Tenants Fight Back Against Slumlord in LA

At the housing department

Report from LA CRR

The Campaign For Renter’s Rights took its second step in our current campaign against a slumlord in Van Nuys CA on Monday. We have been meeting with the tenants cautiously, building trust and sympathetic to the fact that it is them who are risking the slumlords wrath by organizing to fight back. The result is that there is now a significant number ready to fight. Our first step was to send a letter of demands to the slumlord. This apartment complex is in disrepair and infested with fleas and roaches and the landlord is non responsive.

We met with tenants from six different units to go place formal complaints with the housing and health department. The turn out itself was the biggest we have had since we began to organize at this building. There were three new tenants that had not previously joined us! We all caravanned to the housing dept where we placed the complaints and when we all walked in about 16 people deep, the people in the office seemed pretty annoyed

The visit to the health department was inspiring and increased the desire of the tenants to continue their struggle with their landlord. The mood was a cautious one in the beginning as we gathered to head down there and the newer tenant’s faces had a confused look on them as they weren’t really sure if they should be a part of it. But their confidence grew as they started talking to each other and began to realize that being with their neighbors and supporters from the CRR gave them some strength. There was even a person with us who has moved out of the complex due to the horrible conditions there. The fact that he came to support his old neighbors increased their resolve and strengthened them further.

The whole process really gave the tenants courage and inspiration because they saw their numbers grow literally over night and because they saw how their very presence at the housing department was powerful and spread a little fear in the other direction for a change. We suggested the tenants bring little bags of bed bugs and fleas with them to present to the authorities which they did.

There were more men than women which took us by surprise as when we started meeting with them it was mainly women who attended. At first, the men were keeping to themselves a bit as were the women. But as the day progressed we could see that there was more interaction going on between the two groups. They were very grateful and told us that they were happy to have us helping them out with the officials.

We proceeded to be interviewed one by one and the tenants were given a case number and told that they would get a call within a week with a date and time for inspection. Some thing similar happened at the health department.

One enraged tenant, M, took her bag of flees and put it in front of the health department’s interviewer, right in her face. She was stunned. "Get that away from me I don’t want that in my face get it away now" , she said. M just smiled and nodded her head as to say, “Well, what do you expect? M doesn’t speak English but she knew what she was doing.

After we did this we had a short meeting where we discussed that this was only the initial step and that we can only really expect and prepare for a battle. We have explained that the CRR has been in struggles like this before and our last campaign against a slumlord in LA proved very successful, causing him to spend thousands of dollars for repairs and renovations while empowering the tenants. We picketed his other business and had numerous actions against him. We also shared with them our victory against Alameda City Council and HUD in a struggle that kept some 260 families in their homes. *

We explained to the tenants that the housing department would probably set a date so long from now that it would give the slumlord the opportunity to try to intimidate and divide them. We also agreed that if this is the case that our next step would be to put pressure on the city supervisor to move the date of the inspection and demand that the necessary repairs be made, as we have done before. Everyone was in agreement with this plan. Lastly we discussed briefly what to expect during the inspection but that this should be discussed in more detail during the next meeting. They are aware that we will have to use direct action tactics to change the situation.

Before the meeting was over we congratulated all the tenants for their courage and said that it was also up to them if their numbers were going to keep growing because although they are powerful as they are now, they would be that much more powerful if they could unite more of their neighbors----the possibilities could be endless. Everyone responded with enthusiasm to this. Today was a great success.

For a report on the Alameda section 8 battle and the struggle at Lockwood Gardens Apts in LA go to:

http://www.laborsmilitantvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=14&id=39&Itemid=71