Los Angeles city officials are considering a plan to force landlords to sell their buildings in an effort to keep rents low in key neighborhoods.
Councilman Gil Cedillo last week said he was asking the Board of Public Works to consider using its eminent domain power to take over a 124-unit Chinatown apartment building from a landlord who wants to convert the building into market-rate.
The property, dubbed "Hillside Villa", was built in 1986 with $5.45 million in loans from the city, in exchange for a commitment from the landlord to keep the units affordable for 30 years. Since that agreement lapsed in 2018, the owner of the building is legally permitted to raise the rents to market rates. Apparently, the city wants to re-neg on their deal and steal the building from its rightful owner for daring to charge market rent for its rental units.
California recently passed statewide rent-control measures to combat rising rents due to limited supply, mostly caused by a regulatory environment that discourages new building of apartments.
With the influx of Californians to Colorado in recent years, will this be next for us?