Since 2001, the Ellis Act, a controversial state law that allows landlords to evict tenants in rent-controlled buildings and turn them into pricey condominiums and boutique hotels, has devastated Los Angeles’s affordable housing stock. From the San Fernando Valley to Hollywood to San Pedro, tens of thousands of hard-working tenants have been shoved out of their affordable homes while the housing affordability crisis worsened in Los Angeles.
The Ellis Act turned into law in 1985 as a way to help small landlords, who could no longer tend to their rent-controlled properties, to leave the rental housing market. It applied to any California city with a rent-stabilization, or rent-control, ordinance such as L.A.’s
But since then, the Ellis Act has increasingly turned into a tool for corporate landlords and developers to buy a rent-controlled building, evict tenants, and then turn the property into expensive, luxury housing, such as condominiums and boutique hotels. That was not the original intention of the law.
For decades, activists have tried to reform or repeal the Ellis Act.
“It’s a failed housing policy,” says Larry Gross, the longtime executive director of the L.A.-based Coalition for Economic Survival. “Because you’re never going to replace the affordable housing units that you’re losing.”
Gross and other activists have tried, year after year, to get state politicians to change or repeal the law, but it’s been a nearly impossible task. They cite the difficulty of overcoming the political power and monied connections, through campaign contributions, of the real estate industry. Such as battling the California Apartment Association and the California Association of Realtors, who are funded by Big Real Estate and quash any effort to get rid of, or even reform, the Ellis Act.
Tens of thousands of Los Angeles tenants have paid a major price, in more ways than one – not only do they lose affordable housing, they often shell out two or three times more for rent at a new apartment.
In addition, Eviction Lab, the prestigious think tank at Princeton University, found that evictions and unaffordable rents are linked to premature death.
Examples of the Ellis Act’s devastation are many in L.A.
In the San Fernando Valley, in May 2005, there were 372 Ellis Act evictions at 4500 N. Woodman Avenue. With more than one person living in a number of those units, more than 372 people lost affordable, rent-stabilized housing. In its place now stands The Plaza at Sherman Oaks, a luxury-complex that boasts a “restort-style apartment community” with an “entertainment zone, wellness center, and relaxing oasis.” That includes a 26-seat movie theater, pickleball courts, and a game lounge.
Inside that oasis, a 419-square-foot studio apartment costs $2,130 per month, plus $401.23 for move-in costs. A 580-square-foot one-bedroom apartment goes for $3,045 per month, with move-in costs of $1,248.81. A 1,150-square-foot two-bedroom apartment is $3,970 per month, plus $1,698.01 for move-in costs.
Put another way, a person must pay $25,560 per year for a studio at The Plaza at Sherman Oaks; $36,540 for a single-room unit; and $47,650 for a two-bedroom. None of it affordable for middle- and working-class residents, and those rent prices may skyrocket since the units are no longer regulated by rent-stabilization.
It should be noted that landlords and developers can return a one-time rent-controlled building to the rental housing market, with no rent-control protections, after five years and charge exorbitant market-rate rents.
Another example of Ellis Act evictions is a rent-stabilized building in San Pedro, a longtime middle- and working-class neighborhood in L.A. The area is dotted with numerous Ellis Act evictions – the Coalition for Economic Survival and Anti-Eviction Mapping Project created an excellent interactive map that tells a harrowing story about the devastation caused by the Ellis Act.
At 741 W. 24th Street in San Pedro, in August 2005, there were 33 Ellis Act evictions at the once rent-stabilized building. Again, more than 33 people were impacted. It’s now a luxury-condominium complex called Harbor View Villas, with a 910-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment costing around $475,700, according to Zillow. Sometimes units go for more than $500,000. Affordable housing has again been lost forever for moderate-income and lower-income residents.
More recently, in 2023, 40 Ellis Act evictions took place at 6210 W. Yucca Street in Hollywood, located near the Capitol Records Building. It was filled with middle- and working-class residents who lived in rent-stabilized apartments, and the evictions caused an uproar in the community. But the building has since been demolished, and Champion Real Estate has put the vacant lot up for sale. Gone, forever.
There are many more examples over the past 25 years, such as the major Lincoln Place battle in the L.A. neighborhood of Venice. But they aren’t always massive evictions – sometimes two or three evictions for a site. But those numbers have added up: between 2001 and 2025, 31,469 Ellis Act evictions have taken place in L.A. With an average household size of 2.8 persons in the city, roughly 88,113 people have lost rent-stabilized, affordable housing.
In fact, Larry Gross says the loss of rent-stabilized units through the Ellis Act is greater since many evictions go under the radar in L.A.
It’s not surprising that housing affordability and homelessness crises have worsened over the past decade in Los Angeles, including a gentrification and displacement crisis that’s impacted numerous middle- and working-class communities, especially in neighborhoods of color.
It’s why activists and residents continue to call for the repeal of the Ellis Act.
Patrick Range McDonald is an award-winning investigative reporter and advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.