Coalition for Economic Survival: Focused on social and economic justice, CES organizes a twice-weekly tenants’ rights walk-in clinic offering one-on-one help with counselors and attorneys.It offers eviction defense services as well as education for renters. BASTA: This vast tenants’ rights organization has offices in LA, Long Beach, Lancaster, and Van Nuys, with more on the way in Boyle Heights and Santa Monica.The city’s Housing and Community Investment Department is a great resource for renters, but there are also a number of organizations across LA that offer free help for tenants. “You’re helping the landlord in the long run if you don’t go through the process,” because by not paying rent, tenants put themselves at risk of eviction for non-payment.Ĭontinuing to pay rent allows the tenant to have the upper hand in the situation: They can always point to the fact that in the landlord-tenant compact, they’re holding up their end of the bargain. Hunter says it’s important to know that even in a rent strike, participating tenants are still paying their rent-their money just goes into an escrow account instead of to their landlord. “People are hearing about rent strikes, and we’ve had an increase in tenants who think, ‘Well, there’s a problem in my unit, so I can stop paying rent,’” says Susan Hunter, a caseworker in the Hollywood chapter of the Los Angeles Tenants Union. But a lingering problem doesn’t mean that tenants should decide to stop paying rent. If a unit is not habitable, the landlord is supposed to remedy it immediately, and technically the landlord is not supposed to collect rent for that unit until it is habitable again.
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