Curbed LA crush Eric Garcetti (pictured above), and his fellow members of the City Council (we assume not pictured above, but it would be awesome if she was, wouldn't it?), unanimously voted to close the Ellis Act loophole to preserve the city's existing stock of rent-stabilized apartments. For those of us unfamiliar with housing policy, Eric breaks it down for us:
Under a California law known as the Ellis Act, landlords may exit the business of renting residential property by converting their property to commercial or for-sale residential, with some restrictions. This has resulted in a loophole allowing property owners to demolish their rent-stabilized apartment buildings and build new apartment buildings with no rent restrictions. The law we passed, without placing undue burden on property owners, will stop people from bending the rules to evict low-income tenants and will encourage the production of new affordable housing.
The City Council has now extended rent control to new units, hoping to discourage landlords from demolishing old buildings and evicting rent controlled tenants. Landlords now have two options - either build a new apartment building, raise the rent to market levels but subsequent rent increases are regulated under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, or designate 20% of the units to affordable housing. Ah, compromise.
· Ellis Act loophole closing [Eric Garcetti]