The Los Angeles City Council approved 11 guidelines this week developed by Measure ULA, a 2022 ballot initiative known as the “mansion tax.” 

The measure took effect in April 2023 and has subsidized housing development, helped seniors stay in their homes and funded attorney services for renters facing eviction. It has also helped keep affordable housing from reverting to market rate. 

Maria Gonzalez, a resident of South Los Angeles and member of T.R.U.S.T. South LA, has already benefitted from Measure ULA. She said a few months ago, she and her family were about to lose their apartment, but with the rental assistance program provided in the first round of ULA programs, she was able to save her home. 

“That gave my family and me the ability to stay put and no longer fear the possibility of being evicted or unhoused,” said Gonzalez. “I’m so grateful, not only for us but for the thousands more who will stay housed because of these funds and protections.”

Maria Briones, another tenant from Los Angeles, said ULA’s protections have saved seniors from becoming homeless while creating better options for renters.

Joshua Lopez is putting up his Christmas lights early this year. But he doesn’t feel like celebrating.

Lopez lives with his mother, Rosa Perez, at a small apartment in Imperial Beach. His two-year-old nephew, who Perez watches on weekdays, was sad when Halloween ended. So, even though it was still mid-November, Lopez and Perez decorated their tiny kitchen with lights and tinsel in hopes of cheering him up.

At the same time though, Lopez, an elementary school special ed technician in Chula Vista, is rushing to figure out whether this will be his family's last Christmas in that apartment, where they have lived for 11 years.

Evette Gilard’s skin itched so badly that it woke her one night in early 2019. When she searched her apartment, she discovered a thick rind of black mold in the threshold of her bedroom closet, and another in her hallway. There had been an apartment fire upstairs months earlier, and Gilard supposed that water damage from the firefighters had caused the mold. She knew that her little subsidized one-bedroom in Antioch, California, was not exactly a luxury condo, but now she feared for her health.

The next morning, Gilard told the property manager, who sent a maintenance man with a bleach-filled spray bottle. Knowing that bleach can spread mold on porous surfaces, she turned him away and appealed to the manager to give the problem more serious attention. Meanwhile, she was still living in the apartment, and her symptoms were getting worse. “My skin was changing, my voice was changing,” Gilard told me. “My hair was falling out.”

Decenas de miembros de la Coalición Keep LA Housed, un grupo de defensores de los derechos de los inquilinos, abogados y organizaciones comunitarias se manifestaron para pedir cambios en los permisos de aumento de alquiler que se rigen bajo la Ordenanza de Estabilización de Renta de Los Ángeles (RSO).  

La RSO, respaldada por casi la totalidad de los miembros del Consejo de la ciudad no ha sido sometida a votación porque autoridades del Departamento de Vivienda de Los Ángeles (LAHDA) no les ha presentado el reporte independiente que fue comisionado a Economic Roundtable, dado a conocer desde el 24 de septiembre.  

La fórmula propuesta por todos los miembros de Keep LA Housed es muy simple: quieren un piso de aumento al alquiler cada año desde un 0% y un máximo del 3% anual.  

“Durante 23 de los últimos 40 años, los dueños de vivienda han podido subir la renta a más de 3%, y eso no es justo”, declaroo Sergio Vargas, activista de la Alianza para las Comunidades de California (ACCE). 

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- City of San Diego leaders and housing advocates are fighting back against AI technology that allegedly targets renters.

On Wednesday morning, City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera and a coalition of housing advocates went before the council’s Rules Committee to take the first step in preventing this technology from being used by San Diego landlords.

OPINION by Pinky Toney– Housing and homelessness are top of mind across California. Too many of us have trouble covering our housing costs and we worry about how many people are living in tents and RVs.

The fix may be complex, but it’s also quite simple: housing is the solution to homelessness. This year housing is on the ballot in California and voters have a chance to be part of this solution by voting yes on Proposition 5.

It’s not just a ballot measure for me – it’s personal. I know what it’s like to be unhoused.

Pinky Toney is a member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), a mother of two, and a long-time resident of Sacramento.