help renters better understand their housing rights and avoid illegal evictions.

The “Home for Renters” campaign will spread information about the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance via pamphlets, door hangers, and advertisements, city officials said. Enacted in 1979, the RSO law caps the amount that a landlord can raise the rent each year and provides other protections for tenants.

About 75 percent of the city’s rental stock is rent-stabilized.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the RSO law a “powerful tool” to preserve housing. “As we work to build new affordable housing, we also must make sure that residents know about the protections we already have in place,” Garcetti said.

The campaign comes amid heightened concern over homelessness in the Los Angeles area and an uptick in evictions of renters in low-and moderate-income housing over the last few years.

Data compiled by the city’s housing department show rent-stabilized units are being removed in Los Angeles at an increased pace. More than 2,287 units were removed from the market over the last two years, a sixfold increase over 2010-2011.

In many cases, those apartments units are demolished and replaced with new condominium or rental buildings, housing advocates say.

Beverly Kenworthy, executive director of California Apartment Association, said the group supports educating the public about the RSO law. The group wasn’t consulted for Garcetti’s campaign, she said.

The “Home for Renters” initiative also targets property owners and has a website.

Original Article