Renters Alliance was founded by Beverly Hills tenants to protect the interests of those who rent multifamily housing in Beverly Hills. Since 2017 we have worked to win better protections for tenants. We are neighbors helping neighbors.
Mission
Renters Alliance is organized around two key principles: those who rent housing should continue to live in our city without fear of displacement; and rental housing is a renewable resource that must be renewed. For far too long, some owners presided over the ‘managed decline’ of their property because they chose to maximumize profit while minimizing maintenance. Our community in general, and tenants in particular, pay the price for that neglect.
Renters Alliance is a community of tenants who share information and advocate for the protections — and housing policies — that we need to stay comfortably housed. We invite you to sign on. Our priority areas include:
- A rent stabilization ordinance that recognizes the needs of tenants who comprise half of all city households;
- Policies that support the preservation of our relatively affordable rental stock;
- Empowerment for tenants, which includes an understanding of tenancy law because knowledge is power when it comes to renting housing;
- Affordable rental housing for seniors and indeed all tenants; and,
- A newfound respect for the law among the minority of landlords who create the majority of problems in our rental housing market.
Tenant Services
Renters Alliance is only an email away. We look forward to discussing a landlord problem or simply providing some clarity on tenancy law where we can. Please get in touch.
Renters Alliance is not affiliated with the city. But often we do refer tenants to the city’s rent stabilization office at (310) 285-1031 or reach the office by email: bhrent@beverlyhills.org.
Farsi speaking tenants may contact Beverly Hills resident (and Alliance member) Ramin Zar at (310) 270-5552. Please tell Ramin that Renters Alliance referred you!
Our list of accomplishments is growing!
- In the winter of 2017 we brought well over one hundred tenants to City Council chambers in the winter of 2017 where we won a reduction in the maximum allowed annual rent increase (plus relocation fees for every involuntarily terminated tenant).
- In the spring of 2017 we suggested that the city provide housing rights legal services for qualifying tenants. City Council agreed and legal services provider Bet Tzedek was funded to serve income-qualifying tenants in Beverly hills. (The program has subsequently been renewed annually.)
- In the fall of 2018 Renters Alliance campaigned successfully to end no-just-cause eviction. City Council agreed. That change capped a 30-year effort to banish the original sin of Chapter 6 rent stabilization in Beverly Hills: no-just-cause eviction.
- In the spring of 2019 City Council agreed to create a new Rent Stabilization Commission. Tenants had proposed an board or commission to represent the interests of both tenants and landlords. The new commission is empowered to discuss any and all potential amendments to the rent stabilization ordinance as well as hear certain disputes between tenants and landlords.
In between our signature accomplishments were many, many public meetings and conferences with individual city officials. Our persistence produced micro-wins of which we are justly proud:
- We have held individual landlords to account for evident and conspicuous signs of disinvestment in their own properties. In fact, Renters Alliance is a frequent flyer with code enforcement. We even have authored our own primer on how to file a complaint!
- We have focused attention on illegal, unpermitted rental units that long flew under the city’s radar. Also flying under the radar were abusive and unlawful business practices that targeted tenants.
- We have scrutinized programs affecting households that rent housing. We have long kept an eye on the federally-funded community development bock grant program. It finances no-cost apartment improvements for needy tenants. For years that program siphoned off as much as 20% of funds for needy households to pay administrative expenses.
- We brought to the city’s attention that rent stabilization also applies to certain condominium buildings that never sold units to the public. It was a ruse to avoid rent control. A quarter-century after conversion, now a hundred additional households renting condo units also enjoy the benefit of rent stabilization.
We Follow in Footsteps
Since we formed Renters Alliance in January of 2017 to bring tenants together for a better rent stabilization ordinance, our efforts have expanded to include education, empowerment, tenant services and housing policy advocacy. You can find an Alliance representative at most Council and Planning Commission meetings.
We didn’t invent this wheel; we simply got it turning again. Tenant-advocate Herm Schultz founded Concern for Tenants Rights some thirty years ago. He kept up the fight for households that rent in Beverly Hills and his effort continues to serve as our example for full-tilt commitment to tenants. Herm was in it for the long haul and so are we!
