If you haven’t heard this story already, I’d like to draw your attention to a piece that ran this week on CityWatch. According to the article, 17 tenants are being evicted from four rent-controlled buildings in Beverly Grove and the Fairfax district. Now, you might be saying, why is this news? Evictions like this are a common occurrence in LA these days. All over the city developers are kicking people out of their homes so they can build high-end residential units. Why is this story special?
The reason this story deserves your attention is that the evictions are being carried out by Bulldog Partners, and the principal at Bulldog is Matthew Jacobs. Who is Matthew Jacobs? He’s the chairman of the board at the California Housing Finance Agency. Yes, this is a state agency that’s supposed to help people find housing. Not kick them out of their homes. The CalHFA web site says that their purpose is to “create safe, decent and affordable housing opportunities for low to moderate income Californians.”
Is this sick or what? Does this guy understand the mission of the agency he’s chairing? Doesn’t sound like it to me. That’s why I sent an e-mail to Jerry Brown asking that he be removed from the CalHFA board. If you’d like to contact the governor as well, here’s the link.
And here’s the link to the story on CityWatch.
Crazy times we live in.