Mothers are Los Angeles rental-owners, too!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY--especially to any mothers who are concerned about the possibility of losing their small rental properties which provide essential income to support a family.

There is a nurturing element in providing housing and safety to renters and their families, and most of us select our tenants as part of our extended family. We are now being portrayed by SOME members of the Los Angeles City Council as the "enemy" or as criminals who only care about profiting from the disadvantaged. Yet, we are not allowed to reduce our rents temporarily without changing the base we can use in the future when economic times improve. Nor are we allowed to refuse to rent to those we believe might endanger our other tenants or diminish the quality of life in our property.

Remember that rent control and the current measure to freeze rents in the city is not about concern for impoverished, starving tenants. It is about political control. If our tenants are led to believe that we want to harm them and their only protection is a "tenants' union" and local government, they become dependent upon those who lead these movements and that calculates into VOTES!!

No one who is taking the time to read this blog would condone poor living conditions for any human being. We cannot deny that there are greedy, uncaring apartment owners. But there are many laws that deal with code enforcement and sanitary conditions, and these should be immediately and diligently enforced. These are the owners we, ourselves, report because they devalue and endanger the entire neighborhood. Bringing negligent owners into compliance with law should not be done by punishing ALL law-abiding rental-property owners and driving them into bankruptcy.

Become involved--join one of the apartment associations and come to City Hall on May 21,2010. There is power in numbers and truth. We learned that from our Moms!!!