from
the DataCenter's Economic Justice
and Environmental Justice Programs,
Winter 2005.
Slumlord
Empire Unmasked
By Kim Rodgers
 |
| Demonstrators
demand justice for tenants of the Morrison Hotel, Los
Angeles. Photo courtesy of Strategic Actions for a Just
Economy. |
The Morrison Hotel in
Los Angeles, immortalized on the cover of a 1970 Doors album,
has returned to the headlines as the target of a high profile
anti-slumlord campaign led by Strategic
Actions for a Just Economy. Morrison Hotel tenants
put up with years of living amidst rats, roaches, chipping
lead paint and raw sewage leaks, only to be served with
eviction notices meant to empty the building so that it
could be sold. When tenants spoke with SAJE organizers,
Morrison management retaliated by shutting off electricity
and even locking people out of their homes. Tenants and
SAJE fought back. It took 50 demonstrators and intervention
by the police and city housing officials for tenants to
win back access to the building. Since then, the City Attorney
has filed a criminal complaint, the City's Housing Department
has taken over rent collection, and the tenants have filed
their own lawsuit.
Organizers say that
conditions at the Morrison are hardly unique. In common
with many west coast cities, low-income communities of color
in Los Angeles face intense pressure from gentrification.
Lacking affordable housing, families are trapped in inhumane
and unhealthy living conditions. Predatory landlords squeeze
out rent income, put zero investment into even the most
basic maintenance, and then evict tenants to sell buildings
for substantial profits in red-hot property markets.
What distinguishes the
Morrison Hotel campaign was SAJE's research that uncovered
a pattern of widespread, repeat violations and willful negligence
by the owners, the Danpour family. Typically, rental property
investors insulate themselves from financial risk by establishing
a "limited liability corporation" (LLC) as the
legal owner for each building (or every few buildings).
The limited liability corporation is a partnership with
legal walls that protect assets owned outside of that partnership
if there are problems. Each LLC is a separate corporation
with a different name, making it appear that there are many
different building owners. As a result, when cities track
housing code violations, they can miss the pattern of multiple
violations in multiple buildings in the hands of a small
network of individuals.
| SAJE's
research uncovered a pattern of widespread, repeat housing
violations and willful negligence by Morrison hotel
owners, prompting Los Angeles City Attorney to file
a criminal complaint. |
SAJE organizers, working
with DataCenter, have begun to unmask the Morrison Hotel
owners' real estate industry and business empire. They have
found that the Danpours, through the Phoenix Mortgage Corporation,
owned at least 35 residential buildings through 20 different
LLC's. One of those buildings has had more than 1,000 code
violations, and two others had more than 100 violations
each. Henry Danpour, Vice President of Phoenix Mortgage,
individually owns another 13 buildings, one of which recently
evicted 40 families.
When Jan Perry, the
local city representative, was presented with SAJE's findings
she took up their cause. Her staff has arranged meetings
with the City Attorney and District Attorney and encouraged
them to press charges.
Organizers throughout
Los Angeles are paying close attention to the campaign,
hoping to gain more effective city enforcement and clear
toeholds for campaigns against slumlords in their own communities.
SAJE organizers and DataCenter staff are continuing to unravel
the complex threads of ownership and financial transactions
related to the Morrison Hotel and the Danpour empire, offering
other anti-slumlord campaigns a model of what to look for
and how to organize and present the findings.
For more information,
contact SAJE organizer Andrea Gibbons (213-745-9961, ext
224), or Kim Rodgers (510-835-4692 x306) at the DataCenter.
Kim Rodgers is an
Information Activist in DC's Environmental Justice program.
