To the editor: As a former landlord for more than 40 years in the Playa Vista area, I would like to say I was forced to sell my rent-controlled units due to the city’s policies (“How some bad math could ruin housing in Los Angeles,” April 22).
I inherited the property and was able to pay off the mortgage and rented the units at a reasonable price. Living in one of the units myself gave me the ability to manage the property effectively. But over the years, the city kept enacting regulations that made it impossible to maintain the property. There was no way to make it earthquake-enforced without increasing rents. Having health problems, I chose to sell the apartments.
New condos have replaced them. My former tenants have had to find other, more expensive places to live. Anyone who owns units built prior to 1978 must find themselves in a similar position.
This is a city that has designed a plan to eliminate affordable housing. The tenants think rent control protects them when ultimately it destroys their housing.
No one today in a position of power wants to do the math or face the consequences of their decisions — or they are simply not being honest about their objectives. Developers and lawyers have a lot to do with this situation, as do the people who employ them.
Earl Adams, Granada Hills
..
To the editor: Guest contributor Dan Yukelson complains about the 4% annual rent increase limitation for rent-stabilized units in L.A., implying that 8% would be more fair to landlords. Note that the landlord-tenant tug-of-war can be a struggle for both sides.
With 8% increases, a new tenant struggling to rent a one-bedroom apartment for $2,500 might be facing $2,700 in one year, $2,916 in two years and $3,149 in three years, possibly forcing this tenant to move maybe an hour or two away from their work in the city.
The city’s current rent-control policy provides tenants with some degree of stability, where a one-bedroom rental apartment might be thought of as their home rather than a hotel. Many working individuals cannot ever anticipate affording the cost of purchasing a home that is likely north of $1 million.
Ken Hense, Los Angeles