WEBVTT - The Tenant Association 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.840 Hey, dear listener, it's Maria no Hossam. So today we're 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.040 going to bring you a story about people who live 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.720 together and how they organize together. This is from a 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:15.040 series called The Tenant Association, produced by Los Angeles Public Press. 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.319 It tells the story of a group of neighbors, many 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.360 of them Latinos and Latinas, living in an apartment complex 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:28.520 in LA's Chinatown. It's called Hillside Villa. The series follows 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:33.000 these working class neighbors in their fight against their landlord, 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.000 who dramatically raises their rent in what looks like a 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.120 strategy to evict them. It's a fight that extended over 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:46.440 six long years. Here's the first episode of The Tenant Association. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.280 We're in the courtyard of an apartment building on a 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:53.720 hill at the top of Chinatown. 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.360 We have one more thing we need to do. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.440 Can we have every buddy who's gotten a three day 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:02.279 notice come up? 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.600 The courtyard is full of people from all over LA. 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:08.800 People walk up to a small stone picnic table in 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.160 the middle of the crowd. They're young and old, Latino 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:19.040 and Chinese, and then one by one they light their 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:20.840 eviction notices on fire. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.240 You may be wondering why We have a picture of 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:27.160 this guy over here. 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:28.279 Why he has an. 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.839 Orange in front of him, and why there's a little 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:32.560 kettle here. Jenny's gonna let you know. 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:35.320 There's a red stool set up with a close up 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:37.840 photo of this man who looks like he's in pain. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.119 It's like he's trying to smile but doesn't know how. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.520 It looks more like a grimace. That's Tom Bots, the landlord. 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.320 The people burning their notices are his tenants. The tenants 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.080 have set up this whole little ceremony for Bots as 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.080 though he's dead, even though he's not. And to be clear, 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.800 the tenants aren't saying they want him dead. This is 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:01.720 a symbolic thing. 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.800 Here's Jenny explaining, in Chinese tradition, when people pass away, 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:12.880 we burn paper money, and since if Tom wants his money, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:15.000 if Tom wants his money, he can have. 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.720 That's why. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.800 It's funny, because usually you burn money to give it 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.880 to your ancestors in the afterlife, and the orange on 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.360 the stool is also for good fortune. So doing a 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.760 ceremony like this it's supposed to be an act of love. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.560 So the tenants drop their burning eviction notices into a 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:43.079 red metal can basically saying, we're not afraid of you. 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:44.840 You can get our money in the afterlife. 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.720 But what's that we're playing now? 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.200 We're going to fight, fight, fight fight. 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:00.760 It feels like you have no, no, no power when 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.040 you're a tenant in LA. Doing anything that might piss 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.640 off your landlord feels really scary because they can just 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.000 decide to evict you for basically no reason. But this 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.840 group of tenants rejected that. They realized how much power 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.920 they had together. They weren't season activists or public figures. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.560 They were just neighbors. But together they built a movement 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.519 that changed what we think is possible for tenants in LA. 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.960 They shined a light on a crisis affecting over a 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:34.239 million tenants just like them all across the country. The 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.640 Hillside Bill Attendants have been fighting their landlord for six 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:46.800 years and they're not done. I'm here to tell you 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.240 about a landlord who raised the rents on his tenants 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:53.280 by hundreds, even thousands of dollars as soon as he 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.880 thought he could get away with it. I'm here to 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.839 tell you about the progressive politicians who promised to help 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.800 the tenants but turn their on them instead. I'm here 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:08.920 to tell you about the Hillside Villa Tenant Association. Over 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.000 the next four episodes, I'm going to tell you how 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.040 the Hillside Villa tenants are organized to save their homes 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.279 and how they showed La what a powerful tenant movement 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:23.440 looks like. This is the Tenant Association The Story of 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:28.760 Hillside Villa, a Los Angeles Public Press podcast. I'm your host, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:33.600 Phoenix Though, and this is episode one, a ticking time Bomb. 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:45.240 The first thing you hear when you walk up to 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.599 Hillside Villa are little chirpy birds. I think they're parakeets. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.360 They're on someone's balcony facing hill Place, in a couple 0:04:54.440 --> 0:05:00.440 big cages. They're colorful and loud. And then if you 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.480 walk through the lobby and out towards the courtyard, you'll 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:10.360 probably hear this. The courtyard of Hillside Villa has been 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.280 a lot of things, a community garden, a gathering place, 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.280 a communal backyard, and for many years, a makeshift playground. 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.640 It was part of why Hillside Villa was such a 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:27.680 nice place to live for so many years, especially if 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.800 you're trying to raise a family there, like Monica. 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.880 Ruivez, Monica Luis. You'll think. 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.640 Hill Sevilla Monica has lived at Hillside Villa for twenty 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.159 five years. She used to throw her kids' birthday parties 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.560 in the courtyard, even her daughter's king signeras they invite 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:48.159 the neighbors. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:48.960 Yes, also. 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:59.880 Coma de quince patio inmos Alos Besino's Jos Beni. 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.800 Everything was peaceful. We've spoken to a bunch of tenants 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.159 who have similar stories about Hillside Villa in its early days. 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.360 Back then the building was new and clean and the 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.320 neighborhood was quiet. Because of the courtyard and the way 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:23.000 the building was built, Hillside Villa was ideal for families. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.880 Annie Shaw, who organizes with the tenants, pointed that out 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:27.080 to me. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.200 And you can see that even with the way it's designed, 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.520 you know. And if you see the architecture of the building, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.600 the balconies face out word and in word in a courtyard, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.040 and the balconies are social spaces, you know. There used 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.960 to be even playground toys and like I think, a 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:47.960 barbecue pit. 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.280 These days it's hard to find an apartment that's big 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.560 enough for a family and that isn't expensive. But Hillside 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.160 Villa has a lot of these tenants have raised their 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.480 children and grandchildren in these apartments cared for their elderly parents. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.680 Here they work as cleaners, construction workers, and food vendors. 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.640 Hillside Villa was built in nineteen eighty nine, when Chinatown 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.360 was mostly home to Latino and Asian immigrants, but the 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.680 neighborhood has changed a lot since then. New luxury apartments 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.640 have sprung up, and hip restaurants and galleries have moved 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:27.520 into empty storefronts or pushed out longtime businesses. Rents have skyrocketed, 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.200 and a lot of low income families have been forced 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.920 to leave. But it's different for Hillside Villa tenants. As 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.400 Chinatown became more and more expensive, their rents stayed relatively low, 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.360 which wasn't because their landlord was a good guy. It's 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:49.160 because he had to because the original owner built Hillside 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:53.040 Villa using public money. We'll explain more about that a 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.160 bit later in this episode. For now, what you need 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.760 to know is that for years the rent at Hillside 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.920 Villa was cheap until it wasn't. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.400 This Hopefully you don't see me. 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.840 That's a good thing about audio. This is Mary Ramos. 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.960 She's lived at Hillside Villa for fifteen years. She lives 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.200 with her son in a two bedroom apartment. It was 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:21.960 really cold in the day. I met up with Mary 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.600 for an interview. We met in the courtyard and as 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.280 I set up the recording, she handed me some Filipino 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.120 and banadas wrapped in a napkin. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:30.920 I'm here with Mary Ramos. 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.480 She made banadas so sweet. I don't know if you 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.520 can tell from the recording, but when I said that 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.640 into the mic that Mary had brought and banadas, she 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.840 smiled kind of sheepishly, like, Oh, it's no big deal, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.720 like I'd put her in a spotlight. She wasn't expecting. 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.480 It was a small thing. But it kind of shows 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:56.240 what Mary's like. She's really warm and generous. Her instinct 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.280 is to feed people and make them feel welcome. Mary 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.160 isn't the type a person to take up a lot 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:01.680 of space. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.280 I never I never, even when I was young, I 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:10.440 never speak. I'm quiet. That's the teaching of my mom. 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:17.120 And my mother said, you don't answer back to parents 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.559 or answer back to older people, and the most important 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:28.640 is respect respectful. So me, even I know my mom 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.240 is wrong, I just cry and go to my room. 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.200 That's it, because I cannot answer her back. 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.280 But there's another side to Mary that you might not 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.880 see right away quiet rage. 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.719 My attitude is the more I'm mad, the more I 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:51.439 don't talk. I will just keep quiet. That's why you 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.840 will get mad at me, because I'm not answering you back. 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.719 I don't. I just look at you and just that's it. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.479 I don't think Mary ever expected to become an activist. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:03.880 I don't think she ever expected to be making a 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.960 speech outside the mayor's house or physically blocking a city 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:12.240 official from driving away from a protest. But then Tom 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:18.160 Botts tried to raise her rent. This is what we 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.520 know about Tom Botts, the landlord of Hillside Villa. He's 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.480 in his late sixties and has previously worked as a lawyer. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.720 He was married to a woman named Renee Norikoman. They 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:34.280 have three adult children, Peter, Nolan and Chloe. I've interviewed 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.640 Tom Botts twice over the past couple years. Once he 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.480 called me back while I was getting lunch. That time 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.319 he was friendly, but it felt forced. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.480 I'm all their favorite of the government subsidizing tenants who 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.160 legitimately need it. That's why we have all these Section 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:56.800 eight tenants. But what these tenants need to do is 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:58.959 they need to mobilize to say to get. 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:05.080 Get that substance, get those subsidies. We are not their enemies. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.920 The city needs to step up. 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.400 The next time we spoke, he wasn't so friendly. He 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.199 seemed mad at me for the previous article i'd written. 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.040 I had interviewed a Section eight tenant who said a 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.360 majority of Bots's tenants can't afford his rent increases. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:23.480 All I can do is point out the irony that 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.600 the CD is determining that she can't pay. And then 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.120 she says, well, but I can't. I think she's not paying, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:32.400 So I think that ship be pointed out. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.760 That's kind of what Tom Botts is like in my experience. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.520 It seems like in his mind, he's the victim. By 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.319 the way, Tom Botts never responded to her repeated requests 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.400 for comment for this series. Anyway, if you look up 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.480 Thomas Botts and his various companies on the LA Superior 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:56.360 Court website, you'll find more than seventy eviction lawsuits that 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.720 he filed against his tenants. The evidence suggests that tom 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.240 Bo loves to file eviction lawsuits. Bots lives in a 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.520 mansion in Malibu, about thirty miles west of Hillside Villa, 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.520 and his former property manager Sonya Rodriguez used to go there. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:12.920 She remembers the. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:17.720 House being very big, two floors, a pool, a water fountain, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:22.720 maybe a vienna. Sonya and her now ex husband managed 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.000 an apartment building that Bots owned in North Hollywood on 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.719 the edge of the San Fernando Valley. Bots would have 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.280 Sonya drive all the way to Malibu to drop off 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:45.440 rent checks. Here's my colleague Martine Massius translating go. 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.480 There because she would have to leave cash from the 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.800 tenants from the rent or if it was paiding checks. 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.080 You know, they would leave the checks. They would say, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:56.120 who hasn't paid. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.400 Sonya mainly did cleaning jobs for Bots the North Hollywood property, 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.360 even though she worked for him and was driving to 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.400 his house all the time. Sonya said Bots barely ever 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.679 spoke to her, except for sometimes he'd tell her she 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.920 did a good job cleaning the building. But Sonya also 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.480 stood up to Bots, like one day when Bots raised 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.400 rents on the North Hollywood tenants by seventy five dollars 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.000 instead of the usual twenty. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.600 Five does. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:30.200 Loss personas local persona. 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:32.120 Para. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.800 Sonya worked for Bots, but she had a lot more 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:37.839 in common with the tenants of the building than she 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.560 did with him, she felt loyal to them. At the time. 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.400 Sonya also worked a night shift for a cleaning company. 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.400 She knew the tenants of the building had similar jobs 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.880 and that some were earning even less than she was. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:52.920 She knew they couldn't afford the increase. 0:13:54.440 --> 0:14:00.160 Pisa and Lance Yosa persona ra Mucco a ton said 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:06.040 persons persona. 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.080 The so Sonya told Bots she wouldn't hand out those notices. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:16.360 She just couldn't. 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:36.440 Yes, Tarvej, here's Martine again translating, so you know. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.200 That day where you know she confronted him. She said, like, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.960 you know, I'm not gonna agree to giving this rent 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:47.600 increase out to people because you know, I have reason 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.120 to think that this is not right. But he said, 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:51.600 this is your job, like you have to do it. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.800 Six months later, Bot sold the building. Sonya thinks this 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.240 was already in the works when he raised everyone's rent. 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:07.680 It's gone, is como ke non import lcentimiento de la persona. 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:12.120 Sonya's seen how Bots treats people over the years. She says, 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.080 it's like he doesn't know how to be grateful for 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:18.320 what he has. When Bots sold the North Hollywood apartment building, 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.840 Sonya suddenly had to look for new housing, and she 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.680 found it a two bedroom apartment at Hillside Villa. She 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:30.120 was safe for almost a decade. And then remember how 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.520 rents at Hillside Villa stayed low while the rest of 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:37.320 Chinatown gentrified. That was because when the original landlord constructed 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:41.280 the building, he signed a contract or covenant, agreeing to 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.400 keep rents low for the next thirty years because the 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:49.040 city gave him money to help build Hillside Villa. Lots 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.160 of cities signed deals like this with developers around this time. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.920 It was the eighties and Reagan had decided that public 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.040 housing was bad and that the government shouldn't invest in 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.800 it anymore. So they came up with a very eighties idea, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.720 give money to landlords to build affordable housing. They wanted 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.480 the market to take care of it. But thirty years 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.160 goes by fast, and by the way, we found that 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.240 there are close to a million apartments like this across 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.120 the country. We're going to get way more into that 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.680 in episode three. But this is a national crisis because 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.160 of course, as soon as these covenants expire, landlords are 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.240 trying to raise people's rents by as much as they 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:35.040 possibly can, which is how the system was designed to work. 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.600 Tom Boss was doing exactly what he was incentivized and 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.520 legally empowered to do, raising people's rents by over one 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.880 hundred percent, basically overnight. This is the problem with the 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.800 market providing affordable housing is that the market doesn't actually 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.320 want to provide affordable housing. The market wants housing to 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.320 make as much money as it possibly can. So what 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.720 Sonya and our neighbors didn't know is that there are 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.800 four rents were only temporary. The covenant protecting them would 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:08.200 one day expire. It was a taking time bomb. And 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:17.359 in twenty eighteen that bomb went off. Can you tell me, like, 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.000 what was it like, you know, getting informed of this 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.080 like covenant expiring and the rent increase. 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:31.520 Oh yeah, because the manager, the owner sent us a letter. 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.359 At first Mary said she got a letter that our 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:39.879 apartment wasn't low income anymore. And then she got another letter, but. 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.920 He didn't say how many percent, so usually we know 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:47.880 the percent is like five percent, likefty dollars or twenty dollars, 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.560 so we were not worried about it. And then he 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:56.280 sent another letter, and then the third letter was the 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:01.920 amount was there, which is at that time I was 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.520 already paying one thousand and four for the two bedrooms, 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.560 so he wants the rent to be two thousand, six 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:16.280 hundred and fifty. Oh God, so we are like, am 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.879 I paying two thousand, six hundred and fifty for a 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:24.600 two bedroom which is an old building and there's no amenities. 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.399 Mary later found the rent increased notice and sent it 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.520 to us. It was actually two thousand, four hundred and fifty, 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.879 not two thousand, six hundred and fifty, but still a 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.760 ton of money. Monica Luiz remembers a paper notice attached 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.879 to her door. Monica is a tenant who threw her 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.320 daughter's kinsens in the courtyard, and when she got that 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.639 rent increased notice, her first thought was her kids and 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:53.480 what would happen to them if they had to move. 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.160 So, you see. 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:10.240 Missijs vuela meaninga sai messia. I know you Knowue castellar Us, 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:22.399 Brendo mandarins a king Mandarin, Yes, Brenda josa pena la 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:23.240 mas pegna. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.560 Anica didn't know where she'd go, especially with children who 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.159 are still in school. Her fifteen year old daughter was distraught. 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.960 She'd been taking Mandarin classes at Castellar Elementary in the 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.639 neighborhood since kindergarten. She didn't want to leave because she 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:38.639 was afraid she'd have to. 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:51.680 Stop mesia no no, no, pero pero si fu momento. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.639 Monica reassured her daughter that they weren't going to have 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.320 to move, but she didn't know if that was true. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.880 When the tenants of Hillside Villa talk about this day, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:05.960 I always think about how isolating it feels to get 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.639 that kind of letter on your door. I once got 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.399 a sixty day notice and remember feeling so ashamed, like 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:15.760 how could I have let this happen? And where am 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.159 I supposed to live now? Even though as a housing 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.639 reporter I know that getting that kind of notice is 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.720 one of the most universal experiences in Los Angeles. 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:27.639 Soon after the. 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.640 Notices went out, Bots started pressuring the tenants to leave. 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.520 The pressure came from Madardo via Toro, the property manager, 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:39.000 and Chloe Bot's Tom's daughter. They came to the tenants 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.440 stores with cash for keys, offers money in exchange for 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:47.520 the tenants voluntarily moving out. By the way, we also 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:49.960 reached out to Madardo and Chloe for comment on the 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.040 cash for keys process, and neither got back to us 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:57.160 on that point. Anyway, these kinds of offers are often 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.240 tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes as my which is 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.680 one hundred thousand dollars, because it's so lucrative for the 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.719 landlords to get rid of low income tenants and replace 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.280 them with people who can pay market rate. But Bots 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.200 offered his tenants just around five thousand dollars to leave, 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.400 and they say, you put a clock on it. Tenants 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.040 say they were told that the cash amounts would decrease 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.280 by one thousand dollars for each month they continued to stay. 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.800 Thousands of tenants across LA are targeted by similar rent increases, 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:30.680 faced with landlords who look at their homes with nothing 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.200 but dollar signs in their eyes and harrassed tenants into leaving. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:37.800 And it's easy to do because the power is on 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.760 the landlord's side. There are a low to squeeze as 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.959 much money as they can from their tenants. Housing them 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:45.240 is beside the point. 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:48.400 Like either welieve or restay. 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.199 Once Mary realized how much her rent would go up, 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:54.800 she felt like she had no choice but to move out. 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.840 Because I was planning to leave already because I don't 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.960 like to be here because the rent is too high. 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.040 I cannot avoid that yeah, and it's my son who's paying. 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:15.680 You spend some neo some star look save and susechus. 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.600 Monica says, Bats and the others were like, these tenants 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.879 are poor, they don't know their rights. They'll just accept whatever. 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:24.040 She said. 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.399 They figured they could just scare people out of their homes. 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:31.720 Stan inrentees no saving jeose o keosi. 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:43.520 Yes, moi diferente in porto quarto. 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.520 Luperomero is another long time tenant of Hillside Villa. Everyone 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.960 calls her Lupita. She runs a food truck called Lupita's 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.639 hot Dogs. She has a similar memory of that. 0:22:53.760 --> 0:23:10.800 Time almanni la yea re are cossa. 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:23.760 Lo benziero, Oh no, yeah, what is. 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:31.720 Being Lupito said that Madaro and the others would aggressively 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:34.840 push the cash for keys offers, saying they had to 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.760 accept them. Some tenants left. Lupita says they must have 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:45.040 felt defeated, but not everyone did. And this is the 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.920 moment where the story of the Hillside Villa tenants really begins, 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:53.840 because this is when they decided to fight. On the 0:23:53.920 --> 0:23:57.600 next episode, how the tenants of Hillside Villa organized to 0:23:57.680 --> 0:23:58.560 save their home. 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:02.440 You know what you got Now the whole world has 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:04.560 to know what kind of asshole we have in the building. 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:18.960 That's next time on the Tenant Association. The Tenant Association 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:23.080 is hosted and recorded by me Phoenixell. Carla Green is 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.679 our editor and executive producer. Translation, production and additional reporting 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:31.800 from Martine Macias Junior. Our fact checker is Marina Penya. 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:36.560 Sound engineering by Philip Kimp, Legal review by Professor Susan E. 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:40.600 Seger and the uc Irvine Press Freedom Project. Art direction 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:44.080 and illustrations by Alison Yet Our theme song is by 0:24:44.240 --> 0:24:48.360 Eduardo Arenas. Editing help and other support from our publisher 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:53.200 Matthew Tinoko and our audience director Maria Castanetta. Thanks to 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.920 the rest of the LAPP staff Engagement reporter Amanda Delsa, 0:24:57.040 --> 0:25:01.639 Luco reporters Ashley Rona and Elizabe joe An, Engagement editor 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:05.920 Brolli Dave Special thanks to Gabe Schneider, Nolan Downs, and 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:08.520 all the tenants and organizers who spoke to us for 0:25:08.600 --> 0:25:13.240 this series. And to Boyle Heidspeed, where we recorded this podcast. 0:25:15.040 --> 0:25:18.040 Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week.