The number of rent-controlled units in the city of Los Angeles stripped from the market under the Ellis Act rose in 2016, carrying on a trend that started after the economic downturn. Last year, the number of “Ellis’d” units rose to 1,372, according to the Coalition for Economic Survival. That’s an increase of nearly 27 increase from 2015, when they totaled 1,075.
The Ellis Act allows owners of rent-controlled properties who want to demolish their buildings or get out of the rental business to evict tenants. It’s estimated that approximately 85 percent of the city of Los Angeles’s rental housing stock is rent-controlled.
The Coalition for Economic Survival’s findings, based on Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department data, demonstrate that these evictions are on a continued “upswing,” Larry Gross, executive director of the coalition, told Curbed.
In a city with a severe housing shortage and a high percentage of renters who pay more than the recommended 30 percent of household income on rent, the uptick is disheartening.
Gross says there are a number of ways the state could protect renters against Ellis Act evictions, including eliminating the act or amending it to require building owners to wait five years after purchasing a building before invoking the Ellis Act. In 2013, at least half of the buildings cleared out under the Ellis Act occurred in buildings that had been purchased within the previous year.
Locally, he suggested that city officials could be more proactive about giving developers incentives to build on vacant or city-owned lots and more aggressive about discouraging demolition or conversions of rent-controlled units.
The uptick in evictions began in 2009. More recently, they rose 40 percent between 2012 and 2013, and again the next year, when landlords evicted tenants from 308 rent-controlled apartments. In 2014, the number shot up to 725 apartments.
They hit an all-time high in 2005, near the peak of the real estate bubble. That year, 5,425 rent-controlled units were cleared out.
- Los Angeles Has Mapped Every Building's Rent Control Status [Curbed LA]
- Mass Rent-Control Evictions Doubled in Los Angeles Last Year [Curbed LA]
Comments
So there will be 1,372 nicer apartments in Los Angeles. Things are looking up.
By LADude on 03.10.17 2:42pm
The symptom: Ellis act evictions increasing.
The problem: Housing shortage.
The prescription: MORE HOUSING!
Not changing this, adjusting that, becoming more communist, adding regulations. But by actually solving the problem. Allow a LOT more housing to be built all over LA. I mean, what the hell? Didn’t we just reject Measure S resoundingly? The NIMBYs are the squeaky wheels, the vocal minority. Tell them to move to Irvine if they don’t like density, and let’s build some apartments and condos!
By goingup on 03.10.17 8:00pm
They can have my fleabag, bed bug infested slum building. But the real problem here, that everyone seems to know but the developers and city seem to be ignoring, is no one can afford the new condos or apts. You start building upper class condos in bourgeous east Hollywood and you may as well knock everything down and start inviting New Yorkers to move in. Greed in’t necessarily a good thing when the result is thousands of vacancies for years.
By bondgrrrl on 03.13.17 12:21pm
Plenty of people can afford the new apartments. You really think all the new buildings that have been built the last 10 years are just sitting empty. Trust me the demand is off the charts. Even Downtown where most of the building has been concentrated has been able to mostly absorb the thousands of new units no problem.
By LA Denizen on 03.13.17 3:20pm