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the rent brigade

@therentbrigade

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a decommodified take on housing

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a month ago

Less than three weeks until Election Day. If you’re a tenant in Los Angeles, you cannot afford to ignore the City Attorney’s race.

The two candidates on the ballot have very different visions for Los Angeles. One, Marissa Roy, wants to turn the city attorneys office into a public interest law firm for the people. The other, John McKinney, is the landlord’s pick, taking money from Airbnb and the landlord lobby, making promises to the people he’d be tasked with prosecuting.

It could be one of the most consequential races on your ballot, especially when it comes to your rights as a renter. by @therentbrigade

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a day ago

The affordable housing industry has become a massive boon for private real estate investors, and this investigation by SF Chronicle shows how broken the system is.

Investors are buying up rent stabilized apartment buildings, converting them into “affordable housing,” and collecting enormous property tax breaks while also INCREASING rents. In most CA metro areas, “affordable” limits are higher than market rates so landlords can legally charge more than what rent stabilization allows via this type of conversion.

At one building in San Rafael, a family’s rent rose from $2,000 to $2,800 (40% increase!!) a month after a private equity firm purchased the property. The building was subsequently converted to “affordable housing”

This is what happens when we make the provision of an essential human need dependent on private profitability. When market-rate development is lucrative, investors build for profit. When that model stops delivering the returns they want, they find ways to profit from loopholes instead. All while we risk sacrificing existing rent-stabilized housing and genuine affordability in the process.

There is no getting around it: the public sector must get back into building, owning, and maintaining housing at scale. We cannot keep outsourcing housing provision to investors whose fundamental obligation is to maximize returns, then act surprised when public subsidies become another vehicle for private wealth accumulation. by @therentbrigade

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9 days ago

Register now for our upcoming membership orientation next Tuesday! Link in bio. by @therentbrigade

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11 days ago

A back-to-school season of speaking engagements.

📣 Hit me up at torched.la if you’d like me to come talk to your students, firm, conference, multibillion-dollar boondoggle tour, or metropolitan planning organization by @therentbrigade

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13 days ago

Judge Cherisse Heidi A. Cleof, who was appointed to serve in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year, granted Julio Cienega’s landlord’s motion for summary judgment, a request made to decide a case without a full trial, asserting that there are no further relevant disputes in the family's housing case.

Despite the constant threat of being evicted, Julio and his neighbor have organized a food drive for families affected by ICE. Until last week, when the food distribution stopped.

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, which gathers data from the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD), estimates there has been a destruction of 32,000 rent-controlled units throughout L.A. through the Ellis Act from 1994 to today.

To read the full written story, visit Calonews.com

🎥: @ brenda.verano

#UTLA #housing #ellisact by @therentbrigade

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16 days ago

After more than a year of fighting one crisis after another—including post-fires rent gouging and ICE raids—The Rent Brigade made a decision earlier this year to transition into a dues-paying membership organization.

We know that in order to make Los Angeles a city ordinary people can afford, one where tenants have access to dignified, safe, and truly affordable decommodified housing, we had to pivot from emergency response to the long-term, strategic work of building tenant power, fighting the real estate lobby, and changing the narrative around market solutions to the housing crisis.

Two of our members wrote about that transition in a new piece for Shelterforce. Full story at the link in bio. by @therentbrigade

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19 days ago

Paris is a global cultural capital and one of the most-visited cities in the world. It is also a city where one-third of renters live in social housing. How does the Paris model make that possible, and what can it teach us about the role of the public sector in ensuring housing affordability?

This talk takes a close look at the Paris model of social housing. Tracing its development through two world wars, decolonization, and decades of urban transformation, it considers how the model took shape, the way it functions today, and the political and economic forces shaping its future. At the center of the discussion is the way strong tenant protections, sustained public investment, and a broader social safety net work together to create a housing system that delivers stable and affordable housing. RSVP at link in bio.

#socialhousing #paris by @therentbrigade

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a month ago

Mayor Karen Bass has withdrawn her nomination of Daniel Tenenbaum to sit on the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) Board of Commissioners.

Bass’ reversal comes after Angelenos mobilized against the appointment of Tenenabum, a landlord lobbyist who sits on the board of the California Apartment Association and has a long history in the private multifamily housing market.

We cannot let people with deep ties to the profit-driven, private real estate industry control the present and future of our public housing. The HACLA board has long operated without the level of public scrutiny its power demands, but now that’s changing! by @therentbrigade

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a month ago

Judge Cherisse Heidi A. Cleofe: The Ellis Act has destroyed 32,000 rent control units in LA, with 50% of those evictions filed less than 1 year after a landlord purchased the building, and each tenant deserved their right to present evidence of LARSO regulations, harassment campaigns, and “bad faith” practices to a jury of peers.

Jury Trial Now for Occidental Tenants!! Swipe to read more! [Y desliza para leer en Español!]
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Jueza Cherisse Heidi A. Cleofe: La Ley Ellis ha acabado con 32,000 viviendas protegidas por control de renta en Los Ángeles, y el 50 % de los desalojos se iniciaron menos de un año después de que el propietario comprara el edificio. Cada uno de ellos merecía el derecho a presentar ante un jurado de pares pruebas sobre las normas de la LARSO, las campañas de acoso, y las prácticas de “mala fe”.

¡¡Exigimos ya un juicio con jurado para los inquilinos de Occidental!! ¡Desliza para seguir leyendo! #EllisAct by @therentbrigade

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a month ago

What’s it like to go on one of The Rent Brigade’s tours of the Graffiti Towers in DTLA? These photos by @willa.camera capture a slice of the experience.

If you haven’t been to one of our tours yet, we’ve got two more on the schedule, on Sept. 21 and 27. RSVP at the link in bio.

Participants will explore one of the city’s most iconic contemporary landmarks of creativity, resistance, and collective action.

While much of the graffiti has been washed off in recent weeks as a condition of a recent sale agreement, some of it remains.

Our last two tours may then be the last chance to see the remaining graffiti up close and offer a rare opportunity to learn about and witness one of the most significant acts of public artistic and political expression in recent Los Angeles history before it disappears.

The tours begin with a walk around the perimeter of the former Oceanwide Plaza development, examining how the unfinished $1 billion luxury project became a symbol of the failures of speculative real estate development and corporate control over urban space.

Participants will then walk across the street to the LA Live entertainment complex to discuss its legacy of community destruction and displacement, while exploring alternative visions for a more people-centered Downtown Los Angeles. by @therentbrigade

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a month ago

Extreme heat kills more people annually in the US than any other natural disaster, and nearly half of deaths occur indoors. But tenants lack the legal right to cooling in their homes and are sometimes even prohibited from installing air conditioning units by their landlords.

As the climate crisis continues to produce more frequent, prolonged and dangerous heat waves, extreme indoor heat is becoming a critical tenants’ rights issue.

Join us as we explore how tenants in LA are being impacted and how you can get involved with a campaign to win a right to cooling for tenants in the City of LA.

RSVP at link in bio.

#extremeheat #extremeheatwarning by @therentbrigade

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a month ago