To: Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles City Council, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) and Housing Authority of City of Los Angeles (HACLA)
The undersigned organizations fully support the Hillside Villa Tenants Association in their demand for Los Angeles city to use eminent domain to purchase their building in order to prevent the mass eviction of families and to keep a building constructed with public funds permanently affordable. In May 2022, City Council voted unanimously to begin the process of purchasing the building. Preserving affordable housing is cheaper and faster than building new housing. Hillside Villa was built with public funds and should remain a public benefit!
Since May 2022, very little progress has been made even in the first steps of purchasing the building. We urge all those in positions of power to whom this letter is addressed to state their support publicly and forcefully.
For over four years, the tenants have been fighting off wealthy slumlord Tom Botz’s rent increases of up to 300%. The tenants have built a multi-ethnic community welcoming to low-income people and migrants. They are Black, Latinx and Asian. They are parents and small children. They are LGBTQ. They are elders with fixed incomes and chronic illnesses. They rely on Chinatown and cannot afford market-rate rents anywhere in LA. They deserve to stay, and will continue fighting, because housing is a human right! And we will fight with them.
In April 2023, the community will face the end of eviction moratorium both the city and county level. The new rents amount to 100% of income for most of the tenants, who will face eviction if the city does not take decisive action to stop Botz from mass evictions.
The city must treat this as the emergency that it is. Again and again, the tenants have been told that eminent domain takes a long time. But if City departments like LAHD and City Attorney's office had acted decisively, tenants might already be safe from eviction. We can’t afford for the City to make the same mistake again. Keep the Hillside Villa families off the street!
Alliance for Community Transit Los Angeles (ACT-LA)
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Los Angeles (ACCE LA)
Alhambra Tenants Union
Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography, UCLA
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Los Angeles Chapter (APALA-LA)
Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust
Centro CSO
CSH Tenant Knowledge Exchange
Crenshaw Subway Coalition
Councilmember Carroll Fife, City of Oakland, Moms for Housing
Democratic Socialists of America, Los Angeles (DSA LA)
Eviction Defense Network
Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre
Ground Game LA
Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco
Indivisible CA-43
Inquilinos Unidos
J-town Action & Solidarity
Khmer Girls in Action
Korean American Democrat Coalition (KADC)
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Association (KIWA)
Ktown for All
Los Angeles Center for Community Law and Action (LACCLA)
LA Chinatown Community Landtrust
LA Forward
LA People’s Movement
Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC)
Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN)
Los Angeles For All
Miracle Mile Democratic Club
Nikkei Progressives
NOlympics LA
Park La Brea Residents Association
Pasadena Tenants Union
People's City Council
Pilipino Workers Center (PWC)
Progressive Asian Network for Action (PANA)
Public Counsel
Resident Empowerment Program (RUN)
Solidarity Research Center
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)
State Senator Maria Elena Durazo
Tenants Law Association, UCLA
The Unity Council
TRUST South LA
UAW 2865
UNITE HERE Local 11
Union De Vecinos, LATU Eastside Local
VyBe, LATU
Westside Local, LATU
STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY
Progressive Asian Network for Action (PANA)
We endorse this fight in hopes of keeping families off of the streets and for establishing a progressive precedent for the use of eminent domain to benefit the people of Los Angeles, rather than corporate developers or other big business interests. We must use all methods available to defend low and very-low income housing inventory in Los Angeles, including the exercising of power in the electoral arena while we continue to build independent grassroots power. PANA is proud to endorse this effort and support the families of the HIllside Villa Apartments, who are standing up for us all.
The Unity Council
The main cause of homelessness is people, workers, and families no longer being able to afford their housing. The mechanism at play here isn't laziness, lack of contribution to community or society, drugs, or mental health issues. It is merely not enough income to pay the insane fluctuations of the housing market. I stand in solidarity with this community of people who want desperately want housing affordability. Please use eminent domain to purchase this building to make this building affordable again.
CSH Tenant Knowledge Exchange
We can't bemoan the lack of affordable housing in Los Angeles while simultaneously not taking action to preserve it. C'mon City Council! This is a smart, ethical, cost effective way to enhance our stock of affordable housing. Thank you.
Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco
Solidarity!
Individual / Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
Living in Los Angeles is incredibly expensive and we as a larger community MUST preserve affordable housing at all costs. Particularly in areas like Chinatown which are fighting the powerful economic forces of gentrification, it is imperative for government to step in an keep people in their homes where they can thrive!
Individual / Santa Barbara Affordable Housing Group
The Hillside Villa Apartments were built specifically to help provide affordable housing and must be protected. For a person who has the money and means to make a huge profit, the apartments are only one of many locations that they can choose to develop, but to those with limited resources, plus a history and a home at stake, the apartments are everything. Please help protect Hillside Villa and its residents.
Resident Empowerment Program
We stand for Hillside Villa, and all Hillside Villas all over California. We need your assistance now.
Every Person Deserve A Place To Call Home. Because It's A Human Right.
Residents United Network (RUN)
Sending support from Sacramento!
Protect families, people first!
Indivisible CA-43
Housing justice is the top priority in Los Angeles.
UNITE HERE Local 11 - Susan Minato, Ada Briceño, Kurt Petersen
As a union for working families in the hospitality sector whose members struggle to find housing in the city where they work, we strongly support efforts to protect and preserve affordable housing in Los Angeles. We strongly support the Hillside Villa Tenants Association in their campaign to prevent the mass eviction of families and to keep a building constructed with public funds permanently affordable.
Los Angeles For All and Solidarity Research Center
We stand in solidarity with the tenants of Hillside Villa. Housing is a human right!
Elaine Waldman
Housing is a human right. Stop exploiting these tenants!