While some Altadena residents are returning to professionally cleaned homes free of toxic ash, others remain locked in tense disputes with their landlords over rent increases, smoke remediation and terminated leases.
The aftermath of the Eaton Fire is now prompting some tenants to join forces and make collective demands of landlords and lawmakers.
One example is the nascent Altadena Tenants Union, a group that has become a magnet for renters facing displacement and uncertainty. Katie Clark, one of the group’s lead organizers whose apartment burned down, said a main goal is “to put tenants in Altadena on the radar for L.A. County.”
Other members said their motivation for getting involved came from confusing experiences around ash clean-up, rent increases and lease terminations in the weeks after they were displaced by the Eaton Fire.
“So much of the communication effort so far has been really focused on homeowners,” Clark said. “Certainly we can understand the difficult plight homeowners are in. But renters are members of the community too.”
Altadena’s burgeoning tenant rights movement
Unlike the cities of Los Angeles or nearby Pasadena — which saw a local tenants union successfully push for a city rent control ordinance in the 2022 midterm election — Altadena has not been known as a hotbed for political organizing among renters.
But that quickly changed after the Eaton Fire left Clark’s apartment and many others covered in ash or destroyed. She has been a renter in the community for more than 15 years.
Until recently, Clark said, there wasn’t much pushing her to fight for tenant rights. She used to have an “incredible landlord” and was living comfortably in a one-bedroom apartment with her husband and dog.
“To be able to stay in a…
Read the full article here
