Source: LA Times
A housing complex that has catered to the artist community in Los Angeles for decades will suddenly be doubling and tripling the rent for tenants who have been there for years.
The Santa Fe Art Colony had been occupied by artists for years and had even required that tenants show proof of being artists in order to create a strong arts community. But recently, the building was purchased by a non-artist group and owners, and rent prices have promptly been raised.
Los Angeles Times reports that for one tenant, her rent went from $1426 to $4493, “effective Friday.”
Many are arguing that the development agency that purchased the building, Fifteen Group, is destroying an important arts community and creating unrealistic situation with rent prices that are too high for anyone to afford.
Earlier this year, the building had been nominated for the city’s Historical-Cultural monument, “granting it interim protection”, and while it therefore cannot be demolished or changed drastically, it can essentially still undergo “adaptive reuse.”
Read Full Story: LA Times