
Housing attorneys sue over rental price gouging in LA after the fires
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Rents in Los Angeles were already high before the firestorm earlier this year, but now a coalition of housing groups is suing six landlords for price gouging.
In California, it is generally illegal to raise rents more than 10 percent following an emergency declaration, but the nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy has found many units where advertised rates jumped 25 percent to almost 50 percent.

Heeyoung Linda Park, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a co-counsel for the plaintiffs, has been watching the activity.
"When they tracked these rental prices, they found hundreds of properties illegally gouging rents, and so there were so many that they eventually had to recruit volunteers to help them track the listings and identify the worst offenders," Park said.
Attempts to reach the defendants for comment were unsuccessful. The first court appearance is scheduled for later this summer. The City of Los Angeles is seeking $62 million in damages in a separate lawsuit against different landlords.
Rodney Leggett, an attorney with the Housing Rights Center, is also a co-counsel for the plaintiffs alongside the Western Center on Law & Poverty and the California Center for Movement Legal Services.
"We find it very exploitive to sort of take advantage of people when they're most desperate, including people who have been displaced as a result of the wildfires," he said.
More than 16,000 structures were destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires, adding more pressure to an already-stretched rental market.