For One Group of Tenants, ‘Renoviction’ Win Caps a Long Fight – Knock LA

For Caroline Nguyen and her fellow members of the Mohawk Street Tenants Association, the Los Angeles City Council’s unanimous vote to ban “renovictions” was the culmination of over a year and a half of dedicated organizing and struggle.

Since COVID-19 tenant protections were lifted, the substantial remodel clause of the Just Cause Ordinance has allowed landlords to use remodels as justification to evict long-term tenants and raise rents — a process colloquially known as “renoviction.”

On Tuesday, October 29, city council voted 11–0 to end this practice. The council motion ordered the Housing Department and city attorney to draft an ordinance to amend the Just Cause Ordinance, which prevents no-fault evictions and requires relocation assistance for tenants, to remove the substantial remodel clause.

“For those of us who are unable to afford $3000 rent, this reduces opportunities for landlords to manipulate responsible long-term tenants,” said Guillermo Mata, a Mohawk Street resident, following the council vote. [note: translated from Spanish]

The Mohawk Street Tenants Association represents the residents of 1512 Mohawk Street, an 8-unit apartment complex in Echo Park that is home to a diverse group of families and elderly tenants. Like many Los Angeles senior citizens, some have lived there for over 35 years.

“Everyone in the building is connected in some way,” said Lupita Limón Corrales, who became involved with the Mohawk Street tenants through her work with their local chapter of Los Angeles Tenants Union, or LATU.

“There’s something special about that whole building,” said Nguyen, a more recent tenant who was forced to move due to harassment from the landlords. She described her former neighbors as “warm and welcoming,” adding, “I just felt very protected there.”

According to residents, their previous landlord had always been respectful towards the community and had never subjected them to unfair rent hikes, but that began to change when Ariel Isaacson, a 29-year-old Beverly Hills resident, purchased the building in 2022.

He hired Beach Front Property Management to handle the property, and in 2023, they began pressuring tenants to move out on the pretext that their units were being remodeled. The pestering began with meager cash-for-keys offers, but when this didn’t work, the manager began issuing eviction notices. To quash any incipient tenant organizing, Beach Front also sent out repeated notices forbidding gatherings in the common area and effectively penalizing residents for speaking to each other.

“The restrictions felt humiliating,” said Nguyen. “We felt like animals trapped in these units.”

Although the landlord claimed to be making necessary renovations, nothing was done for well over a year to address persistent black mold issues, despite the presence of children and elderly residents, who are at heightened risk of health complications from black mold.

The first eviction notice forced out a family that had lived in the building for some 18 years. They ended up moving all the way out to Corona, nearly doubling the length of their commute. Their unit, for which they had been paying $1000 per month, was subsequently re-listed at the high price of $3500 per month after some basic cosmetic improvements.

Yet one year later, the new tenants of the “renovated” unit also moved out, citing frustrations with maintenance issues. Despite the renovations that had forced out their predecessor, cabinets had missing handles and a screen door had remained unrepaired. The driveway gate for the building remained broken for over a year, until management removed it entirely.

Nguyen was the second tenant to move out, after becoming overwhelmed by both the financial and emotional toll of the continuous harassment.

“I didn’t want to abandon my former neighbors,” said Nguyen, who has continued to organize with the other Mohawk tenants. “It was gut-wrenching to know you were losing your home and also the people around you.”

As compensation, she received $1500 from the landlords, which she split with her roommate and which was taxed. What was left was nowhere near enough to cover the expenses of her move. The agreement she was required to sign to receive the payout stipulated that she was not allowed to engage with the tenants or support any of their efforts to advocate for their rights as renters. 

“It left a bad taste in my mouth, the way they treated everyone like second-class citizens,” Nguyen said. 

Nguyen ultimately relocated to Temple City, where she now pays double her previous rent for one third of the space, with a significantly longer commute to work.

When residents first contacted LATU to learn about their rights after receiving the initial eviction notices, the renoviction clause was relatively new. It applies to residential properties in LA that are not protected by the city’s rent stabilization ordinance (RSO), and both organizations are far more experienced working with RSO buildings.

Nguyen and Corrales, in turn, found both the city Housing Department and local councilmembers to be unhelpful. It quickly became apparent that they didn’t understand the renoviction policy, even as they were responsible for implementing it.

“They were clueless,” says Nguyen. “How can you implement something and not even know what it is?”

Despite the setbacks they faced, the remaining Mohawk Street tenants were far more successful than most in resisting the pressure to force them out. Since wealthy landlords have substantially more resources to pursue lawsuits, even baseless ones, they often effectively run tenants out of their homes through mounting legal fees. With the help of LATU, residents formed the Mohawk Street Tenants Association and remained in their homes through three waves of eviction notices. They raised the funds to fight the evictions in court, with multiple judges rejecting the landlord’s renovation permits. Supported by other local tenant associations, they mobilized through a series of actions, protesting, publicizing their story online, distributing flyers, and hanging banners.

The tenants also turned their energy to lobbying city council to close the renoviction loophole, persistently contacting LAHD and councilmembers including Hugo Soto-Martínez, who they publicly called out for ignoring their efforts to meet. They found allies within Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), who had successfully lobbied Councilmember Bob Blumenfield to introduce the motion. After years of pressure, on October 8, the motion to end renovictions was presented to city council. Tenants rallied support to ensure that council voted on the motion. 

Following Tuesday’s decision, Corrales remarked, “It feels important to me to point out how change happens in LA — through years of organizing and direct action, just to survive long enough to be able to work on policy, and through coalition between many organizations lobbying in many different capacities.”

To follow the next steps and support the Mohawk Street Tenants Association, you can stay updated via their Instagram.

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