Facing Wildfire and Rent Gouging, L.A. Tenants Are Fighting For Rent Control

Amid devastating fires in Los Angeles County that have destroyed thousands of homes and caused surging rents, tenant groups are calling on the city to implement stronger emergency tenant protections, even as cases of price-gouging are emerging on rental listing sites.

The LA Tenants Union has released a series of demands for the city to address the disaster by implementing a rent freeze and eviction moratorium. The union also asked for the city to “seize vacant units, Airbnbs, and hotels” to reserve for people experiencing homelessness, saying, “Everyone deserves housing, throughout the state of emergency and beyond.”

In addition, a coalition of over 70 tenant unions, social justice organizations and community groups sent a letter to Los Angeles County elected officials with demands for tenant protections, including “swift enforcement of anti-price gouging laws.” The letter calls for a pause on all active evictions during the ongoing emergency; a prohibition on new eviction cases; good cause protections; a ban on algorithmic price fixing; and new rental assistance programs to pay rents, as many people across the county have lost work due to the fire.

The Palisades and Eaton fires have destroyed more than 12,000 structures, including most of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, and killed at least 25 people. Los Angeles County already holds a disproportionate number of America’s homeless population, with nearly 75,000 people sleeping in the street, in encampments, or in their vehicles each night, a problem that has been exacerbated by the fires.

According to an LA Public Press reporter, council members were set to vote on an emergency motion that would establish an eviction moratorium for “tenants who have experienced economic or medical hardship related to the January 2025 fires.” For eligible tenants, it would ban evictions for non-payment or no-fault evictions other than for a government order to vacate through January 2026. But LAist reports that the city council declined to vote on those measures on Tuesday, instead forwarding them to a housing committee for review.

Rose Lenehan, a member of the LA Tenants Union, told Next City/Shelterforce that any eviction moratorium with these carve-outs would help very few people. The most impacted people would fall through the cracks, Lenehan says, because it would require tenants to keep extensive documentation and appear at eviction court.

“That kind of thing is just such a symbolic media gesture that will actually help so, so few people,” Lenehan said.

The LA Tenants Union is instead pushing for a moratorium closer to what the state and city passed during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The union is also demanding a rent freeze for rent-stabilized tenants, whose rents will increase Feb. 1.

In 2023, the Los Angeles city council voted to allow for rent hikes on rent-stabilized units after a four-year pause stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. The 4 percent hikes — with another 2 percent if landlords cover utility costs — first went into effect Feb. 1, 2024. They can continue every 12 months unless the city council votes for a rent freeze or to hike rents by a different amount. The city council went home over winter recess without voting for another rent freeze, days before the fires broke out, according to LAist.

Lenehan says that if the rent hike on stabilized units is allowed to go through on Feb. 1, “that would be a disaster.” The union wanted an eviction moratorium even before the fires, and Lenehan says it didn’t make sense for the mayor to tout its “Inside Safe” program to address street homelessness while still allowing evictions to be processed.

Rental price gouging

L.A. renters began noticing huge price hikes on rental properties immediately after the fires began spreading. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to the Palisades fire on Jan. 7, and President Biden approved a major disaster declaration the following day.

According to state law, California sellers can’t sell a product or service at a price point more than 10% higher than what was being charged prior to a state of emergency being declared. The law covers food, emergency supplies, medical supplies, transportation, hotels and rental housing. For goods or services listed only after an emergency declaration, it’s forbidden to charge more than 50% higher than the cost of producing the item, according to the attorney general’s office.

Price gouging in an emergency is punishable in criminal court with a jail sentence of up to a year or a fine of up to $10,000, according to the California attorney general’s office. It’s also punishable in civil court with penalties of up $2,500 per violation. (The City of Los Angeles has a separate penalty for landlords who price gouge, which the council voted on Jan. 14 to increase from $1000 to $30,000, according to LAist.)

Los Angeles renters almost immediately began noticing listings that ballooned from their original listing prices before the fire, and social media users shared videos encouraging them to report price-gouging to the attorney general’s office.

LA Tenant Union member Chelsea Kirk created a shared spreadsheet and Google form for anyone to report rental price gouging on listing sites. As of this writing, there were over 1,000 crowdsourced submissions. Volunteers are vetting the listings and have confirmed over 400 listings were real and above the legal threshold.

In a statement to Next City/Shelterforce, the California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office wrote, “Price gouging during a state of emergency is unlawful. The California Department of Justice takes seriously all reports of price gouging and is working with our law enforcement partners to investigate all leads stemming from the Los Angeles fires.”

The office said it is “unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation” into price gouging. Separately, on Jan. 7, Bonta’s office did file an amended complaint in an ongoing lawsuit against RealPage and five large landlords alleging that they violated the state’s antitrust rules by sharing information and raising rents.

Next City/Shelterforce also asked L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto how their offices were addressing reports of rental price gouging and if they intended to take legal action against landlords. None of their offices responded by press time.

Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office announced Wednesday that it was investigating cases of price gouging. It also said it had filed two criminal charges for violations of public curfew laws that keep people from being on public streets in evacuation zones, which it said was a measure to prevent looting.

Defending existing protections in Pasadena

In the City of Pasadena, where residents are reeling from the Eaton fire in neighboring Altadena, renters are already fighting a push from a landlord group to weaken tenant protections. In 2022, Pasadena voters approved Measure H, a charter amendment establishing a rent stabilization board and certain tenant protections, including just cause for evictions. This year, the city allows for a maximum rent increase of 3% in covered units. The law was immediately the subject of a lawsuit from the California Apartment Association, which opposes rent stabilization.

In a Pasadena City Council meeting on Monday, Jan. 13, residents dealing with homes damaged by the Eaton fire pleaded with the council not to roll back tenant protections provided by Measure H, according to public comments, with most tenants also asking for a rent freeze and stronger rent protections to prevent displacement. The Pasadena Tenants Union submitted a statement demanding a total rent freeze on all units during the state of emergency and, after the emergency, a continued cap on rent increases of 3% per year on rent-stabilized units.

The landlord lobby group Pasadena Housing Providers also submitted comment, asking for the city to roll back Measure H protections, arguing that that landlords fearful of the restrictions were keeping units off the market and that repealing the measure would motivate them to rent out to residents displaced by the fire. One broker named Ann-Marie Villicana wrote in to ask that exemptions to Measure H be made for condos and ADUs because “these owners have been reluctant to rent as they are fearful of Measure H.” Villicana wrote that the city should repeal the measure.

One resident named Dan Huynh wrote to say that Huynh’s family had been displaced by the fire. The resident asked the city to “please pass an eviction moratorium and rent freeze as a matter of urgency and act of compassion for the tenants who have just survived a climate disaster.” Huynh asked the city not to cut rental protections as landlords had requested.

“I question the motivation of landlords who have vacancies but are unwilling to rent these vacancies longterm. As a city coming together after tragedy, we should be prioritizing the longterm safety and security of Pasadena tenants, not cut corners for the benefit of the few,” Huynh wrote.

Ryan Bell, a member of Pasadena Tenants Union and chairman of Pasadena Rental Housing Board, the rent stabilization board established under Measure H, questions the logic of the landlord group that seeks a repeal of Measure H.

“Nothing is stopping anyone from putting the unit on the market and renting,” Bell says.

The landlord group was not offering fire victims anything in return for repealing tenant protections. “They’re claiming to want to help fire victims…I don’t see any benefits for the fire victims,” Bell says.

Pasadena tenants also wrote in to this week’s city council meeting about damage to their apartments from ash, soot and smoke, and said that landlords were refusing to conduct repairs.

Bell says one common issue he is hearing about since the fires began is that landlords are using minor damage as an excuse to completely void leases and remove tenants. He says some tenants have leases that can be voided due to partial damage, but that Measure H provides protections that override this clause.

“If it’s damaged and repairable…tenants have the right to return once it’s fixed at the previous rents,” Bell says.

His main message to tenants right now is to stay in their homes as long as there are no health and safety issues. “Don’t move out of your units if you don’t have to,” Bell says. “If you have to for health purposes, do that. But don’t surrender your tenancy until you get more answers.”