LA Moves Forward With $15 Million Deal For Chinatown Apartment Tenants

The Los Angeles City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee today decided to move forward with a $15 million deal aimed at assisting tenants in a Chinatown apartment complex who have been fighting rent increases for several years.

Tenants in the complex have seen their rent increase in recent years. Hillside Villa, originally built as affordable housing in the 1980s with loans from the city, had its 30-year affordability covenants expire in 2019.

Under the proposed deal, the city would extend the covenant, paying nearly $15 million to the landlord to subsidize rents for some of the units in the building.

But Hillside Villa tenants argue that another provision of the deal, which would require them to pay back rent in monthly installments, would actually make their rent less affordable.

Speaking to the committee Wednesday afternoon, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes the property, said she had concerns about the proposed deal.

“Key among them are the current stipulations that would require back rent payments to be collected right away ... It is extremely unlikely that these low-income families will be able to pay the back rent on top of their monthly rent,” Hernandez said.

The Hillside Villa Tenants Association wants the city to update the proposed deal to include rent debt forgiveness. They have also advocated for the city to use eminent domain to purchase the property from the building’s landlord Tom Botz outright. Botz told LAist last year that he is not willing to sell the 124-unit property. Housing officials said in the report that the eminent domain route could cost as much as $93 million for a property recently appraised at nearly $45 million.

The full L.A. City Council will still have to vote on the plan.