WCLP Obtains Relief for Low-Income Tenants of Residential Hotel

Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Western Center on Law & Poverty
wclp.org

A federal district judge has issued a preliminary
injunction that requires the City of Los Angeles and its Community
Redevelopment Agency to provide relocation assistance to the low-income
tenants of the Alexandria Hotel, including more than 100 tenants who
were evicted over the course of the last year.  Judge Margaret Morrow’s
ruling also requires the owners of the hotel to provide habitable
living conditions for all tenants and reasonable accommodations to
tenants with disabilities.

The owners of the hotel have received community redevelopment funds
to rehabilitate the hotel, and the federal government has approved
federal funds for the project. The tenants assert that in the guise of
rehabilitation the owners have sought to remove the poorest of the
tenants, particularly African-Americans and tenants with disabilities.
Since August 2006, more than 100 tenants, many who had been longtime
residents, have been displaced from the hotel. Residents also
experienced interruptions in a number of services: inoperative
elevators have stranded elderly residents with disabilities on upper
floors and water shutoffs have left tenants without potable water or
flushing toilets for days at a time. Most residents are currently
without hot water in their rooms.

Our co-counsel in the case are the Legal Aid Foundation of Los
Angeles, the Disability Rights Legal Center, and McDermott Will &
Emery LLP. To see an LA Times story about the decision, go to
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-alexandria28-2008may28,0,2560562....

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