Evictions are skyrocketing, and more and more tenants are learning to fight their landlords.

At one aging apartment building near downtown Los Angeles, the new building owner went out on a financial limb to afford to buy it. The only way he can pay back his loan? Increase rents from as little as $500 a month to nearly $2,000. That means the current tenants have to go. But many of them are Central American immigrants who have lived there for decades, are related to each other, and are now gathering around Uver Santa Cruz — a tenant’s right activist determined to stay. For the amount of money his family can pay, Uver says, "There's no way we could find even a room, even a single room" to rent in Los Angeles. Each side represents financial ruin to the other. See you in court.

Uver Santa Cruz and all the tenants in his building are fighting eviction.

(Larry Hirshowitz)

Demographic change in Rampart Village since the 1970's

(Maps by Michael Bader)