Bell Gardens Residents Fight for Rent Control

Joanna Venegas, a resident of Bell Gardens for over 20 years, was facing eviction at the beginning of 2020.

Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, it was challenging for Venegas to search for housing because of the pain she faced daily. Her doctor had recommended that she rest her leg, but that wasn’t an option for her.

"I was supposed to be resting and instead I was stressed out. I had to be out and about and looking for a place and trying to find help," said Venegas.

During her two-year period of housing instability, Venegas and her two daughters, eight and 17 years old, bounced between friends’ and relatives’ homes and lived at a hotel for seven months towards the end of 2021. In a room with only a microwave and refrigerator, Venegas was unable to cook, often resorting to cup noodles or cereal with milk. Food stamps helped pay for meals at some restaurants, but the food selection was limited. Venegas described that period of the pandemic as a time of "fear" and "stress".

Bell Gardens, located in Southeast Los Angeles, is home to approximately 42,000 residents. The median household income is approximately $45,00and 96% of residents are Latino. Only 21.3% of the population are homeowners. Tenants face the same forces driving housing insecurity across Los Angeles, where average rent has increased by 65% since 2010 and housing remains in short supply. COVID-19 also affected the job stability of many residents in the service and hospitality sectors.

Under Assembly Bill 1482, the "Tenant Protection Act of 2019", California statewide rent increases were capped at 5% annually, but many are unaware of these policies and lack resources to access government and non-profit support or bring violating landlords to court. Those experiencing housing instability continue to face many challenges, including new and exacerbated health problems.

"When people are faced with increasing rent, they actually cut back significantly on critical needs like health care or preventative care," said Gary Painter, a professor in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. "There’s a direct link between increasingly unaffordable housing, or the share of one’s income that goes to rent, and health outcomes." Stress and other consequences of housing insecurity, Painter noted, also cause caregivers to become withdrawn, affecting children.

In response to these challenges, community organizers such as California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ)and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice are helping residents tell their stories and push for legislative measures to ensure affordable housing.

CLRJ is a statewide organization that focuses on policy advocacy, community education and community-informed research to achieve reproductive justice, specifically within Latina populations. Community organizers from CLRJ have been working in Bell Gardens for ten years, providing support for young parents and facilitating voter engagement.

Towards the fall of 2019, CLRJ became involved in organizing for housing security. Originally, many lawmakers and government staffers did not see the connection between the work of a reproductive justice organization and housing advocacy, explained Susy Chavez, the communications director for CLRJ. But housing was clearly a top concern for the communities they worked with.

"Having affordable, stable, and dignified housing affects our ability to raise and provide for our children in healthy and safe environments," said Chavez. "[Unstable housing] puts communities at greater risk of being in danger, or trapped, especially during the pandemic, in abusive relationships. [Housing] is essential when it comes to making decisions about bodily and sexual autonomy and safety."

Working together with residents, CLRJ helped establish Unión de Vecinas of Bell Gardens, a community group composed of "different ages, mostly Spanish monolingual speakers, mostly of Mexican descent, with varying document status," said Martha Pineda, a community organizer with CLRJ. The group began organizing to alleviate the community’s housing challenges.

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Venegas joined Unión de Vecinas of Bell Gardens in 2019. She had been paying $950 per month, but during the pandemic, her rent illegallyincreased to $1,400. Through the Unión, she was able to meet a lawyer and maintain housing temporarily through February 2021. She is currently receiving Social Security Disability Insurance while waiting for Section 8 voucher approval from the federal government, which would assist her in affording housing in the private market. Low-income families and elderly and disabled individuals qualify for Section 8. Venegas said her status as a domestic violence survivor also helped her qualify.

Venegas’ struggle to find decent, safe and sanitary housing fuels her weekly work organizing rallies and petitions with Unión de Vecinas.

"We want to let [community members] know that there is support, that they're not alone, and we're here to help them. We want to make their voices heard, so they’re not afraid to come out and say what their problem is," said Venegas.

According to Pineda, CLRJ is advocating for the City of Bell Gardens to pass a permanent Rent Control and Just Cause law, so tenants cannot be unfairly evicted. Alongside Unión de Vecinas, they are campaigning for a maximum 3% annual increase on rents, to limit the reasons for which a landlord can evict a tenant, to establish a Rent Board to oversee arbitration hearings between landlords and tenants, to create a rental registry, and provide relocation assistance to residents who are evicted without cause.

In addition to the challenges of housing insecurity, Laura Cortez, Executive Director of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ), points out how environmental injustice and other forms of discrimination continue to make the housing environment in Bell Gardens unsafe.

"Bell Gardens runs up against the 710 freeway. We have industries behind elementary schools that have contaminated the area with metals back in the 80s and 90s."

"A lot of the neighborhoods that were adjacent to industry were theredlined neighborhoods," said Jill Johnston, Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at University of Southern California, referring to historical zoning and lending practices that prevented investment in Black neighborhoods and limited where people of color could live. "It sets up this pattern of pushing people of color and low-income working class folks into neighborhoods that are more polluted," said Johnston.

EYCEJ is tackling air pollution in the area along with housing security, to systemically address environmental determinants of health.

The choice of uprooting and moving when rent becomes too high or the environment becomes unhealthy is a "privileged idea," Cortez emphasizes.

"[Moving] fractures the community. It fractures the social fabric of the culture that we have here. We have folks who are uncles and aunts who all live in the same city, who rely on their community members for child care and to be able to understand the language, because the primary language in Bell Gardens is Spanish."

Currently, an ad-hoc council made up of two elected Bell Gardens city council members, two tenant reps, one nonprofit rep, one landlord, and one real estate representative is researching ways to increase housing security. CLRJ submitted an ordinance proposal for the ad-hoc council to consider, and once the council finishes their due diligence, they will vote to bring their findings to the five member city council, which would then hold hearings and decide to vote on future action.

Councilman Marco Barcena, a Bell Gardens tenant on the ad-hoc council, stated that rent control alone will not resolve the housing crisis in Bell Gardens. Research has shown that while rent control assists residents in the short term, it can also decrease affordability and fuel gentrification by encouraging landlords to exit the rental business and convert rentals to higher-end condominiums to sell.

"Rent control is not a long term solution. It’s not a silver bullet. But it is definitely a tool that we can use to help people that are being evicted and people that are marginalized. They’re living the day-to-day," said Barcena.

Pineda agreed that although rent control has shown mixed results, it is an immediate and tangible solution that residents can advocate for and one that the city council can implement.

Venegas and her co-organizers are also pushing for stricter regulations on rental property conditions. Residents have testified on leakages, mold and unresponsive landlords at community workshops organized by CLRJ as a way for residents to express their concerns to city officials.

"If the property owner is not providing a safe place for the tenant to live, then that needs to be addressed with the current law. What are we doing to make sure that our tenants are being protected?" said Councilmember Barcena.

Although community workshops give residents a space to ask questions, share public comments and access legal assistance, most attendees still face the stress and uncertainty about their futures.

At a recent community workshop one resident emphasized the urgency of the situation. "I don't know why [the council is] taking so long to prove there are so many [people] affected. I am one of them. And you don't know what it's like to cry and stress out having to go from one place to another."

Sean Angst (PhD candidate, Public Policy and Management at USC), Christina Green (Program Manager, Housing as Health Care Initiative at UCLA Ziman Center) and Dr. Silvia R. Gonzalez (Project Director, Community-Based and Environmental Equity Research at UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation) also contributed information for this article.