These days its very common in Los Angeles Democratic politics to demonize landlords, pass policies to prevent rent increases, and make it difficult to evict tenants who don’t pay rent. It is all done in the name of preventing homelessness and in response to rental affordability issues.
I am a small, mom and pop landlord and I can tell you that these measures are creating a housing crisis.
In the past several months I’ve had two one-bedroom apartments for rent. I show them to at least 50 people a month, all of whom are clamoring for a new place to live. Unfortunately there’s not enough housing for the folks who are looking for it.
One reason is very simple and could be addressed – ending the rent freezes. Since 2020 the L.A. City Council has forbid raising rents on units in rent controlled property in the city. That means folks are not moving out of their apartments since their rent is frozen.
After doing this for almost 4 years they’ve distorted the rental market. There is virtually no turnover, the only people who are moving are forced to for some reason, and they’re finding less and less open units available since nobody is moving. This has led to rents continuing to increase on those few vacant units because there’s simply less supply than demand. Make no mistake, prohibiting rent increases for almost four years has led to fewer available units and higher rents.
The second policy decision that contributes to the housing crisis is the byzantine system to evict a tenant who is not paying rent. The average eviction takes six months and costs $20,000. As a result of this, as a landlord, you have to be exceedingly picky on who you choose to rent property to. This means no taking chances on people. If your credit score is below 600, I can’t take a chance on you. If you get paid cash, and cannot prove your income, I can’t take a chance on you. If you have no credit at all, I can’t take a chance on you.
Right now there are thousands of hard-working Angelenos who either have bad credit or no credit and cannot find a place to live. And even more who work in the informal economy that can’t find a place to live because landlords like me cannot take a chance and get stuck paying $20,000 to remove them if they stop paying rent. So as we rush to make it harder to remove tenants who do not pay rent, assuming we are helping tenants, many people are going to find it impossible to find housing.
Policies like rent freezes and those that protect tenants who don’t pay rent might feel good, but their unintended consequences are making the rental market more unaffordable, and in some cases impossible for many Angelenos. While I believe in rent control and tenant protections, landlords like me, who try to be just and fair, are unable to rent to large swaths of the public.
Joshua Kamali is a landlord in Los Angeles. He worked for almost 10 years in Democratic politics and policy in Washington, D.C. and California before becoming a nonprofit fundraiser. He now works in property development and construction, and owns eight units in Los Angeles County.
