Suzanne Potter, producer/reporter, California News Service, a bureau of Public News Service.
Rents in Los Angeles were already high before the January firestorm, but now a coalition of housing groups is suing six landlords for allegedly engaging in price gouging.
In California, it is generally illegal to raise rents more than 10% following an emergency declaration. However, the nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy has found that many units have advertised rates that increased by 25% to almost 50%.
Heeyoung Linda Park, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a co-counsel for the plaintiffs, has been watching the activity.
“When they tracked these rental prices, they found hundreds of properties illegally gouging rents, and so there were so many that they eventually had to recruit volunteers to help them track the listings and identify the worst offenders,” Park said.
Attempts to reach the defendants for comment were unsuccessful. The first court appearance is scheduled for later this summer. The City of Los Angeles is seeking $62 million in damages in a separate lawsuit against different landlords.
Rodney Leggett, an attorney with the Housing Rights Center, is also a co-counsel for the plaintiffs alongside the Western Center on Law & Poverty and the California Center for Movement Legal Services.
“We find it very exploitive to sort of take advantage of people when they’re most desperate, including people who have been displaced as a result of the wildfires,” he said.
More than 16,000 structures were destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires, adding further pressure to an already strained rental market.
