Posted Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007; 1:13 a.m.
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For Bequera, the relocation payment is too little to cover her moving costs and the security deposit for a new apartment, which she estimates will total $7,500. She is trying to sue the corporation that owns her apartment for the difference.
In Los Angeles, the city council voted April 11 to raise relocation fees paid to tenants. Developers pick up the tab: The lowest benefit they must pay is $6,810 to residents who have lived in their apartments less than three years, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The fees rise upward from that figure, capping at $17,080 for low-income tenants and those who are aged 62 or over, disabled or have minor children and have lived in their apartments three years or longer, the Times reported.
While housing advocates claimed this as a victory, landlords have denounced the ordinance. The relocation fees are not limited to renters displaced by condominium conversions; landlords must pay these fees under a number of circumstances.
Tara Bannister, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the California Apartment Association, wrote in an email that landlords must also pay relocation assistance fees if they wish “to move into a unit they own, move in a manager, comply with government orders, vacate a [Housing & Urban Development] property prior to sale, demolish an apartment building,…or withdraw from the rental market.”
“Rental housing providers are very angry,” Bannister said.
Most of the calls coming into the association’s Los Angeles office have been to express disbelief about what property owners say are exorbitant fees, said Neffertti S. Bradley, the branch manager.
She said the callers – landlords that belong to the 18,000-strong association – are saying, “Maybe the city is just getting too involved in [our] business.”
Advocates worry the city councils will be cautious – or not act at all– to establish future housing assistance programs. One Long Beach proposal would provide money for a newly established Housing Trust Fund, which has been designed to provide housing assistance to Long Beach residents, including allotting money to build housing projects.
Though Long Beach’s relocation fee is fledgling compared to the new Los Angeles benefits, Nikki Tennat, chief of staff for Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, said city officials have hired a consulting firm to explore sustainable sources for the fund.
Tennat said officials hope to hear results in a few weeks.
After attending meetings to suggest funding sources since September 2006, Susanne Browne, an attorney of Legal Aide of Los Angeles, said, “There’s hardly any money in [the fund.] It’s a shell of a plan.”
Browne worries the city will take too long and support for the plan will diminish.
Broc Coward, chief of staff for Long Beach city Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, said the council has already almost written off one proposed funding source: a plan that would charge developers who convert apartments into condominiums 1.5 percent of the condo’s selling price.
Housing groups especially supported the plan, which they said would slightly discourage developers who concentrate on overall profit margins to convert apartments into condominiums.
“Every time a rental unit is converted to a condo, that means it’s a permanent loss,” Browne said.
Copyright 2007, The L.A. Pilot
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