Gentrification Affects DTLA Rent
As residents of the Downtown Los Angeles area, we are concerned with the housing shortage and the lack of rental units under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Rent Stabilization Ordinance means that many low income families are forced to live under extreme economic pressure. Sometimes, this forces families out of their, now, expensive apartments. By the time that we are old enough to get our own place we will be affected by this major issue if we are still living around the Downtown area. Rent in Downtown Los Angeles is increasing every year therefore, we decided to do something about it and we found that if we could have more housing units under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance the rent will only increase by 1% if the person renting pays for gas and electricity and 3% if the landlord pays for gas and electricity. As current residents of the Downtown Los Angeles area we want to keep families and low income residents from struggling to pay their rent every year. While Latinos remain the majority, their share of population fell over 10% in the span of a year according to the 2010 U.S. Census. If this continues, families who are low income will be forced to move out of their own homes as seen with the cases in Echo Park. In Echo Park, families that have lived there over 31 years are being forced to move out. Our school is located five blocks away from Echo Park, it is our neighborhood and therefore our problem. A personal friend of ours lived in Echo Park and due to the increase in her rent she was forced to move to Whittier, she now has to commute everyday from Whittier to Downtown Los Angeles. Gentrification is already impacting us, we are leaving our home, our friends, and our culture. We have no alternative, gentrification is taking our homes.