The USC Student Coalition for Asian Pacific Empowerment (SCAPE) launched a petition in late August protesting a USC committee member’s involvement at a complex in Chinatown where residents are being evicted to allow for substantial remodeling.
Jerome Fink, a member of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate Executive Committee, is a co-founder of VF Developments, which issued eviction notices to tenants at 920 Everett Street on Feb. 13. SCAPE and the Chinatown Community For Equitable Development are now putting pressure on Fink to stop the evictions through a series of online petitions.
“The residents of 920 Everett are an already-vulnerable group whose precarious situation has been exacerbated by COVID-19,” the petition read. “Many have fled war and trauma in Southeast Asia to find a home in Chinatown, but are facing displacement yet again.”
Fink is the broker for Victoria Vu, VF Developments' CEO. Vu is also the property’s direct manager, according to LAist. In her company bio, Vu writes that VF targets multifamily properties in “newly gentrifying urban walkable areas of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.”
The petition published by USC SCAPE pointed to Fink’s involvement and ability to stop the evictions and requested that the USC Board of Trustees step in to demand change against the evictions.
Annenberg Media reached out to Jerome Fink directly for comment but received no response.
Attorney Linda T. Hollenbeck of the law firm Hollenbeck and Cardoso represents VF Developments.
“The notices were legally served by a California registered process server, upon each unit at 920 Everett St., Los Angeles, California on February 13, 2020,” Hollenbeck wrote in an email to Annenberg Media.
According to Hollenbeck, the notices were served before the state of emergency in California began on March 4. The 60-day notices expired on April 13, meaning residents were expected to have vacated the premises by then.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tenant protection order, AB 3088, signed on Aug. 31, staves off COVID-19 evictions and certain cases not related to COVID-19 until Feb. 1, 2021, blocking VF Developments from continuing with its next step of filing in court.
Under the order, property owners can only evict for remodeling if it’s “necessary to maintain compliance with the requirements of the...Health and Safety Code, or any other applicable law governing the habitability of residential rental units.”
While VF Developments' court actions are on hold, the organization is not backing down from its plans to remodel the complex when allowed to do so.
“At all times my client has complied with the relevant ordinances/laws/statutes, and they will continue to do so,” Hollenbeck wrote. “My client intends to proceed with the filing of Unlawful Detainer actions against any unit that has not vacated once the law allows them to do so.”
SCAPE is emphasizing that the actions are an affront to USC’s values, and that VF Developments is a “predator” of low-income residents.
“It’s against what we stand for as a community, as a Trojan family, as a university,” said Joseph Cho, a junior at USC and the external director for SCAPE, in an interview with Annenberg Media. “And it would be wrong if we, as part of the university community, just closed our eyes and [did] nothing about it.”
Cho previously highlighted part of USC’s mission statement that said the university “provides public leadership and public service.”
Joyce Jang, a senior at USC and co-president of SCAPE, said in an interview with Annenberg Media that residents are being forced out during a pandemic “all for the sake of gentrifying Chinatown and making more money.”
Currently, four units remain occupied by tenants at the property, according to Hollenbeck, but no rent has been accepted from any tenant since the April 13 expiration date.