This month, Jordan Hocker’s anxiety was not the image of the flame of split Pacific Parisado and Altadena this month. It was a flood on social media posts on rent adjustment in a community in a nearby Los Angeles County.
Hocker lived in Maui when the wildfire destroyed 4,000 housing units in August 2023 and leveled the town of Lahaina. However, as the organizer of Maui Housing Hui, a tenant protection organization, she has been dealing with the subsequent rental crisis since then.
After the fire, state authorities quickly moved to freeze most rents on the island and issue an emergency order to stop evacuation. However, this measure could not suppress surprising trends. According to research at the University of Hawaii, people living in the burn zone or living in the burn zone and the Maui residents who worked have seen an increase in rent about 50 % in a few months after the disaster. Some landlord took the crisis, Drive out the tenant Create a road for a highly paid lessee. A year later, I had a Hawaiian homeless Almost doubled.
Hawaiian housing advocates and researchers are LA’s precautions, and emphasizes the need to pass and enforce the protection of the lessor after the natural disaster has already confused the rental market. I say I’m doing it. The reaction of Los Angeles leaders is still an unresolved issue, and the battle between activists and politicians is currently being fighted to strengthen the protection of lessee. The LA tenant organizer has already been skeptical of the ability of the officials who implement the state pricing method, and has begun to catalogs a suspicious violation. Spreadsheet Now it has over 1,400 entries.
Hocker said that activists were correct to be alert. “Unless there is a teeth that are aggressive in price adjustment [laws]That happens. She will do it, “she said.
The Parisade and Eaton fire, which broke out on January 7, caused hundreds of billions of dollars, killing at least 29 people and being destroyed. More than 10,000 houses A county county with a serious homeless crisis. LA county rent increased by 20 % since then. Washington Post It has doubled in some neighborhoods near the burned areas discovered. For many years, Mayor Karen Bus has said that LA is needed. “FEMA style reaction” To the homeless crisis. I need two now. (Pacific Parisseed is part of Los Angeles, but not Altadena.)
The fire drave local leaders to protect LA lessee. Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared an emergency on the morning of a fire and activated laws that impose existing price adjustments. 10 % cap Most rents increase. The cap will continue to exist March 8th Unless it is expanded. The landlord who has broken the law faces up to a year of prison and imposes a finance of up to $ 10,000. They may also face up to $ 2,500 civil punishment per violation.
Lob Bonta Corporation already has it Submitted fee He sent a warning to the LA County landlords and landlords to 500 hotels and landlords accused of price procurement. Regional prosecutor Nathan Hohoman, recent election campaigns were supported Real estate industry, He pledged to prosecute the offender, and warned Gugar that he would not be ashamed of the public.
In Hawaii, staff also promised to crack down on rental goger. In the wake of the fire, Governor Josh Green took a decisive action, frozen rent, and banned the landlord from pushing out Maui tenants for unpaid rent. Even if you threaten the lessee with an illegal eviction, it may be a punished crime with up to $ 10,000 a day with civil punishment. (Maui’s evacuation moratorium is set to expire on February 4th.)
However, the Green Urgent Declaration contained various omniders. The tenant was not kicked out due to rent, but the landlord did not need to update the wreath when it expired. Some tenants may be kicked out when the owner or their family moves or when the real estate is sold. On the other hand, the landlord was able to raise the rent after evacuation. They can also pass. “Additional operating expensesThe tenant does not specify what the operating cost is, as long as the rent is recorded.
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rent It has risen According to Justin Tindal, an economist at the University of Hawaii, Maui has increased from 10 % to 20 % since the fire. According to a survey conducted by researchers Trey Gordner and Daniela Bond-Smith at the University of Hawaii, the number of people who worked, working, or owned in the Burn zone was even higher. The new unpublished data that they shared with Capital & Main indicate that their rent has risen by 50 % or more. Bond Smith explained that the people who worked there, like those living in the burn zone, had experienced “substantial displacement” from their homes.
According to GORDNER, the increase in rent was even higher by renting a house with three or more bedrooms and renting a house with three or more bedrooms. He believes that these increase is due to the pressure of a large number of detached houses in the rental market. In Los Angeles, many detached houses were destroyed by the Parisard and Eaton fire, and he said, “Similar patterns are expected to occur.”
Natural disasters that destroy the house often lead to an increase in rent. Researchers at the Brookings Research Institute investigated the rental trends in major markets following natural disasters, causing a 4-6 % increase in disasters. Written by one of the author。 Other research was found The permanent rent will also increase。 Evacuation It tends to rise.
After the fire with the Tennant and Worker Association in Maui, Alanroid and Alan Kay, who helped to operate the tenant’s complaint hotline, use the landlord to raise rent or forcibly make the next claim. He said he received a lot of calls from tenants. tenant.
“When the lessee leasing does so [end,] The landlord said, “If you want to continue living here, you will have to pay more $ 600 a month,” said Maui Housing Hui Hui. “I call it” a house by the scary tor “. ”
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Some landlords were able to pay more as FEMA covered the rent, and even forced them to rent tenants to dramatically dismissed overpaid refugees. Propublica And Honolulu Citizen Beat reported. Noah Patton, a disaster recovery manager of the National Low -income Housing Union, was not the first time FEMA had encouraged the evacuation in this way, but for the first time on an island where the rental market is even more limited on rural areas and islands. It was not.
Propublica and The Civil Beat reported that the suppublica and The Civil Beat were responsible for “a relatively small case,” said Hawaii, while alert to the eviction and illegal increase. The office has not yet issued a fine to the landlord who has been found to have broken the emergency declaration. Toni Schwartz, a spokesman at the Bagle Office, was confirmed by e -mail. They received 247 complaints and discovered 35 violations, but they wrote that they were all corrected. (41 claims are still under investigation.)
In Los Angeles, there were tenant supporters I’m already frustrated Before the fire with the government agency, who was in charge of the enforcement of the lessee Protection Law. “Unprecedented,” the prosecution of hundreds of landlords in prices, said Faza Malik, a professional lawyer of a professional bono.
And the protection of Los Angeles from prices is weaker than Hawaii. The upper limit of the California price procurement law increased by 10 % (new lists have additional restrictions), and Hawaiian officials have frozen rent. In addition, LA members have not stopped evacuating due to non -payment of rent. LA County Retired Court while the Pacific Parisade and Altadena are burning Still open.
Meanwhile, the city’s advanced organizers and politicians are trying to create the momentum of rent freezing and evacuation. Last week, LA tenant union Confused The county committee of the meeting to request the recruitment of such measures. The city council will vote on Wednesday motion Frozen the rent and stop the nonpayment evacuation for the lessee who claims financial or medical difficulties from fire. It is unknown whether there is a vote to give the claim.
The LA tenant has one advantage that there was no Hawaiian lessee. Spreadsheet Catalog converts cases that are suspected of price adjustment Edited by tenant activists With a new rental brigade, a new group organized by Chelsea Kirk and Philip Meyer.
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According to consumer lawyer Marissa Roy, this document is a tool that is rarely used by institutions in charge of the price procurement law.
Roy has worked on consumer protection lawsuits in the affirmative litigation department of the Los Angeles Inspector Bureau.
“They are asking appropriate questions, editing very detailed and comprehensive information, and building these cases in a way that lawyers are not necessarily capable,” she says. Ta.
For now, activists are working on the assumption that the government cannot pass through. a study Rental brigade found prices throughout the county, from wealthy malibu to worker class Korea Town.
“Frankly, I don’t believe that all the landlords who committed the price adjustment would face the results. I hope they are wrong.”
