LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the Los Angeles-based housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has released a sweeping investigative report about government-sanctioned gentrification in L.A., possibly the first of its kind about the city. L.A. is facing a citywide gentrification crisis that’s devastating middle- and working-class residents. As the nation’s second largest city, L.A.’s gentrification story is a must-read cautionary tale for reporters, academics, activists, residents, and policymakers throughout the United States.
This largely untold story, titled The Garcetti-fication of Los Angeles: A Gentrification Cautionary Tale, focuses on Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat who has served in L.A. government since 2001. Garcetti, a strong proponent of luxury-housing development and pro-gentrification land-use policies, was a councilman for District 13 for three terms. He was also City Council president, one of the most powerful political positions in L.A., for six years. During his 12 years as one of the City Council’s most prominent members, widespread gentrification unfolded in his district. Thousands of middle- and working-class Angelenos suffered the consequences.
Garcetti was elected mayor in 2013 and was re-elected in 2017. Considered to be a rising star in Democratic politics, he recently ended an exploratory run for the White House. As mayor, Garcetti applied the same gentrification formula he utilized in his council district—centered on delivering controversial “spot-zoning” approvals to luxury-housing developers—to the entire city. The results have been disastrous for middle- and working-class residents, particularly people of color and immigrants. They are getting slammed by rising rents and evictions, unwanted displacement, and sudden homelessness.
The investigation also examines L.A.’s “pay-to-play” culture, which is now under federal investigation. Housing Is A Human Right asserts that political corruption and gentrification are most definitely intertwined. In addition, the report looks at the dangerous “trickle-down” housing policies pushed by Garcetti, California State Sen. Scott Wiener, and other politicians.
The Garcetti-fication of Los Angeles connects the dots about how local politicians, which include Democrats, push and guide gentrification in their cities. The report is a searing indictment of secretive, corrupt, troubling land-use policies backed by elected officials who use the housing affordability crisis as political cover to further an agenda that largely benefits upscale developers but devastates middle- and working-class communities. It is a story that can no longer be ignored.
The report ends with solutions and demands that Garcetti and other politicians should implement if they are serious about addressing gentrification crises in L.A. and other cities. You can read an excerpt and download the full report on our website HERE or click the button below to download the report in full.
Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), based in Los Angeles, is the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation—the world’s largest HIV/AIDS medical-care organization, serving more than one million people in 43 countries. Throughout the U.S., AHF patients have been negatively impacted by rising housing costs and gentrification, which threatens their health. Housing Is A Human Right advocates for stronger tenants protections, fights gentrification, and advances progressive housing policies. For more information, go to the website housinghumanright.org.
Media contact: HHR Director Rene Moya, housinghumanright@gmail.com or 323-362-2904.
