LIVEPreventing Evictions and Tenant Displacement
In the last decade, Westlake has experienced physical and demographic changes, with exacerbated rent increases intensifying displacement through, mostly, illegal evictions. Despite the passage of legislation to address LA's affordable housing crisis, our community is faced with an ever-increasing threat to affordable and safe housing. With this grant we will provide families facing eviction and homelessness with counseling, education and encouragement to fight illegal eviction notices, substandard housing conditions and landlord harassment.
What is the primary issue area that your application will impact?
Housing and Homelessness
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
Central LA
In what stage of innovation is this project, program, or initiative?
Expand existing project, program, or initiative
What is your understanding of the issue that you are seeking to address?
Inquilinos Unidos (IU) was founded in 1979 by a former union organizer to educate, empower and organize low-income latino tenants living in slum housing in the Pico-Union and Westlake areas of Los Angeles. IU's comprehensive and targeted services address the immediate concerns of our clients by providing rapid access to tenant education and advocacy. We complement these services through linking clients to partner organization resources. Our impact extends beyond the clients we directly serve. Community members also participate in the Tenants Leadership Academy (TLA) to learn how support their neighbors through tenant education and advocacy. Currently, 75% of the calls Inquilinos Unidos' is fielding are related to eviction notices and landlord harassment. To prevent tenant displacement, we must have the resources available to reach tenants in time to prevent them from taking cash for their keys or leaving their homes prematurely due to harassment.
Describe the project, program, or initiative this grant will support to address the issue.
Inquilinos Unidos focus is to empower low-income tenants in communities of color, primarily Latino immigrants. Currently, we serve clients through phone and counseling by appointment at our walk-in clinic. Services include assistance with pest infestations, toxic hazards, lack of repairs, illegal evictions, manager harassment and unlawful rent increases. Staff and volunteer attorneys assist with landlord-tenant legal issues. Working with partner organizations we engage in cross referrals and case management. Our Preventing Evictions and Tenant Displacement program: Provides weekly clinics and individual counseling sessions assisting thousands of tenants. Our Tenant Leadership Academy will provide tenants with training in advocacy techniques and organizing skills and empower them to take on leadership roles in their communities.
Describe how Los Angeles County will be different if your work is successful.
Our strong ties within our community play a significant role in our ability to continually deliver high-impact services to our clients. We are committed to maintaining an active role in our local and regional community in order to stay up to date on current needs and issues, convene with other service providers to share best practices and prevent duplication of services, connect our clients to vetted resources, ensure community awareness of our resources, and advocate for the needs of vulnerable tenants. Our program will increase the number of tenant's in Los Angeles who are aware of their rights, empowered and organized to address landlord harassment, deferred maintenance, especially in slum buildings, and evictions. Our long-term goals are to decrease illegal evictions, displacement and homelessness in our community by at least 50% and provide free services and partner referrals to 2000 families and individuals annually.
What evidence do you have that this project, program, or initiative is or will be successful, and how will you define and measure success?
We collect data on the total number of clients served, how many times a client engages in services, demographics, and additional needs presented at time of service (e.g., sub standard housing, building manager harassment, illegal landlord trespassing, rent moratorium, advocacy and internet). Additionally, we track our clients' utilization and flow through our different services and those of partner organizations. Our monthly client surveys help us evaluate how effectively our services address clients' needs, as well as areas where staff and program effectiveness could be improved. We measure additional variables in order to assess mid to long-term impact of our services. For community outreach, our key measure is number of individuals engaged in introductory and secondary education and advocacy activities. Other measures tracked include: rectified housing code violations, solutions to landlord tenant conflicts, and potential evictions.
Approximately how many people will be impacted by this project, program, or initiative?
Direct Impact: 2,000
Indirect Impact: 5,000