South LA tenants demand city intervention over Ellis Act evictions

LOS ANGELES - Residents of several buildings on Flower Drive in South Los Angeles marched on Sunday, demanding city leaders step in. 

They say loopholes in the law are allowing corporate landlords to wage a war on rent control. 

Both the protesters and the residents say that city leaders promised that the upcoming Olympics would be good for Angelenos. But they say here in Exposition Park, where many of the events will be held, all it's done is speed up gentrification. 

They say it is also lured investors who are buying up buildings on Flower Drive, hoping to cash in. But they're also forcing people out.

"I'm 71 years old and cannot live on the streets."

Pearl Scott says she's fighting for her life by joining the Flower Drive and LA tenants unions to push back on her Ellis Act eviction and to call on Mayor Karen Bass to do the same. 

"I would say keep your promises about lowering the rent and about not being evicted from their homes. People getting out live on the street."

After 14 years on the 3800 block of Flower Drive near USC, she's got notice she will have to move out of her $1,560 a month apartment, but says relocation fees are not enough to cover a new place to live. 

Ventus Group Real Estate bought her building and others and is using a loophole in the Ellis Act, which allows no fault evictions if the landlord is getting out of the rental business. 

Many protesters say the company has already evicted residents and demolished buildings across the street.

"They put those people out down the street, all of them, and they were sleeping on the sidewalk… they have nowhere to go," said activist CP.

"They've been planning for years to buy up entire blocks of rent-controlled housing, to push people out, to replace them with students, with wealthy people that can pay double, triple, four times the rents," said Nico Dergni with the LA Tenants Union.

The company's president told us in a statement, "We have been following the process required under state law." 

But protesters say the city needs to change the law, calling the displacements a war on rent control. And they say seniors and people of color are paying the price.

"The council should do what they're able to do, what's within their power. They should freeze all Ellis Act evictions to protect tenants in rent-controlled housing," Dergni said.

"We just want to tell tenants across Los Angeles, if you get Ellis Act paperwork that is not the end. Do not just leave because you got the paperwork. You have the right to apply for a one-year extension. And beyond that, if you organize with your neighbors, if you fight, if you struggle, you can stay in your homes," said David Albright with the LA Tenants Union.

And the protesters also expressed frustration with the city council and Mayor Bass, who they accused of rubber-stamping what developers want. 

We did reach out to the mayor's office for comment, but have yet to hear back.