Hollywood tenants facing eviction from their rent-controlled homes by HGTV star Tarek El Moussa have joined hundreds of renters in a fiery protest concerned with the wider LA housing crisis.
Residents on Hartsook Street in the NoHo Arts District have been threatened with eviction notices amid El Moussa’s $26 million ‘biggest ever flip’, which will involve demolishing their family bungalows to make room for a modern 138-unit block.
Among them are Clare Letmon and Jonpaul Rodriguez, who joined the union march to support tenants opposing LA City Housing Department’s proposed 9 percent increase cap for rent-controlled housing.
Letmon, 32, told DailyMail.com landlords are ‘hiding behind the law’ to force lower income families out of the area – while other protesters at the Sunday morning demo clashed with police in violent scenes caught on camera.
The project manager for environmental non-profit VerdeXchange is one of the five Hartsook tenants still standing their ground against the multi-millionaire’s proposed ‘transformation’ of their homes.
Hollywood tenants facing eviction from their rent-controlled homes by HGTV star Tarek El Moussa have joined hundreds of furious LA renters in a protest against wealthy landlords
Clare Letmon and Jonpaul Rodriguez (pictured), joined a union march Sunday morning to support tenants opposing LA’s proposed 9 percent allowable increase for rent-controlled housing. They have been served eviction notices by El Moussa’s developers
Residents on Hartsook Street in the NoHo Arts District are being threatened with eviction notices amid El Moussa’s $26 million ‘biggest ever flip’ – also involving his wife Heather Rae El Moussa’s company
She said their high-profile case involving the retail tycoon – who is taking over their properties after their previous landlord was jailed for trying to burn their homes as they slept – is a ‘microcosm’ of LA’s wider housing crisis.
‘Our story of being firebombed to make way for development is extreme, but just one example of the kinds of violence tenants endure in the struggle to stay housed in the city of LA,’ Letmon told DailyMail.com.
Clare Letmon at the Boyle Heights protest
‘Our case is a super magnifying glass on a very unscrupulous developer, but it’s not unique.
‘Pieces of this story happen all the time – it’s not just Tarek and Selling Sunset.
‘Hartsook Tenants have been working hard to help organize other tenants on the block and in North Hollywood facing illegal evictions, deplorable living conditions, and unscrupulous owners and managers who know the City of LA will stand aside and let it happen.
‘We stand in solidarity with tenants across the city who are engaged in this literal life-or-death struggle to stay housed in Los Angeles.’
Letmon also lamented the main trigger for the protest – LA City Housing Department’s plans to ‘reward landlords’ with the nine percent rent increase – up from a previous maximum of three percent.
‘To do this when evictions are at an all-time high is reckless and demonstrates how the city isn’t actually interested in preventing homelessness,’ she said.
Demonstrators marched against LA City Housing Department’s plans to ‘reward landlords’ with the 9 percent rent increase – up from a previous maximum of three percent. Violent scenes broke out when police clashed with some protesters
Letmon said her association’s high-profile case involving retail tycoon El Moussa – who is taking over their properties after their previous landlord was jailed for trying to burn their homes as they slept – is a ‘microcosm’ of LA’s wider housing crisis
In a project hailed as his ‘biggest ever flip’, the 41-year-old real estate tycoon will be replacing the forest-green ramshackle bungalows (pictured) on Hartsook Street, Los Angeles, with a towering white 138-unit apartment block boasting a rooftop pool
Letmon is part of the Hartsook Tenants association which campaigns alongside the NoHo Local Chapter of the Los Angeles Tenants Union for better housing rights.
She joined Sunday morning’s protest alongside her film director husband, JonPaul Rodriguez, 35, and the pair – who are expecting their first baby in three months – carried a handmade banner as they marched.
But the protest escalated into violence later in the day as several other demonstrators clashed with LAPD cops in scenes caught on camera.
The Los Angeles Tenants Union told local media police ‘rushed from behind’ them outside Boyle Heights City Hall.
They said this sparked the clash, which left three protesters and one cop injured, according to NBC Los Angeles. One demonstrator was evaluated for a concussion. LAPD said no arrests were made.
LA Housing Department said their members did not vote on the 9 percent rent increase, but it was ‘publicized based on a formula established in the rent stabilization ordinance’.
‘The Los Angeles City Council has requested a report on formula results and costs, which will be conducted by an outside consultant and will be provided … by the end of the year,’ the department said.
Denny McLean, of the LA Tenants Union, told NBC the 9 percent increase would be ‘way too much for people to be able to afford’ amid rising prices of food, transport and clothing.
Protesters clashed with LAPD cops at the Boyle Heights demo over a proposed max increase of nin percent – up from three percent – for rent-controlled housing in LA
The Los Angeles Tenants Union told local media police ‘rushed from behind’ them outside Boyle Heights City Hall
Letmon and Rodriguez had been hoping to start their family on Hartsook Street when they were hit with Ellis Act eviction notices earlier this year
Another tenant, Naomi Nektare, 49, a singer and yoga teacher who has lived on Hartsook Street for 17 years, said she is ‘very attached’ to her home and not willing to leave for a ‘pittance’
Hartsook residents were served with Ellis Act eviction notices by their previous landlord, giving them 120 days to vacate, along with an offer of $12,000 compensation per household.
Five remaining residents from three households have refused to move. They include two disabled residents, expectant couple Letmon and Rodriguez, and a 78-year-old woman who has lived there for decades.
Their forest-green family bungalows on Hartsook Street appeared in the background of El Moussa’s jubilant promo video as he announced plans to replace them with a towering white 138-unit apartment block with a rooftop pool.
Set to make a profit of $26 million, the project involves El Moussa’s investment firm TEM Capital, along with his wife Heather Rae’s company HEM Capital and two separate firms – Pyramid Development Group and WJK Development Co.
The Hartsook tenants have already been through substantial trauma after their former ‘crazy psychotic slumlord arsonist landlord’ Arthur Aslanian tried to burn down vacant bungalows on the same plot as they slept.
They said ‘90%’ of their neighbors left amid Aslanian’s ‘reign of terror’, which saw him convicted in federal court of hiring someone to burn down the buildings – as well as a separate murder-for-hire plot.
The residents told DailyMail.com they feel that 41-year-old El Moussa is now ‘finishing’ the attempt to tear down their homes and clear the way for a tower block which will make more money for landowners.
Ranging in age from 32 to 78, the united tenants who have stayed put amid horrific circumstances say they won’t be turfed out easily and are determined to oppose the development, named NoHo 138.
Ranging in age from 32 to 78, the united tenants who have stayed put amid horrific circumstances say they won’t be turfed out easily and are determined to oppose the development, named NoHo 138
Letmon and Nektare confirmed that Cathy Livas, 78, (pictured) and her 56-year-old son with special needs live in the the third household which is part of their Hartsook Tenants union
The tenants have been treated ‘respectfully and lawfully’ and will be offered compensation, according to the developers involved.
‘The goal is to work closely and respectfully with the current tenants by providing proper move-out compensation and constructing a safe and pristine new apartment complex that will also include 14 low-income units,’ TEM Capital said.
In a statement on their website, they added that representatives had visited the residents on March 2.
‘An open line of communication was established with the tenants attorney and both sides agreed to handle the move out agreement to ensure the smoothest route possible,’ TEM said.
‘The entire process has been and will continue to be handled justly through the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) and a legal relocation advisor in order to make 100% sure the relocation is performed according to the law, and that the existing tenants are treated respectfully and lawfully.
‘Proper monetary compensation will be offered to interested tenants who would prefer to leave early.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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