Echo Park sisters fight eviction from childhood home

LOS ANGELES - A 150-year-old Victorian house in Echo Park is ground zero for the latest battle between anti-gentrification, affordable rent activists and real estate groups buying up older properties all over Los Angeles. 

On the frontlines are two sisters, 64 and 73-years-old, who moved into the house with their siblings and mom over 60-years ago.

They just lost a court battle against being evicted by the real estate group that bought the property. 

"This is my home," Lupe Breard said, holding back the tears her sister, Sarah Padilla failed to keep inside. 

It's about more than memories, explained Breard, who has been paying $700 monthly rent in the rent-controlled house.

"I am disabled, and even if I could work, who can afford rent in this city?"

History repeats itself, said Melissa Arechiga, whose family lived in the same house before the sisters, after they lost their own long-time home in forcible evictions launched when Chavez Ravine neighborhoods were taken over to build Dodger Stadium in the 50's.

"It's not just Lupe, or my family," she emotionally said. "It's many families ending up on the streets in a city that continues trampling on its people." 

An activist with "Burned Under the Blue" points to the gondola project being considered to transport Dodger patrons to the stadium.

"It's not about improving traffic," she said, "it's part of a huge development being planned for the parking lots of Dodger Stadium," still owned by former Dodger owner, Frank McCourt.

The LA Tenants Union, which organized a rally for the sisters, is pointing to their situation as part of the "longtime battle to resist displacement by residents in the city".  

They describe this as a continuation of "LA's prolific history of mass evictions on the poor and most vulnerable for profit," adding they plan to continue fighting the evictions.

We reached out to the Nela Real Estate group and are still waiting for a response.