Tenants Bullied at Lincoln Place
By Sheila
Bernard
AIMCO, the owner of Lincoln
Place, has hired a relocation specialist, Bob Shober at Shober-Livas Relocation,
to ask tenants to leave their apartments. A letter posted on tenants’
doors says that a change in land use is being considered, and as part of the
plan, “it will be necessary to relocate residents.”
The letter states that “under the
City of Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), owners must provide
relocation assistance and can serve notice to evict residents if significant
changes are planned.” The letter says that “…many residents
have indicated that they want to relocate in advance of any formal
notice.”
The “formal
notice” referred to is an Ellis Act eviction. The letter fails to mention
that if an owner evicts tenants pursuant to the Ellis Act, that owner may not
charge more for rental housing for the next five years than was charged to the
evicted tenant. This means that AIMCO cannot demolish to build apartments unless
their stockholders and lenders are willing to take an enormous loss and risk for
five more years, which is highly unlikely.
On the other hand, an owner who
demolishes rental housing pursuant to the Ellis Act can build housing for sale,
such as condos, but such a project requires approvals, which are discretionary
(that is, the City Council can say no). An owner who demolishes housing on the
speculative possibility that a condo project will be approved is taking a big
risk in a part of town as active and development-sensitive as Venice, the home
of the Venice Community Council, the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council,
and the Lincoln Place Tenants
Association.
Therefore, if the tenants
of Lincoln Place stay in their homes, do not succumb to the implied threat in
the letter, and remain united, AIMCO or a subsequent owner will not be able to
destroy the community.
However, if the
tenants do succumb and “move out voluntarily,” then the owner can
simply demolish empty apartment buildings and build new apartments, because no
Ellis Act rules will apply. This is why AIMCO has worded their letter so
carefully: to make tenants believe that they must move out, and getting them to
move out “voluntarily.”
AIMCO is offering tenants $10,000 to
move. Savvy tenants are doing the math and realizing that this relocation money,
which is according to AIMCO “more generous than required under the
RSO,” will not last long when they are paying higher rent in a part of
town where they must rebuild the support system of neighbors and familiar
surroundings that make a home so much more than the four
walls.
After seventeen years of battles
with various landlords, the tenants of Lincoln Place are weary but resolute. So
far, only a few tenants have taken the bait offered by AIMCO. Tenants are
discussing the situation door-to-door and in our first-Sunday-of-every-month
morning potlucks at Penmar Park. Tenants are encouraging one another to
“dig in and stay put,” for a bright tomorrow in which our community
is preserved.
Posted: Fri - October 1, 2004 at 02:57 PM