Byline: Rebecca Rona-Tuttle
Update – May 7: Affordable housing champions Liberty Hill supports, such as POWER, LA Voice and ACCE, many concerned citizens and others–such as me personally–were eagerly looking forward to today's City Council vote on the proposed rent hike moratorium. (See two previous posts.) In fact "eagerly" puts it too mildly, since many believed with all their being that landlords increasing rent, when tenants with low incomes are already struggling desperately, would be highly detrimental. (I do feel for certain landlords who are having a difficult time earning a profit, but I believe that low-income tenants are struggling much more.)
As it turned out–thank goodness–the proposed moratorium passed on a procedural vote today, with the Los Angeles City Council agreeing on an 8-6 vote to consider an ordinance that would freeze rents through October 31.
However, after some last-minute changes, the ordinance to be voted on will only apply to buildings with six or more units, rather than applying to all of the city's rent-controlled apartments. Read more about this in the Los Angeles Times,
There are widely divergent views among councilmembers. For one, Councilman Richard Alarcon will attempt to roll back some of the changes when the moratorium comes to a vote in two weeks.
Read on to learn one organizer's experience yesterday, prior to the vote; background on the ordinance, and information on how you can make your voice heard. This struggle is not over, and you can play an important role…
Tomorrow morning's City Council vote on the proposed moratorium on rent increases in Los Angeles is getting lots of people all stirred up. (See the previous blog post below.)
I just heard from a very excited Bill Przylucki of People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER), who's working hard, organizing people around the hoped-for moratorium. And this is what he wrote:
"The momentum is building big-time. We've generated over 300 calls to Rosendahl's office in 24 hours! (Plus hundreds more over the past few weeks). We're on track to have 300 people at City Hall tomorrow to fill the chambers and do public comment for as long as necessary ("the people's filibuster"). This is definitely a showdown between greed and democracy…Nary an organizer will sleep well tonight in LA, but we're all very hopeful. The signs are good…"
Let's keep our fingers crossed. Read the LA Times article here.
What do you think of the proposed moratorium? Are you contacting a city councilmember or heading to City Hall in the morning? We'd love to read your comments. Just click the comments button below.
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