Koreatown tenants protest poor living conditions

LOS ANGELES - Several members of the Los Angeles Tenants Union and the 751 S Normandie Tenants Association held a rally Sunday at the homes of their landlords, TDI Properties Inc.

Tenants say the protest is in response to their unmet demands regarding severe habitability violations and deteriorating living conditions.

42-year-old Maria Vargas lives with four other family members in an apartment building in Koreatown.

She has leaks in her kitchen, so she keeps a bucket under her sink. In Spanish she says she's gone to management and asked for help many times, but not much has been done. 

They gave her things like traps for bugs and flies, but haven't followed up with collecting them. 

Other issues she's reported are her cabinet doors and kitchen drawers, which she says have been chewed away by mice. She's asked for them to be painted and fixed. 

Maria was one of dozens of people who attended the protest. 

They made noise, tried to call out the owner by chanting things like, "Show your face... show your face!" But, while they were there, he didn't. They left promising to come back.

In the past, to get repairs, Celeste Kessler of the tenants' union knocked on the doors of tenants in the building and asked them to unionize, which would give them more strength.

She says they unionized almost a half dozen tenants in the building. They even held back paying some of the rent and sent management a letter that said, "We will pay it once the repairs are done." 

"That did help us achieve certain repairs so now we're starting to stagnate, which is why we paid a visit to their homes," Kessler said. 

So now, like many, Maria still has no idea if the floor, drawers and cabinets and plumbing will be fixed. If the mice will be caught, or if the flies and bugs that were caught in traps will be removed. 

FOX 11 reached out to the property owner but has not heard back.