Essential California

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Aug. 30, and I’m writing from Los Angeles. The words “California housing crisis” have become so omnipresent that it can be difficult to distinguish between the daily headlines, even as many of us personally feel the squeeze. Yes, the rent is too damn high, there is a crushing shortage of existing housing supply, and our cities are increasingly becoming hollowed-out places for the very rich, all while a humanitarian crisis unfolds in the ever-growing tent cities on our streets. But, you’re probably thinking, tell me something I don’t already know, right? Andrew Khouri, who covers the housing market for the Los Angeles Times, worked with Metro reporter Colleen Shalby on a big story about a very specific aspect of the housing crisis that you should probably be paying attention to. Seniors account for the fastest-growing age group in the state, and they are also perhaps the most vulnerable to California’s rising rents and evictions of any age group. They are also more likely to be on a fixed income, which makes weathering even the modest rent increases allowed under rent control far more difficult. And being able to afford a market-rate apartment after an eviction for someone on a fixed income? That’s near impossible. Khouri and Shalby spent time with Mario Canel, a 73-year-old Silver Lake house painter who has lived in his bungalow court apartment complex for 33 years. Canel, who relies on his monthly Social Security benefits, had been paying less than $400 for his rent-controlled apartment. But a real estate investor recently purchased the complex and told all the tenants they had to leave. “There are signs that seniors are disproportionately affected by the types of evictions Canel now faces,” Khouri and Shalby wrote. “Households with at least one person 62 or older made up 26% of no-fault evictions in Los Angeles city rent-controlled buildings between June 2014 and May 2019, according to the Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department. By comparison, 13% of rental households in properties built before 1979 are headed by someone 65 or older, according to 2017 census estimates. (Most rent-controlled buildings in Los Angeles were constructed before 1979.)”