Luis Herrera moved in with his 82-year-old father to their 1-bedroom apartment on South Burlington Avenue four years ago. Although the contract said that the rent would increase by $100 the year after they moved in, initially he only had to pay $850 per month. He thought it was a good deal since they were moving from a building where the rent had gone up to $1,200.
The rent for his new apartment, however, went up to $1,045 within two years. Early this year, the owners of the property, the 1979 Ehrlich Investment Trust, notified him of a further increase to $1,300. The trust did not immediately respond to comment.
Herrera earns a little more than $2,500 every month at his work as a computer technician at a credit union in downtown Los Angeles. The surge in rents is eating up about half his salary. He thinks it will soon be unaffordable for him to stay in his apartment and is worried about his aging father.
"If it comes to it, I can sleep in my car, and then I rent a place just for him. I can go to the place, take a nap and just sleep in my car at night…That's how far I'm willing to go," said Herrera.
One reason why the owners of Herrera's apartment was able to drastically increase his rent in such a short period of time is that the property is not rent-controlled. Proposition 10 on the upcoming midterm elections could change this.
The proposition by itself does not have any provision for expanding rent-control. What it will do is give the opportunity to each city to make its own rental laws according to its needs.
The Herrera’s are not the only family that would be impacted by Prop 10.
In the last five years, while the city’s median monthly income – the midpoint where half the population makes more, and half makes less – has grown, and so has the rent. Last year, the median monthly income of a regular household, meaning at least two people occupying a housing unit, was $5,016, but the rent for a 2-bedroom apartment, according to Zillow, was $2,614 – more than half of that income.
A Latinx household like the Herreras’ is estimated to earn $4,032 per month, leaving less than $1,500 to spend on living expenses after they pay the monthly rent of $2,614 for their 2-bedroom apartment.
Besides the rent Herrera budgets around $600 for food, gas, electricity, and phone and internet connections, and $400 more every month on payments for the 2007 Toyota Camry that he bought last year and the car’s gas. At the end of each month, he hardly has any money left.
Herrera's precarious financial is compounded by the fact that his father suffers from medical conditions. Since MediCal doesn't pay for emergencies, Herrera has to pay out-of-pocket for any unexpected treatment his dad needs. The proximity of medical facilities near his present residence is what has prevented them from moving somewhere else, he said.
Los Angeles's existing Rent Stabilized Ordinance (RSO), passed in 1979, covers all properties built on or before October 1, 1978 — approximately 631,000 units and 118,000 properties spread throughout the city. Property owners of units that are subject to the RSO can only increase rent by 3 to 10 percent annually, enabling tenants to know exactly what to expect each year and also providing them with the opportunity to plan for a more financially stable future.
In 1995, however, California adopted the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. The law protects the right of a property-owner to raise the rent to the market-rate, and prevents cities from establishing rent control measures on properties built after February, 1995.
Both researchers and officials agree that a shortage of housing is driving up home prices and making homes less affordable to residents of Los Angeles. Researchers at Zillow also found that unaffordable rents are one of the main causes of homelessness in the city.
Los Angeles is at present experiencing one of its largest-ever construction booms. According to the LA Development Map, there are 468 commercial and residential projects currently under construction and 745 more are proposed.
Some, however, say that developers are only building expensive condos which benefits only a certain section of the city's residents.
"These new developments are not for us. They're just for rich investors," said Paul Lanctot of the Los Angeles Tenants Union. Advocates like Lanctot are pinning their hopes on Proposition 10, which if passed on Tuesday, would lead to a "clean repeal" of the Costa-Hawkins Act. He believes that it is the beginning of a long process to implement "universal rent control."
Michael Lens, a professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA, while understanding the need to control rent, is skeptical of the real-world impact the Proposition will have if enacted into law.
"People think it is going to be more effective than it actually will," he said. According to Lens, what is absolutely crucial is more housing to stabilize and eventually drive down home prices and rents.
In 2016, the Legislative Analyst's Office published a report that found expanding the scope of rent control might discourage new construction by limiting profitability. It recommended that private housing construction is encouraged to make homes more affordable for low-income Californians.
However, Lanctot said that construction of newer units does nothing to drive down home prices if those units are unaffordable for the vast majority in the first place. According to him, people with lower incomes are increasingly being pushed out of the city and are relocating to places as far as San Bernardino, the San Gabriel Valley or even the desert. Many commute from these far-off areas daily to work in the city – a couple of hours of commute every day, perhaps more on public transport.
Lanctot said that while there has been a lot of talk about "affordable housing", the term is too broad. Herrera agrees, saying that just because the rent for his apartment is cheaper than the others in his neighborhood does not make it affordable for him or people belonging to his income-bracket.
"All these companies that are increasing the rent so much. Are they going to increase their employees' salaries by 25 or 40 percent?" he asked. "Everything is too expensive around here, right? They said the rent here is cheaper than other places. It is cheaper, yes, but that doesn't mean that it is affordable."
Prop 10 will be on the ballot for the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 6.