LOS ANGELES, CA - Los Angeles was built on stolen Indigenous land. And Black Latinos built Los Angeles as we know it now. The region’s 44 earliest settlers to this area included many Black Mexicans.

Leaked tapes first revealed on Reddit captured the anti-Black, anti-Indigenous conversation from then-L.A. City Council president Nury Martinez, who resigned on Wednesday, councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and former L.A. Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, who resigned on Tuesday, in a conversation about manipulating L.A.’s redistricting process for personal gain.

LOS ANGELES, CA: Para Estuardo Mazariegos, de la Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE, por sus siglas en inglés), la conversación racista representa "una falta de respeto" y agrega que "esta gente nos está dividiendo en vez de dar el ejemplo".

SAN DIEGO, CA - La moratoria de desalojo residencial sin causa alguna de San Diego expiró el viernes, ampliando la lista de motivos que un propietario puede alegar para poner fin al alquiler o desalojar a un inquilino.

La moratoria, que entró en vigor el 22 de mayo como consecuencia de la pandemia del COVID-19, había restringido las opciones de los propietarios para llevar a cabo desalojos, permitiéndolos solo en situaciones en las que el inquilino no pagaba el alquiler o violaba un contrato de alquiler. Impedía a los propietarios poner fin a los arrendamientos si querían retirar el inmueble del mercado de alquiler o hacer reparaciones importantes. Ahora la ley vuelve a las normas de desalojo anteriores.

ANTIOCH, CA — Tenants afraid that landlords might raise rents before new rental protections are in place will be able to rest easier after as a result of the City Council this week approving a rollback date and strengthening its new rules.

Though the council approved rent stabilization rules on a first reading last month, it ultimately did not adopt them at a later meeting when some council members decided to include a rollback date as to when they would become effective. On Tuesday, on a 3-to-2 vote – with Mayor ProTem Mike Barbanica and Councilmember Lori Ogorchock dissenting – the council approved newly worded rules, rolling back the date to Aug. 23, so that landlords won’t be able to raise rents in the meantime.

LOS ANGELES, CA: A year after Los Angeles adopted an ordinance to protect renters from harassment by taking their landlords to court, the law has largely failed its purpose. The city has not provided resources to thoroughly investigate complaints filed under the law. It has yielded no criminal prosecutions against landlords. Nor has it generated the civil lawsuits by tenants that supporters of the ordinance had hoped would deter abuses.

LOS ANGELES, CA — City Councilman Gil Cedillo faced criticism from several members of the public during Friday’s council meeting over how he conducted Wednesday’s Housing Committee meeting, during which the committee took up recommendations to end the COVID-19 eviction moratorium in Los Angeles.

Several members from the tenants’ rights group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) attended the council meeting and accused Cedillo — the committee chair — of silencing Latino voices, claiming that the Spanish translation during the meeting was poor. During Wednesday’s meeting, many Spanish-speaking tenants called for the city to extend the eviction moratorium, while landlords sought an end to the pandemic-era protections.

SACRAMENTO, CA - At the August 23, 2022 Antioch City Council meeting, former councilmember Ralph Hernandez stood to speak on behalf of a rent stabilization ordinance that was under consideration. He recounted the general challenges in the community: low-income families, including non-English speakers, being taken advantage of with raising rents on properties, non-existent maintenance, broken down appliances and pest infestations. He also mentioned tenants feeling they cannot say anything for fear that they will face retaliatory eviction with nowhere else to go.

The struggles of low-income Sacramentans are no different, and renters advocates across California consistently identify Sacramento as being one of the worst areas in the state for local tenant protections. The data on this has already been collected: The 2022 Homeless Point in Time Count reported a 67% increase in the local homeless population, more than any other California city or county, and cited housing affordability issues as a major driver. It also noted the “growing need for more preventative and rehousing strategies in the future.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Advocates from Stand Up Nashville (SUN) joined more than 100 tenant activists in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to fight for housing equity and eviction protection for renters nationally.

The activists imposed on the National Multifamily Housing Council's (NMHC) annual fall conference which is one of the nation's largest annual gatherings of corporate landlords. Renters and advocates called on lawmakers to dismiss real estate lobby money and stop opposing essential tenant protections at the behalf of real estate groups and developers.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Lourdes Diaz Gomez and her two young grandchildren have been baking in their south Sacramento apartment. They lived with a broken air conditioner in an apartment managed by Stanford Properties for over three months, including last week’s record-breaking heat wave.

That isn’t the only problem at Hampton Park Apartments, according to tenant activists with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

LOS ANGELES, CA - El jueves por la mañana un grupo de inquilinos acompañados de estudiantes activistas del colegio Occidental se reunieron frente a la vivienda de un inquilino quien acusa a su arrendataria de acoso.

El grupo indicó que este es un claro ejemplo por el cual la ciudad de Los Ángeles debe implementar la Ordenanza contra el Acoso de Inquilinos (TAHO) que fue aprobada el año pasado pero hasta ahora no ha podido ser utilizada por supuestamente no tener fondos.

OAKLAND, CA - When Maria Montes de Oca and her family moved into their apartment in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland fourteen years ago, there were already problems. The apartment clearly hadn’t been maintained; the carpet was stained and damaged, and neither the stove nor the fridge worked. Later on, there were cockroach infestation and mold issues. When Maria tried to get the landlord, Calvin Wong, to carry out repairs or fumigate, he would ignore her requests or tell her he’d use her security deposit to pay for it — a practice that’s illegal in California.

ANTIOCH, CA — Antioch tenants struggling to pay their bills could see some relief as a result of rent stabilization protections the City Council approved Tuesday.

The protections came on a split vote, with Mayor Pro Tem Mike Barbanica and Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock dissenting, after dozens of residents and advocates crowded City Hall, many carrying signs and sporting yellow or purple shirts representing some of the 15 nonprofit groups that supported capping annual rent increases for tenants.

The Antioch City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday to keep rent affordable, while also making sure landlords are held accountable.

Anita Mendoza and her neighbors at the Porto Apartments in San Pablo can finally relax a little: Their landlord recently abandoned the eviction notices he taped to tenants’ doors late last year.

When Rachel Orozco moved to the Miramar Imperial Beach Mobile Home and RV Park more than a year ago, she considered herself lucky. Her family lived nearby and the rent was cheap.  

The nearly five-acre piece of land, a mere half-mile from the Pacific Ocean, is home to about 100 people, most of whom live in mobile homes. It wasn’t much — a plot of dirt and some concrete — but Orozco, 32, was proud of it. She’d carved out a little space for her and her nine-year-old son.  

The park is one of the last affordable housing options for seniors, vets and other low-income folks in the area but it’s also increasingly difficult to hold onto because of an onerous policy. 

BERKELEY, Calif. (CN) — The city of Berkeley joins a growing list of California cities planning to ask voters whether property owners with vacant homes should be taxed to relieve unprecedented pressure on the housing market.

San Francisco, Napa, Santa Cruz and other cities all rank high in desirability and median rent rates, and are moving forward with vacancy tax measures to address a worsening housing availability crisis. Voters this November will weigh claims the strategy will free up revenue to create more affordable housing and push more units onto the strained market amid widespread home bidding wars. 

LOS ANGELES - A woman who was evicted from her home alleges her landlord harassed her and removed her toilet.

Ana Elsa Hernandez, 72, has lived in her rented garage for seven years. The unit was previously cited as substandard by the LA City Housing Department.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action launched a new tool Thursday designed to help tenants report problems with their rental units directly to Sacramento code enforcement. Organizers developed the online portal, they said, using the same checklist code enforcement officers and landlords use when inspecting units.

The tool allows renters to submit their contact information, responses to questions about a variety of characteristics of the property — from electricity, to water, to pests — and upload pictures of the unit. Those responses are then sent to the city and to ACCE Action, organizers said.

SACRAMENTO - The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment developed the online tenant tool to help tenants document repair requests.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — After a six-year battle and nearly two and a half years without paying rent, tenants of a 14-unit apartment building in Oakland have claimed victory over their landlord. Instead of tenants being evicted, their landlord is no longer involved.

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles renters who have been relying on the city’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium for the last two years could see changes, with several city councilors signaling an intent July 27 to discuss refining or possibly ending the moratorium.

Antioch took a step this week toward helping tenants facing large rent hikes by agreeing to craft rules to stabilize rents and add other protections.

Though no action was taken at a special meeting this week, council members directed staff to draft a rent stabilization ordinance — capping yearly rent increases — and bring it back for a vote next month.

On this episode of “Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast,” CalMatters’ Manuela Tobias and the Los Angeles Times’ Liam Dillon talk to a tenant and landlord about evictions and rent relief more than two years into the pandemic and after billions in spending.

There’s a surprising gap in California‘s rent cap law that renters everywhere need to know about.

When California lawmakers passed the state rent increase cap, AB 1482, in 2019, they called it “statewide.” But “statewide” does not mean it applies to every apartment or renter. Some tenants are finding out the hard way: with a shocking letter from their landlord.

Already, tenants across California might have gotten a notice posted to their doors promising a big rent increase come Aug. 1. And there will be something familiar to blame: inflation.

Landlords will be allowed to boost the rent on millions of apartments statewide by as much as 10% starting next month. It’s the maximum allowable annual increase under a state law passed a few years ago that was designed to protect tenants from being pushed out of their homes due to exorbitant rent hikes.