July 2010 CES Tenants Take Action To Force Landlord to Eradicate Bed Bugs On July 27, 2010 representatives of Los Angeles 10th District Council Member Herb Wesson, visited CES tenant leaders at Park Norton Apartments in the Arlington Heights area of Los Angeles.   Read more here...
	July 2010 CES Lends Support to Hyatt Workers UNITE-HERE Local 11 Fighting for Economic Justice at the Andaz West Hollywood Hyatt Hotel Protest On July 22, 2010, hundreds of unionized hotel workers seeking a new contract and protesting staff cuts and working conditions staged a sit-in in front of the Andaz West Hollywood Hyatt Hotel, closing down the famed Sunset Strip.  Read more here...
	May 2010 LA City Council Votes Down Rent Freeze Proposal Garcetti, Rosendahl Change Votes, Protest Erupts & Turns Into Melee As Police Called In, Tenants Are Hurt & 3 Are Arrested It was a sad day for the City of Los Angeles on May 22, as the LA City Council essentially provided tenants with a 3% rent increase notice. What was just as sad was the manner in which this decision was made and the events that followed.  Read more here...
	May 2010 TENANTS WIN RENT FREEZE! But Victory is Incomplete As City Council Votes To Deny Freeze to Tenants in Building With 5 Units or Less! Tenants and supporters from various tenants' rights organizations and labor unions packed Los Angeles City Hall last week, in support of a motion by City Council Member Richard Alarcón to freeze rents for 4 months with a possible 2 months extension to enable the City Council to finish its work of possibly making long-term changes to the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO). The Council voted 8 to 6 to support the freeze, but ended up including amendments that weakened its impact. The amendment from Councilmember Janice Hahn, seconded by Councilmember Paul Koretz, excludes buildings with five units or less from this suspension.  The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) and allied tenant groups, as well as Councilmember Alarcón oppose the Hahn/Koretz motion, as it potentially unjustly excludes hundreds of thousands of renters.  Thus, the amendment would exempt all buildings with 5 units or less, from the rent freeze. The exemption would not be limited to mom and pop owners, which was the Council's voiced intent, but would extend to large wealthy landlords who own multiple buildings with 5 units or less, as well as to banks who have foreclosed and now own many buildings in LA with 5 units and less. The need for the freeze is because RSO tenants face a 3% rent increase on July 1st under the existing ordinance. While increases are based on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which is a negative .62%, the increases will be allowed because the RSO has a 3% rent increase floor guaranteeing landlords this amount even though the increase is not in any way justified. If the 3% floor did not exist rent increase would be zero, based on the CPI The freeze is needed to give the Council more time to fix this and other inequities in the law.    Read more here...
	April 2010 LA Council Member Richard Alarcón Introduces Motion to Freeze Rent Increases for One Year Recognizing the slow response from the LA City Council to act on recommendations to strengthen the City's Rent Control law, Council Member Richard Alarcón, with the full support of CES... Read more here...
	April 2010 Tenant Groups Demand that the LA City Council Adopt Human Right to Housing Policy Hundreds of tenants streamed in, filling the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center to overflow capacity, as a special meeting of the LA City Council Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee was held... Read more here...
	December 2009 CES Holiday Party 2009 A Good Time Celebrating Had By All A great time was had by one and all at the Coalition for Economic Survival Holiday Party, held on December 17, 2009 with the Healthy Homes Collaborative. CES is a member of the Healthy Homes Collaborative. Read more here...
	November 2009 Happy Birthday West Hollywood! Coalition for Economic Survival, the Group That Led the Cityhood Drive, Congratulates the City Built on Rent Control Twenty-five years ago members of the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) rejoiced after a 7-year campaign to secure tenants' rights and preserve affordable housing in the then 1.9 square mile LA County unincorporated area of West Hollywood. Read more here...
	November 2009 CES In Action! United Nations Investigates Affordable Housing Crisis in LA and Across US The severe impact of the US housing crisis on low- and moderate-income people has become so great that even the United Nations decided the situation has warranted an investigation. As a result, the UN dispatched a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, on a multi-US city fact-finding mission. CES, together with our tenants’ rights and affordable housing organizational allies, participated in a number of events hosting Ms. Rolnik, which included a Town Hall meeting and a site visit tour of Los Angeles to view slum housing, subsidized housing, skid row, gentrifying communities and non-profit affordable housing. CES tenant leaders welcomed Ms. Rolnik at their South LA HUD subsidized housing complex where they spoke about the difficulty in obtaining needed repairs, the constant harassment from management in an effort to make them move, and how they have been fighting to stop the owners' attempt to remove the complex from the federal rent subsidy program.  Read more here...
	October 2009 Victory for Tenants & Affordable Housing 104-Unit Rent Controlled Apartment Complex Denied Condo Conversion Approval On October 13, 2009, the LA City Council unanimously voted to uphold the recommendation to deny a condominium conversion application of a 104-unit rent controlled apartment complex in Sherman Oaks. The City Council vote marked the end of another chapter in an over decade-old fight with four different landlords to stop tenants from being displaced, and to prevent this affordable housing from being lost. During this time, the tenants fought and won other landlords' attempts to evict them and/or raise their rents. Finally, the tenants are able to celebrate. But, they know their landlord is unlikely to give up and the fight to save their homes will continue.  Read more here...
	October 2009 CES Victory!!! U.S. Court of Appeals Protects Section 8 Tenants The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) scored a major tenants' rights victory when the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled in BARRIENTOS v. 1801-1825 MORTON LLC, that Los Angeles' rent control law is not preempted by federal laws or regulations.  Read more here...
	September 2009 CES ACTION ALERT! Calif Assembly Passed Bill to Make 60 Day Eviction Notice Permanent Tenants scored a major victory on the Assembly Floor late Thursday, as 44 Democrats voted to send SB 290 to the Governor's desk, to make permanent existing law that requires landlords to give tenants 60 days' notice...Read more here...
	July 2009 CES Issues Healthy Homes Report & Recommendations to Address Sub-Standard Housing Conditions The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) conducted a two-year campaign (February 2007 – May 2009) entitled the Healthy Household Environmental Actions for Tenants (HHEAT), which was funded by The California Endowment. This effort had the dual goal of organizing tenants in high-risk housing to ensure proper eradication of health hazards in their homes without losing their housing through landlord harassment or eviction; and to generate the necessary data and develop tenant leadership to advocate for improving local systems.  Read more here...
	June 2009 New Eviction Protections Won Loopholes Allowing Landlord to Unjustly Evict Tenants Closed On June 9, 2009 the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted in favor of finalizing an ordinance that will provide tenants more eviction protections.  Read more here...
	June 2009 Save Your City Web Site Set Up to Fight State Budget Cuts The League of California Cities, who CES worked closely with to defeat Proposition 98 (the statewide anti-rent control measure) last year, has launched a website to heighten awareness and generate media interest on the damaging effects to vital city services, if the state takes city dollars to balance the California budget.  Read more here...
	June 2009 Lead Hazard Remediation Won For Tenants in East Hollywood Building June 10, 2009— CES achieved a victory in securing safe, lead-free housing this month, as the City of Los Angeles Housing Department’s Lead Hazard Remediation Program (LHRP) has approved the application for a building on Grace Street in East Hollywood to receive a sizeable lead grant for lead component removal.  Read more here...
	May 2009 California Assembly Member Dave Jones Visits Building and Discusses Housing Code Violations with CES Tenant Leaders Assembly Member Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) spent the morning of May 29, 2009 discussing the problems Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) tenants leaders were facing at their building.  The building, located in LA’s Beverly/Normandie area, has been plagued with numerous housing code violations and has been in the city’s Rent Escrow Account Program.  Read more here...
	March 2009 Congressional Hearings Held in Los Angeles to Address the Area’s Housing Crisis On a beautiful sunny Los Angeles spring day, hundreds of people packed the Los Angeles Southwest College gymnasium on Saturday, March 28, 2009, to hear about the gloomy forecast tenants and homeowners face.  Read more here...
	March 2009 Wide Support Provided for Efforts to Preserve Affordable Housing Threatened by Church’s Intent to Build a Parking Lot Dressed in bright yellow t-shirts with a large letter and standing in formation that spelled out the demand “Save Our Homes,” members of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Association (KIWA), supported by the Coalition for Economic Survival and numerous other community groups, participated in another protest of the Oriental Mission Church’s demolition of 40 rent controlled housing units which displaced 38 families in order to build a parking lot.  Read more here...
	March 2009 Persistent Tenants Score Another Victory in Long-Term Fight to Preserve Their Homes Yet, another victory was recently achieved when a large condominium conversion was turned down in the San Fernando Valley resulting in tenants saving their homes and affordable housing being preserved.  Read more here...
	March 2009 Panorama City Condo Conversion Rejected By LA City Council In Spite of High Powered Lobbyist Support CES scored another victory when the Los Angeles City Council, at its March 4, 2009 meeting, unanimously voted to deny a developer’s appeal and upheld a Planning Department recommendation to deny the condominium conversion of a 30 unit rent controlled apartment building in the Panorama City area of the San Fernando Valley. This appeared to be another example of a high-powered lobbyist and his developer client trying to trample on tenants’ right and rough ride over city processes and regulations.  Read more here...
	March 2009 U.S. Court of Appeals Hears Major Tenants Rights Case Brought on Behalf of CES HUD Tenants On March 2, 2009, the right of many L.A. HUD Subsidized tenants to be able to remain in their affordable housing was argued before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The tenants live at the Morton Garden apartments, a 66-unit building which is situated just over a hill from Dodger Stadium in Echo Park.  Read more here...
	February 2009 Evictions and Housing Demolitions Protested in Koreatown The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), with support of the Coalition for Economic Survival and other community allies, gathered on the steps of an apartment building on February 19, to protest the demolition and conversion of the building to a parking lot by Oriental Mission Church and to call for the preservation of affordable housing in Koreatown.  Read more here...
	February 2009 Tenants Oppose Proposal to Allow Easier Evictions for Landlords Under the guise of expressing concern for the safety of tenants threatened by illegal drug-related activity, LA City Council Member Bernard Parks, who’s known as the point person for landlord groups on the City Council, authored a motion calling for the weakening of existing eviction protections that require landlords to list tenant witnesses when evicting for drug activities and other nuisance issues.  Read more here...
	December 2008.  CES Invited to Los Angeles Mayor Signing of Foreclosure Tenant Eviction Protection Law On December 19, CES attended a signing ceremony with Mayor Antonio Villaragoisa and tenant advocates for the Foreclosure Ordinance extending rent control eviction protection throughout Los Angeles.  Read more here...
	December 2008.  Celebrating Two Major Tenants' Rights Victories at City Hall At LA City Hall, LA City Council President Eric Garcetti joins with CES Tenant Leaders Ana Maria Valencia (left) and Rosa Hilda Archila (right) to celebrate new approved protections for tenants facing "Good Faith" evictions and living in foreclosed rental properties immediately following the City Council's unanimous vote on December 17, 2008.
(left to right) CES Tenant Organizer Felipa Soto, L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, CES Tenant Organizer Sua Iris Hernandez after a news conference held on December 15, 2008, announcing the free holiday toy testing and exchange event throughout the city sponsored by the L.A. City Attorney's Office.	December 2008. Free Holiday Toy Testing & Exchange Event to Protect Children From Dangerous Lead Toys The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) worked with the City Attorney's office and other allied Healthy Homes Collaborative organizations to address unsafe toys that have lead in them. A one day free toy testing and exchange event was held on Saturday, December 20 four different location throughout the City of Los Angelels. CES and other Healthy Homes Collaborative groups helped to publicize the event and increase participation, as well as helping to staff the testing location. This was important opportunity to help ensure that the toys kids receive during the holidays are safe and does not contain dangerous lead levels.
	December 2008.  On December 4, 2008, CES tenant leaders from a building on Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake met with City Council President Eric Garcetti's Field Deputy Ryan Carpio and Caseworker Arsen Melikyan to solicit their assistance regarding the conditions at their building.  Read more here...
	September 2007. CES Section 8 Tenants Facing Displacement Seek Their City Council Member's Help About a dozen Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) members, who are tenants receiving Section 8 rent subsidy vouchers at a 40-unit complex on Montclair Street in Jefferson Park neighborhood of LA, met with their City Council Member, Herb Wesson in September, 2007.  Read more here...
	June 2004.  CES tenant leaders participate in a protest outside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington, D.C. The action was protesting the Bush Administration's severe cuts to the nation's affordable housing and rent subsidy programs. The demonstration was sponsored by the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), which CES is affiliated with. It was part of the activities of NAHT's annual Save Our Homes Conferences attended by hundreds of HUD tenants from throughout the nation.
	June 2004.  CES members and other tenant leaders from across the nation speak out against cuts to the Section 8 rent subsidy program and other affordable housing funding outside HUD Headquarters.
	June 2004.  CES members, who are leaders of the Hollywood West Apartments Tenant Action Committee, a complex owned and controlled by HUD tenants, join the protest outside HUD Headquarters.
	May 2004.  Gilbert Lindsay Manor Tenant Association President Pastor Joyce Chapman, a key CES tenant leader, questions HUD officials at a HUD Tenants' Eyes and Ears meeting, held in conjunction with the Annual Housing California Conference in Sacramento.
	May 2004.  CES tenant leader Cora Parks, a resident in a HUD subsidized building, Holiday 101A Apartments, located in South Los Angeles, confronts HUD officials at a HUD Tenants' Eyes and Ears meeting, held in conjunction with the Annual Housing California Conference in Sacramento.
	May 12, 2004.  The L.A. City Council unanimously voted to increase relocation assistance to tenants covered by the City's Rent Stabilization Ordinance facing 'no fault' evictions.  This is a tremendous victory for tenants and tenant advocates. Approximately 30 CES tenant activist member attended the Council meeting.   The ordinance was proposed by Councilmember Eric Garcetti. The increase for "qualified" households (seniors, disabled and those with dependent children) goes to $8,000 from $5,000 and $3,200 from $2,000 for other households.   CES was last successful in securing a relocation assistance increase was in 1987.   At that time, the City Council assured CES and tenant activist that it would look at the amounts three years after for the purpose of adjusting the amounts based on the impact of inflation.   Sixteen years after the last increase and 13 years after the Council was to look at adjusting the amounts again, relocation assistance amounts were increased.   Just another example of the wheels of government moving slowly. Nevertheless, this is a great victory for tenants that brings us a little bit closer to securing just compensation for displaced tenants.
	January 22, 2004.  CES Executive Director Larry Gross gives a presentation to housing Deputy staff of Los Angeles City Council Members on issues pertaining to the preservation of private and HUD subsidized affordable housing. The session was organized by Call to Action, an alliance of 45 tenant rights, affordable housing, homeless and legal aid advocacy group in the L.A. area, which CES is a member of. Other issues presented by other Call to Action members included urging positions to enhance and protect rent control, public housing, the city’s Housing Trust Fund and residential hotel housing.
	January 2004.  CES member contingent marches in support of striking grocery store workers. The protest held on January 31, 2004 in Inglewood, brought out 20,000 people in support of the workers.
	October 23, 2003.  CES Tenant Organizers describes lead paint hazards and code violations at an Echo Park building CES is organizing to advocates participating on a bus tour organized by the Healthy Homes Collaborative.
	June 22, 2003.  Former CES HUD Tenant Outreach and Organizing Coordinator Franklin Campos explains HUD's Mark to Market program, together with former CES Tenant Organizer Yuisa Gimeno at a workshop they conducted by the annual conference of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT).