For months, the tenants at a Koreatown apartment building have staged a sit-in protest in their carports to block construction crews from building new housing units.
The city of Los Angeles wants more accessible dwelling units or ADUs to ease the housing shortage. They are often newly constructed granny flats or converted garages on single-family lots.
A landlord in Koreatown says he wants to do just that, but at the expense of his tenant’s parking spaces. Residents say their lease agreements guarantee a parking space but the landlord – and the city – disagree.
The fight escalated Monday when the landlord towed several vehicles. The following day, construction crews returned to tighten fencing around the parking spots and break up concrete on the ground to prepare the area for new accessory dwelling units.
The dispute at the Kingsley Apartments at 501 S. Kingsley Drive centers on the building’s rear carports and the adjacent laundry room, which the property owner plans to convert into five ADUs.
Tenants are monitoring the activity because they don’t feel the city is taking their situation seriously.
“We’ve had to take time out of our lives to make sure they’re following the law because the city of LA is not doing anything,” said Mel Raymond, who has lived in the building for nearly 10 years. “We’re having to defend ourselves.”
Resident Lauren Seeley said she and her neighbors consider the construction to be violence against tenants and an attempt to displace them from their homes.
“This isn’t about parking,” she said. “This is about what is happening in our city to people that have affordable housing. Those people are being targeted and being pushed out of their homes.”
Three vehicles were towed from their parking spaces, costing residents about $370 each to get their cars back, according to Fernando Isai, an organizer with the LA Tenants Union.
The issue goes beyond the carport spots.
“Part of what we want to make sure that comes across is that it’s not an issue of just parking,” Isai said. “It’s about them having rights. The parking is written into their contract, right? But the landlord can just decide one day to the next that this is inconvenient for him.”
Property owner Mark Nassab said the project is fully approved by the city and that tenants have known for months that they’d need to find other parking arrangements.
He added that tenants will be credited $200 on their monthly rent for the loss of parking, but the towing was necessary to begin the project.
“They’re upset, but they’ve had ample opportunity to comply,” Nassab said. “These people are saying, ‘Put a roof over my car,’ while LA is saying, ‘Put a roof over people’s heads.’”
While the tenants have asked the state Supreme Court to review the case, with a hearing set for Jan. 30, Nassab said that isn’t enough for him to stop construction. He claims under a state law that went into effect last year, he has the authority to alter a tenant’s lease and remove a parking spot if the space is converted into an ADU.
Under that law, landlords are allowed to convert garages or parking spaces into new housing units, and cities cannot require them to replace the lost parking.
The Los Angeles Housing Department said it approved the project’s “tenant habitability plan” in June and upheld its approval on an appeal filed by the tenants. Agency spokesperson Sharon Sandow said it would not weigh in on Nassab’s decision to tow the vehicles because it falls out of their office’s jurisdiction and “it is a civil matter between the property owner and the tenants.”
Nassab said the Los Angeles Police Department advised him to tow tenants’ cars. A spokesperson for the LAPD could not be reached to verify his claim.
