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As the owner of two small buildings (for a total of 23 units) I am a Mom and Pop landlord. I am a single mom of two kids who provides affordable housing for over half of my tenants, unsubsidized. I have chosen to keep my properties under market for rent to attempt to provide some much needed affordable housing. In Los Angeles most of the billions of dollars in funding going to “affordable” housing is being squandered. Almost no units are being provided, yet the funding is rapidly depleted by greedy developers and back alley deals with local politicians and contractors.

There is no reason LA needs to have a homeless issue of the size that it does, given the funding it receives. Affordable housing is not that complicated but the government contracts awarded only serve to enrich the developers and the politicians, not the tenants and homeless themselves.

To add more of the same tenant protections will not result in more affordable housing. There are many protections in place already. We need to enforce the laws we currently have to stop illegal Ellis evictions, not prevent tenants who don’t pay rent or are a danger to their neighbors or landlords from being evicted.

Rent control exists and yet, there are fewer and few available units because they are constantly being torn down in favor of a tiny handful of affordable units with vast swaths of “Luxury” units built in their place. We need real change and this is not the way forward. Small landlords will be punished and corporate landlords will simply get richer and provide less housing.

Please enforce the already existing laws, including the Ellis act.

Thank you.