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HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT - For decades, the Ellis Act, a statewide law in California, has devastated the lives of tenants, including seniors and children, by forcing them out of their homes through evictions to make way for luxury housing. Activists have long tried to repeal or reform the Ellis Act, but state politicians, who rake in millions in campaign cash from the California Apartment Association, have refused to take action. Just as bad, the Ellis Act has taken huge numbers of rent-controlled units off the rental housing market.
The Ellis Act, named after former Republican State Senator James Ellis, was established in 1985. Pushed by the real estate industry, the law allows landlords and developers to evict tenants in an apartment building and take that affordable housing off the market to make way for luxury housing, such as condominiums and boutique hotels. In recent years, landlords and developers have used the Ellis Act as a weapon to turn rent-controlled units into luxury housing to make bigger profits.
The results have been devastating. Between 1994 and 2022, according to the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, 5,549 Ellis Act evictions were carried out. Since there are around two people per rental household in San Francisco, approximately 11,098 tenants, between 1994 and 2022, were suddenly pushed out of their homes – and 5,549 rental units were lost to make way for luxury housing.
In other words, the Ellis Act shrinks the number of available apartments, decreasing supply of affordable rental housing and helping to fuel the housing affordability crisis. Lack of supply, however, isn’t the only reason why rents have skyrocketed in California. Predatory landlords charging outrageous rents – no matter what’s happening in the rental-housing market – has also been a key reason for higher and higher rents.
In its award-winning special report about Los Angeles’s gentrification crisis, Housing Is A Human Right also revealed that Ellis Act evictions triggered worsening gentrification and displacement in middle- and working-class neighborhoods, especially in communities of color.
In Los Angeles, according to the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and the Coalition for Economic Survival, 29,940 Ellis Act evictions were carried out between 2001 and 2023. With an average household size of 2.8 persons in rental housing in L.A., that’s roughly 83,832 tenants forced out of their homes through the Ellis Act. And 29,940 rental units have been turned into luxury housing such as condos and boutique hotels.
It’s no wonder that homelessness crises in San Francisco and Los Angeles have only worsened over the years.
One of the most alarming examples of Ellis Act evictions recently took place in Los Angeles. Douglas Emmett, a corporate landlord based in Santa Monica, attempted to use the Ellis Act, in May 2023, to evict hundreds of tenants out of more than 570 rent-controlled apartments at Barrington Plaza. It was a huge controversy that made headlines throughout California, with Emmett clearly making an aggressive, predatory move for bigger profits no matter who was hurt.
But with the help of Coalition for Economic Survival and AIDS Healthcare Foundation, tenants fought back by suing Douglas Emmett. AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right. In a major victory, tenants won their lawsuit in June 2024.
Despite the statewide damage that the Ellis Act has caused for decades in California, state politicians have refused to repeal or reform the law. A major reason is that the California Apartment Association, a front group for corporate landlords, has bought political influence by doling out millions in campaign cash to state and local elected officials. A Housing Is A Human Right investigation, in 2021, found that the CAA, using corporate landlord money, shelled out contributions to state and local politicians in 51 out of California’s 58 counties.
With so much at stake, activists will not be deterred. In an effort to urgently address California’s housing affordability crisis, they will continue to push for the repeal or reform of the Ellis Act to protect tenants and preserve existing affordable housing and rent-controlled units.
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(Patrick Range McDonald, author and journalist, Best Activism Journalism: Los Angeles Press Club, Journalist of the Year: Los Angeles Press Club, Public Service Award: Association of Alternative Newsmedia, advocacy journalist for Housing is a Human Right, and a contributor to CityWatch.)
