[dropcap size=big]R[/dropcap]ent is normally due the first of the month, but this June 1, and for three months prior, a growing group of over 90 families who live in large apartment complexes in Westlake is withholding their rent from a wealthy Pacific Palisades attorney in protest of severe rent increases.
The case is the latest flashpoint in the housing crisis in Los Angeles. What’s been described as the biggest rent strike in recent Los Angeles history is being waged by more than 200 individuals, including some 50 children, and the group is now facing one of the biggest mass evictions in the city’s recent history.
The tenants of three adjacent apartment buildings on South Burlington Avenue in rapidly gentrifying Westlake are combatting what they claim are unjust rent increases from their landlord. In the process, they are facing being evicted by attorney Lisa Ehrlich, who has refused to negotiate over their main demands: rent increases of four percent or below, and a guarantee that the rent will not be raised for another two years.
Disagreements between tenants and landlords are not uncommon in L.A.’s housing market, where it’s becoming more and more difficult to find an affordable home. Renting in L.A. can take up to 70 percent of a tenant’s income. Then comes the complex issue of race — those who own the Burlington apartments are white, while the majority of the tenants facing eviction are immigrants from Mexico and Central America and primarily speak Spanish. It’s the sum total of discrete actions like these that resulted in Latino homelessness rising by 63 percent from 2016 to 2017.