Gentrification-Minded Los Angeles Landlord's Eviction Notices Have Nearly 60 Families Scrambling, Facing The Boot As Local Law Prohibiting Uncontrolled Dispossessions, Rent Hikes Not Applicable To Multi-Unit Structures Built Post-1978

In Los Angeles, California, EGP News reports:

• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti reminded renters last week that they have rights under the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, but as one group of tenants in Highland Park has found out, those rights don’t apply to everyone.
  
  The city ordinance provides protections against eviction and rent hikes to some tenants living in older apartment dwellings, but not to the nearly 60 families living at the Marmion Royal apartment complex at 5800 Marmion Way, across the street from the Highland Park Gold Line Station. The tenants are facing eviction by the property’s new owners, Skya Ventures and Gelt Ventures, who purchased the property from Azusa Pacific University for $14.3 million.
  
  In May, Skya’s president, Gelena Skya-Wasserman, told real estate news site The Real Deal that they plan to renovate the building’s façade and apartment units, and to upgrade security and add new amenities to the complex, which according to The Real Deal was 91% leased when the property changed hands.
  
  Residents and housing advocates [] denounced the evictions as another example of families being displaced by gentrification of the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood.
  
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  Protections under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance or RSO, apply to multi-unit buildings built before 1978; the Marmion Royal was built in 1987.
  
  The lack of protections for tenants like those at the Marmion Royal has allowed landlords to raise rents as high as they want and has led to a flood of no-fault evictions at the same time that the demand for housing is on the rise, claims the NELA Alliance, a group of local activists documenting gentrification in Northeast L.A.
  
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  [One resident] said tenants attempted to come to an agreement with the owner that would allow them to return to their apartments once the remodel is complete, but while he was amenable to allowing them to return, their new rent would be nearly double what they now pay.
  
  There’s also the additional cost of finding a new place to live while construction is going on, making the deal unaffordable.

For the story, see Plans for Apartment Complex Leave Tenants Scrambling.