Forced Out:
How a decades-old Community is under Threat from Gentrification
For 30 years Elyse Valenzuela has lived with her mother and three siblings in a rent-stabilized apartment across the street from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the new Banc of California Stadium — close enough to hear the roar of the crowd on game days.
But these days Valenzuela and her family have little to cheer about. Their home and seven other buildings along Flower Drive are set to be torn down to make room for a multi-use residential and commercial complex by Irvine-based Ventus Group, which acquired the property in 2015.
The project, called The Fig, is part of a surge in gentrification in an area that has long been one of the most affordable in Los Angeles.
The project will take up around 4.4 acres right opposite the Banc of California Stadium. It is comprised of a hotel, student housing units and a mixed-income housing component. It will also have spaces for offices, retail and restaurants.
“There is a clear and articulated law governing rental stabilized housing in the City of Los Angeles. We will be 100% compliant with that law and have begun the process of talking to our tenants,” said Alice Walton, a spokesperson for Ventus Group.
The affected area is part of the 9th L.A. City Council District, represented by Curren Price Jr., who also served on an ad-hoc committee for Los Angeles’ initial bid to host the 2024 Olympic games. In April, Price introduced a motion in support of The Fig, stating that his district requires additional hotel rooms to support the growing demands of tourism and that the city should explore options to provide financial assistance to the developers of the project.
The motion was approved by the council two months later. Currently, the city and the developers are awaiting a report on how best to incentivize the project.
“Construction will begin as soon as the project receives the necessary entitlements from the City of Los Angeles. We expect that will be some time in 2019. The project is expected to be completed in 2021,” said Walton.
About 70 residents, mostly belonging to the Latinx and black communities,face eviction. But the present uncertainty regarding an exact start-date for construction has heightened anxiety among the residents of the neighborhood. Neighbors pass along rumors that demolition are imminent, Valenzuela said.
While councilman Price did not respond to multiple requests for comment, previously he had said that the city is trying to balance the need for hotel rooms and more affordable housing.
A non-profit organization called Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) is helping tenants with legal issues related to The Fig. Many of the residents are elderly and on fixed incomes, some self-identify as disabled and some are as young as five, according to Maria Ochoa, one of the organziation’s community organizers.
South Central Los Angeles is gradually becoming an entertainment center and the area around Exposition Park, a gateway to the tourist destinations around Los Angeles, Ochoa said. Gentrification, she said, is making the area more attractive to affluent residents while driving out working-class families who have lived in the area for decades.
“They’re going to think, ‘Jeez! I really found a wonderful place to stay!’ without realizing that they’re taking away the opportunity for rent-controlled housing to hundreds of people,” she said. “There are multiple developments coming up on Figueroa Street. We believe that the [Figueroa] Corridor is going to change vastly within the next 10 years.”
The predicament of the residents of Flower Drive is shared by many others living around Exposition Park and the University of Southern California. When the university converted the old University Village into the new USC Village, the small business owners were replaced by shopping giants like Target, Trader Joe’s, Abercrombie & Fitch, and gourmet food outlets like Dulce, Kobunga and Cava.
The district has among the highest unemployment rates in the city (8.5 percent unemployed). More than a quarter of the households are also enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — the highest in the city.
However, with a rise in demand for student housing, the area has seen an increase in rents. According to real estate website Zumper, the median rent for one bedroom in the area has jumped from $1,175 in Fall 2015 to $1,530 this summer.
The housing units on Flower Drive fall under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance meaning that property owners can increase rent by 3 to 10 percent annually. This enables families to know exactly what to expect each year and also provides them with the opportunity to plan for a more financially stable future.
According to Ochoa, the residents did not have to worry about being slammed with sudden and huge rent increases that would force them to move away from their homes, schools, and community. The average monthly rent for the units was $784, she said.
In an area where the median household income is a little more than $30,000 the university’s growing international cohort also show a willingness to pay more — a fact developers and property owners wish to cash in on. Last month, for instance, around 80 tenants at an apartment complex off Exposition Boulevard were evicted because the new owners plan to convert the units into student housing.
A community endangered
Ten years ago, the State Historic Commission designated a grouping of 19 multi-family residential units on Flower Drive as a "Historic District." The buildings were constructed between 1920 and 1927 and according to the West Adam’s Heritage Association (WAHA), is “highly representative and exceptionally intact example of multi-family residential development in the University District east of Exposition Park” during that period.
Eight of those buildings, including Valenzuela’s home, are slated to be demolished to make way for The Fig.
WAHA has accused the city and the developers of ignoring the designation of the block as a historic district. In June this year, the association wrote to city council opposing the project.
However, according to the Office of Historic Preservation, historical designation does not prevent the alteration or demolition of a historic resource. It only requires the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report which assesses the feasibility of alternatives. A determined property owner can obtain approval to destroy a designated landmark. According to WAHA, the developers have refused to consider any alternative plan.
While many view these projects as part of a larger drive towards gentrification in Los Angeles, Councilman Price’s motion to sanction an evaluation to determine the best ways in which the city can financially incentivize the project stated a very specific reason — the Olympics.
“In order to prepare the City for the growing tourism sector and for the growth of cultural and entertainment venues at Exposition Park, as well as the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it is essential that we support the development of new hotel rooms if it is determined that the project does require assistance,” the motion read.
Among the many criticisms of the Olympics is the significant cost overruns that have inevitably burdened host cities in the past. According to a recent study, the average Olympics exceeds their declared budget by a staggering 156 percent.
Brence Culp of the LA 2028 Organizing Committee stressed the fact that the committee will not use any funds to build public infrastructure and will make the best possible use of existing and planned infrastructure for the games.
“We are not changing anything about the landscape of Los Angeles to fix the games...Our goal is to allow the city to continue to focus on the specific priorities of the day while we focus on planning and hosting these games and to do it in a way that not only has a low impact but a positive impact on the community,” she said.
Culp believes that the games will spark a renaissance in arts and culture in the city, just like it did when the city hosted it in 1984. The residents of Flower Drive however face a different reality.
Reduction in Housing Units
The blue pointers mark the sites of multi-family housing apartments that were issued demolition permits in 2018.
The red stars mark the planned venues that will host the Olympic games in 2028.
Click on the icons for more information.
Source: Department of Building and Safety (download the raw dataset here).
“Once they kick you out, they kick you out”
Henry Prince grew up in Louisiana and worked as a truck driver for UPS most of his life. Today he is 79-years-old and has four daughters and a son. He takes great pride in the fact that all of them are educated and are now working. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s and has been living in one of the rent-controlled apartments in the 3900 block of Flower Drive ever since.
Prince likes his neighborhood although he said he often did not get along with some of his neighbors. He is especially appreciative of there being “no drugs, no crime” on that street. He heard of The Fig development project only about a month ago.
“It don’t bother me. I’m gonna move to some other place,” he said, adding that he gets a decent retirement fund and can afford to move. At the same time, he knows that not all of his neighbors are in a position — financial or otherwise — to look for and move into a new home.
“Some people [here] are struggling. I am not and I thank God for it because I did struggle once,” he said. Prince’s view is shared by Valenzuela.
“Luckily for us in our situation we have...people that are willing to open their doors for us. But I know that the rest of the tenants here...their situation is not as good as ours. Some tenants, they don’t have other family members. They’re retired. They get a $500 paycheck every two weeks. How can they afford to go pay $2500 rent?” asked Valenzuela.
The city’s plans to financially incentivize the project go against the branding of the games as a “no build Olympics” and Mayor Eric Garcetti’s declaration that the model the city would be following was to invest in infrastructure for itself and organize the games in such a way that the Olympics model benefits from it too.
“Everything here and all the people that are going to be living here, they’re either going to get bought out or thrown in jail to clean out the neighborhoods,” said Valenzuela. “They don’t care if we live on the street or not. Once they kick you out, they kick you out.”
What worries Valenzuela the most is how her brother, who is disabled and suffers from cerebral palsy, will adapt to a new life in case they are evicted.
“It is going to be hard for him because he has his whole life established here...All of his programs are down the street. We have been going to the same doctor for years,” she said. If they are forced to move somewhere else Valenzuela’s family would also have to consider whether there are good programs for him and good doctors in the new neighborhood.
The Fig is expected to create 440 full-time and part-time jobs once completed, according to its developers.
“The development will generate significant tax revenue for the City of Los Angeles, which will help to provide more city services,” said Alice Walton, a spokesperson for the group.
The developers also plan to set aside 82 of the 186 residential units in the project as “affordable housing” units, available for households making less than 80 percent of the area median income determined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The area median income of Los Angeles county in 2018 is $69,337 — more than double the median income of the district at $33,328.
“[If] say the whole building was rent controlled and turned over into affordable housing, that would be super helpful to the community,” said Ochoa adding that another good move would have been if the jobs the project brings are “secure union, middle-class jobs that offer benefits...and solidify a lot people’s social and financial standing.” Moreover, she points out that even if the project includes 82 housing units at lower prices, the demolition of the existing buildings still means that 32 units are off the market.
It does not help that the residents have not officially been served any notice and Valenzuela is adamant on staying put unless that happens.
“If it’s not someone officially from the city either mailing us a letter or coming in with an eviction letter or something...We’re not moving until something like that happens,” she said, adding that this uncertainty has made life a lot more stressful.
While Valenzuela and her neighbors have partnered with SAJE and have taken legal matters into their own hands, they know that this might be a long battle.
Valenzuela’s fondest memories of growing up on Flower Drive are sleepovers at each others’ homes in summer and playing and cycling outside in the street together with her friends.
“If they [the developers] are going to tear this down and replace it for their economic wealth, they need to stop being so...stingy,” she said. “They need to match all our memories, all the years that we’ve been here. Because they’re gonna gain so much out of us, of kicking us out.”